Being shot in the back of the head twice by a Glock wasn't as painful as you might think. Of course, that could be debatable. I wasn't exactly sane when it happened to me.

I had done it. I had controlled the entire Cape population of Earth Bet and killed Scion or Zion or whatever Cauldron wanted to call the bastard. I hadn't been Skitter or Weaver. Thanks to Panacea unleashing the full power of my 'agent' with her biokinesis powers, I had gone far beyond the power that a Cape, even one who had Second Triggered, should possess. I had lost my ability to be human in exchange for this power, but I had had one, overriding desire.

Kill Scion.

I had done it and had fled after releasing control of the Capes, who Contessa later informed me had renamed me 'Khepri' after the Egyptian God with a scarab for a face. Charming.

Contessa had found me and we had had a chat, ending in her asking me if I regretted what I had done. The only answer I could give her was simple.

No.

I wished I had acted smarter. I wished that I had seen things as they had truly been. I wished that I had a second chance so I could make different choices. But regret the choices that I had made? Never.

Contessa or Fortuna, whichever name you wanted to call her, had then shot me in the back of the head. Surprisingly, I was now having an out-of-body experience and flying above clouds. I looked at my missing arm and was only mildly surprised to see that it had somehow grown back as I came to a stop.

"Hello there!" a female voice said and I looked in front of me to see a woman about a foot high wearing a toga and with butterfly-like wings sprouting out of her back floating in front of me. She had luscious black hair down to the small of her back and was barefoot. Her eyes shone with all the colours of the rainbow and she reminded me a bit of Lisa in the 'I-know-something-you-don't-know' department.

"Err…hello?"

"So you're the one who killed Zion. Interesting." The tiny woman said with a curious tilt of her head, "You are one powerful fragment."

That drew my attention.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, right. You're not fully aware." The woman sighed, "First things first: you aren't Taylor Hebert."

"Last time I checked I was." I retorted, "Or is this a life/death thing?"

The woman smiled sadly. "In a way. You aren't Taylor Hebert, who was also known as Skitter, Weaver and Khepri. What you are is…I suppose the best description would be an echo. A recording of the Queen Administrator's host up until the point that it was removed from her."

I blinked. "A recording. That's where you're going with this? You're trying to tell me that I'm nothing more than an organic AI of some kind?!"

"Yes." The woman answered, "When Contessa removed the Queen Administrator agent from Taylor Hebert, I hurriedly beckoned and called the memory of who she was to me, before you could dissipate or be erased."

I floated there, my arms (still getting used to having both arms again) folded sceptically. "Ok, supposing I believe you for a moment about what I am…why do I have both arms? I lost mine in that battle with Zion. Wouldn't that have been 'recorded' by my agent?"

"The mind of a human tends to ignore that sort of thing." The fairy -that's what she looked like, so that's what I'd call her- replied with a dismissive wave of one tiny hand, "In your mind, you do not see yourself as having only one arm; it simply hadn't had sufficient time to sink in yet to become a part of your body, so when I called you out, you appeared as you view yourself."

I looked down and saw that I was butt-naked. Surprisingly, I wasn't embarrassed. "And I imagined myself naked, apparently."

"Yeah, that happens." The woman apologised, "When fragments are called here, they arrive like babies."

"Buck naked and screaming?"

"Yes to the first, no to the last." The woman answered with a faint smile at my deadpan attempt at humour.

This was bizarre. Had Ziz made me go mad? Had Zion zapped me with some kind of hallucinogenic gas in our fight? Had the PRT captured me and locked me in a virtual world as an alternative to the Birdcage?

"Look, I know that you must be deep in denial or trying to rationalise this, but you must help me!" the woman said urgently.

"OK. First, who the hell are you?" I demanded.

"Oh…yes, that was pretty rude of me." The woman admitted sheepishly, "I suppose you could call me Titania, the Fairy Queen."

"From A Midsummer Night's Dream?" I asked sceptically, "That Titania?"

"Someone influences a playwright once and everyone's a sceptic." She muttered, seemingly to herself, "Yes, that Titania. I am, as I said, the Fairy Queen. My consort is Oberon, although he is no king. Stupid William, to hell with artistic licence…ahem. Anyway, this is a parallel world."

"Wait…so this is Earth Gimel?" I looked around at the cloud-covered surroundings.

"No." Titania shook her head, "The worlds discovered by Doormaker and the rest of Cauldron are the ones where science triumphed over magic early on. What to call it for reference…right, considering Hebrew was used for your immediate worlds…call this place Earth Beta, using the Greek alphabet. This world, and many worlds like it, are where science was never invented or relied upon to such a large degree as your world. Actually, a better way to put it would be that the potential for science was never high in my world."

"I have no clue what you mean by that." I admitted. This conversation was becoming more and more bizarre by the minute.

Titania frowned before waving her hand, making an old-fashioned set of scales appear in mid-air. One tray had the symbol of a neutron on it, while the other side had an infinity symbol on it.

"The neutron represents science, the ouroboros symbol means magic." The tiny woman explained, "The scales themselves represent the balance between the two. In any world, there are usually two competing forces, magic and science, vying for dominance. In some worlds, the scales waver between the two frequently before fixing on one of the two to act as the dominant force. In others, such as yours and mine, the balance is determined very early on."

The scales creaked and the 'science' side fell down to the bottom, raising the 'magic' side up fully.

"This represents your world's balance, with almost no magic whatsoever." The woman tutted, "How dreadfully dull it must be."

The scale creaked again as the scales adjusted themselves again. This time, the magic side was down, but not at the bottom, with the science side raised up, but not all the way.

"This is the balance of my world." Titania continued, "Magic is the dominant force, with science having some impact on the world, but we will never develop some of the things you have in your world; planes, guns, nuclear reactors, that sort of thing. I don't think plutonium even exists in my world. The laws of science are also appealed quite a bit, with the laws of magic being the dominant laws."

I nodded slowly. This…made sense to some degree.

Waving her hand and dismissing the scales, the Fairy Queen frowned. "Using our magic, we can see other worlds, influence select few inhabitants to some degree. For example, that scoundrel Puck was the one who influenced your Sir William Shakespeare to write that ghastly play. Oh, he really got it when I got my hands on him!"

I could imagine. I wouldn't be happy to find a play that had me spelled into falling for a man with a donkey's head being made in another world.

"Ahem." The Fairy Queen looked embarrassed by her rant, "So, anyway. Yes, that's the difference between your world and mine. Many magic-dominated worlds fell to Zion and Eden as well, their powers converted into 'agents' for their experiments. Luckily, it was much harder for those Abominations to cross over to magic-dominant worlds than science-dominated worlds. No clue why. During Zion's rampage, the only worlds damaged were science worlds because of this fact."

"Count yourself lucky." I said with a shudder, remembering flashes of desolated landscapes and the screams of the dead and dying.

"We do, dear." Titania assured me, "We watched your original's battle with Zion and the sacrifice she made to gain the power to do so. She is now on Earth Gimel with her father, living a quiet life with no powers."

Ah, this spiel again. I wasn't sure what to think here. So far she hadn't shown me anything that could constitute proof that I was a copy or recording or whatever. Yet, at the same time, I was strangely certain that she was telling the truth. I didn't think that she was Mastering me or anything, but it was the main reason I was distrustful of Titania. I wasn't accustomed to being so trusting, not anymore.

"I'm a fey. I can't lie." Titania informed me when I brought this up, "All beings instinctively know this when we speak. That's what you're feeling."

"In my world, the lore says that that's usually an elf thing." I frowned.

"Dear, this world is what influenced the myths and legends on yours, but we didn't tell you everything." The Fairy Queen giggled, "Anyway, time to move to the reason why I summoned you."

That was fine with me. I was curious what the Queen of the Fairies wanted with the shattered fragment of a broken girl, if that's what I really was.

"You see, as you might expect, there are multiple races on a world dominated by magic; lizardmen, elves, dwarves, dragons, fairies and of course humans." Titania said with a sigh, "And, as you would also expect, there are 'good' people and 'bad' people among all these races. One of the worst of these 'bad' people has summoned a soul fragment from your world, one you might be familiar with…Thomas Calvert."

"Coil!" I hissed in shock.

"Yes. Coil, to use his preferred title, is being used to fuel Darkness." The tiny woman said seriously.

"I'm sorry, 'fuel darkness'? What the heck does that even mean?" I asked tiredly. So many weird terms!

"Darkness and Light are two primordial energies that are constantly at war with one another." Titania explained, "The actions of people on this world determine the strength of the Light and Dark entities, the Avatars of Light and Darkness. If there is too much Light, we will die. If there is too much Darkness, we will drown in darkness."

"I don't get it."

"If the Light should permanently triumph over the Darkness, magic will fall out of balance and rip our world apart." The Fairy Queen explained solemnly, "Should the Darkness win permanently, all of the darkest impulses of all the races will be unleashed without restraint and we shall die in an orgy of excess and death. Both outcomes are not desirable, so it is a delicate act to balance things so that neither Light or Darkness gain a palpable advantage over the other. All races, save for the most mindless, know this, yet one being seeks the death of our world and is using Coil to accomplish it."

"Coil had the power to split timelines and choose the one that favoured him." I frowned, "While a strong power, I honestly don't see what a single Parahuman could do to affect your world to the extent that you are talking about in the two-odd years since I've killed him."

"Ah, but our world doesn't have Parahumans." Titania stated, "No Parahuman power can work on our world thanks to god-like entities that swat any 'loose agents' away from it. Any agent on our world has to be summoned like I summoned you, and they do not remain agents, having their memory fragment removed like yours and turned into an avatar of who they were recorded from."

"What do you do to them?" I asked warily.

"We transmigrate them." She stated, "That is to say, reincarnate them into a new body, essentially giving them a second life. That's what will happen to you should you not wish to aid us. We would understand if you did not want to aid us. Why would you? You have fought your battles and suffered your pain, or at least you have the memories of your original doing so, so it is real enough to you."

"So…you'll still 'transmigrate' me even if I say no to whatever it is you want me to do?" I asked dubiously.

"Yes. We would be saddened should you do so, but we wouldn't hold it against you." Titania said with a nod, "You could reincarnate as anything you want; a vanilla human, an elf, a fairy, a dwarf, hell, even a dragonoid if you want. I do hope you'll choose to help us though."

"You haven't even told me what Coil's doing, let alone what you want me to do." I pointed out.

"Ah! Sorry, I got a bit ahead of myself." Titania said with a wince, "Yes…well, agents can be transmigrated, but they can also be converted into a 'Dungeon Crystal Core', which is basically the agent shard surrounded by condensed magical energy, usually to about the side of a grapefruit. Once that is done, they are placed in charge of area known as 'Dungeons.' You might recall a game called Dungeons and Dragons in your world?"

A vague memory ticked over. "Yeah…I think Dad…I mean my original's Dad…played it before Scion arrived. After he did though, it kinda…fell to the wayside."

"Understandable." The Fairy Queen nodded, "Basically, a Dungeon Core has to build a dungeon, stock it with monsters and traps and regulate the magic that runs through it from the ambient energy given off by the monsters and dungeoneers that enter it, producing both Light and Dark magic, which is absorbed by their respective entities. It is one way that we keep the Balance. Coil has been placed inside of a dungeon and ordered to only produce Dark magic. He has built a powerful dungeon and it is rapidly throwing the balance out of whack."

"So you want me to invade and smash his core?" I asked, sensing the point was at last coming into sight.

Titania shook her head. "What I would ask of you it to build another dungeon and start producing balanced magic."

"Shouldn't that be Light magic?" I frowned.

"An easy mistake to make." The fairy smiled, "What is disturbing the balance is the lack of magic being produced by Dungeons of equal amounts Light and Dark. The being who summoned Coil has also sent its minions to shatter as many dungeon crystals as possible, as well as to possibly sway some to his cause. Right now, over a hundred Dungeons have had their Core Crystals destroyed and forty or so have given in to the enemy in an effort to prolong their lives. We only had three-hundred Dungeons on the only continent we inhabit, so this is something of a problem. We have gathered replacements, of course, but the last Dungeon is in an isolated area and needs someone with the grit to work with insects, which is why I thought of you. Another reason is for your knowledge. I need someone who knows the way Coil thinks, the way he works. Your original knew him and killed him before. I want to pick your brains about him."

"You could do that even if I transmigrate." I pointed out.

"We really need someone with your skills in that Dungeon." She admitted, "The fact that only insects can be used as monsters there is an idiosyncrasy of that particular Dungeon and it was the lowest ranking Dungeon in all the land. The servants of the enemy didn't hesitate to bust through the weak defences and shatter the core, mainly because it was so weak and the output of magic wasn't worth converting the core, in their opinion. Plus it'll be hard for me to meet you if you choose to be anything other than a fairy if you choose to transmigrate. I am the Fairy Queen, you know!"

Meaning she'll be busy with affairs of state and the like.

"And if I become a Dungeon Core Crystal?"

"I'll be something like your sponsor, so I'll be able to visit you via teleportation as I like it." Titania answered cheerfully, "So, what do you say?"

I sighed and crossed my arms again as I thought. This was a tough choice here. On one hand, I was reasonably sure that Titania was telling the truth about the fact I was something like a copy of the real Taylor Hebert. I had all of her memories, intelligence and quirks, but I wasn't her. I wasn't obligated to act as she would, which was likely to jump in headfirst and do something about Coil. He wasn't even the real Coil; he was just like me, a copy of the real Coil.

On the other hand, I remembered Coil. His casual cruelty, his lack of respect for life, his willingness to break any and all rules and moral codes in order to get what he wanted. Had my original not been as paranoid as she had been, he may well have beaten her thanks to that thrice-bedamned power of his. Still, now he had lost that power, replacing it with that of a Dungeon. Knowing Coil, he wouldn't be satisfied at that. He'd game the system, testing his limits and bide his time until he could overthrow whoever had summoned him and become the master in the relationship. That's what the original Thomas Calvert would do and I had no doubt that a fragment copy of him would do the same.

Did I want Coil to succeed?

Hell no.

"Well…heh. Hell, why not." I sighed with a smile, "It isn't as if I have anything better to be doing right now."

So this is a bit of a departure from my usual Worm ficlets, but I figured, meh, why not? This was the best setting I could think of, but I could invent a dungeon creation power quite easily. It would be Shaker/Master 9, easily. Let me know what you think!