The first thing Jim noticed was how white it was. They were in a room, white light beaming down on white tiles, a white marble table with two chairs behind it. There were three chairs in front of it.

Behind the table were two women, a dark-skinned woman in her late thirties and a younger woman wearing a fedora. Jim couldn't quite place her age.

"And so this is the secret group that grants powers," Merlin said. He raised his eyebrow. "Aren't you bound to arrest them, Director Costa-Brown?"

"Given that she is part of it," the younger woman said. "That would be rather counter productive, especially given her role as Alexandria."

Jim twitched. Wait a minute, she's Alexandria? But when he looked at her, she… changed, the way she stood, the way she looked.

Suddenly she wasn't Director Costa-Brown, she was Alexandria wearing Costa-Brown's clothing.

"Was there a need for that?" Alexandria asked.

"If we are to work together, we need to be honest," the dark-skinned woman said. "You can call me Doctor Mother."

"Contessa," her partner supplied. "Alexandria informed us that you have been able to postcog Scion?"

"Y—" Claire swallowed. "Yes. But he's not the only one—"

"We know of Eden." Contessa nodded. "It has been neutralized."

"Wait—what?" Claire said. "You killed it? But—Scion isn't the thinker, why haven't you been able to kill—She's dead." Suddenly Claire looked around. "She's dead. She's not—Oh, God. Oh, God…" Her legs went out from under her and Jim barely got her before she hit the ground, moving her into the chair and glaring at the two.

"Eden crashed on my world," Contessa said. "It was… Well, Bronze Age in technology more or less. Suddenly everyone was changing, turning into monsters." She shrugged. "I was lucky. I gained a power that allowed me to find a path to victory, for… most things."

"So you killed it," Jim said.

"No." Contessa shook her head. "It was able to neuter my power, create blind spots. But Doctor Mother had been cast through other gaps… and she helped me do what I couldn't do…"

"And you killed it." Claire looked up. "You helped her kill it."

"Yes," Doctor Mother said. Then she blinked. Somehow, Claire managed to lean forward fast enough to grip her by the hands.

"Thank you…" the younger girl whispered.

"And I presume that the blind spots you mentioned include Scion," Merlin said. "Otherwise, you would have arranged for him to choke on a pigeon or some such ridiculous fate."

"Yes." Contessa nodded. "Entities, the Endbringers and… to a lesser extent, you, are blind spots to my power."

"But…" Jim looked at her. "We're not related to—"

"Oh do try to keep up, Trollhunter. We are not related to these abominations, but our powers, contrary to Armsmaster's delusions, are unknown to this universe. I expect that you have to work around us, trying to estimate what we can do, in order to create a model for future interactions but its very imperfect."

Doctor Mother blinked. "That is…"

"A very good summation," Alexandria said. "The problem is that we believe that Scion will, at some point, seek to destroy this world. This is why we've been building up our organization, selling powers derived from Eden and yes, working to avoid killing parahumans who might be able provide a weapon against him."

"Selling powers," Doctor Mother said. "Or granting them, to those with proper mindsets is one tool we use for ensuring that society does not collapse."

Jim frowned, thought about it, then he blinked. "Right. No trauma. You can pick people with skills…"

"And keep them secret, so I presume that they are prepared to carry out your desires," Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Clever."

"Yes."

"You're Cauldron… Did you have anything to do with the Case-53s?" He looked over to Claire. "Hey, Claire, remember how you got the sense of danger, maybe we could tell Fault—"

"Unfortunately, to date we have been unable to find an effective counter to Scion, but due to your ability to postcog…" Contessa trailed off.

Claire started to breathe faster. "You want me…" She bit her lip.

Jim stopped thinking about Faultline and dropped back down by Claire. "You don't have to… Merlin can!"

"I am not nearly as skilled as Claire, though I can make some attempts." Merlin frowned. "Fair Claire is more empathic than I, which is part of the reason she is more gifted. But that very empathy…"

"They were all so surprised," Claire whispered.

"I'm sorry," Alexandria said. "But you may be…"

"I'll try. I'll do it."

"Not yet," Merlin said. "Driving yourself into insanity will not help our cause."

"Yeah," Claire shook her head. "I'm alright. Jim what were you say—"

Contessa touched a key and an image appeared. "While it is true that we do not need to move immediately," she said. "These are the long-range trends regarding society on Earth Bet, which contains the majority of parahumans. As Endbringer attacks continue, and more and more people trigger, the ability for large-scale government bodies to maintain their authority will fall. That will lead to people like Lung and Coil taking power, as well as groups such as the E88."

No. Over my dead body, Jim thought. If Cauldron was working against them…

"But if you're making powers, why the Case 53s?" Claire asked.

Doctor Mother frowned. "While we have refined our ability to distill powers from Eden's… Remains, there is still a chance of a bad reaction."

"When I gained my powers, the chance for death or a bad reaction were seven out of ten," Alexandria said. "I was lucky."

"Why would you take an offer like that?" Jim asked.

"I was fourteen, lying in bed, and dying of cancer…" Alexandria paused. "And Contessa and Doctor Mother were honest about my chances, unlike everyone else, who seemed to think I would prefer the comforting lies."

"And the others?"

"Most of them were in similar states."

"But why…" Claire frowned. "Why don't they remember? All their other powers are different so—"

"Perhaps you would like to see Eden's corpse, and then we can show you some of the vials we use," Contessa said.

Claire turned pale, then nodded. "R-right."

For some reason, Merlin looked at her intently, then nodded as well.

"Door to the Flesh Garden."

The miasma hit Claire first. Death, rising around, the murdered corpse of a million worlds. She bit her lip and stumbled forward, raising her hands to cover her tightly closed eyes, like a pilgrim avoiding the gaze of a saint. The glimpse she'd caught had been bad enough. Body parts, hands, arms, some of them warped…

Merlin put his hand on her shoulder and she felt… something settle over her, shielding her.

But Claire still kept her hands over her eyes, letting Merlin guide her.

"Do not attempt to look any deeper at this," Merlin quietly said. "I am impressed. If Scion was a tenth as terrible as this, the fact that you live and are sane is a not-so-minor miracle."

"What…" Jim glanced at Merlin. "What's wrong?"

"Wizards see not just the material, but metaphysical. This is a graveyard for more civilizations than there are grains of sand on a beach."

"You believe your power is magic?" Alexandria asked.

"Are we back to the issue of magic? Clearly, you are right." Merlin shook his head. "Here we are standing in the corpse of a dead material god, that you evidently mine for powers, in order to save all the worlds from destruction. How foolish of me to assume there might be other powers that you might not know of."

"I accept that your power is different," Alexandria said. "But calling it magic…"

"As good a word as any." Merlin shook his head. "Just as long as you remember that this is not Harry Potter."

Alexandria blinked. "You have read that."

"Yes, and seen the movie. Though I don't recall Voldemort attempting to summon Hero's Soul, or being claimed by Harry's long lost sister, Glaistig Uaine."

"That was sort of weird," Claire said, not moving her hands from her eyes.

"Let's return to the base," Doctor Mother said. "I see no reason to further upset Ms. Nunez. We can show you the vials we use."

"If this is your reaction," Alexandria frowned. "Your utility against Scion may be limited."

"I…" Claire pulled her hands away from her eyes as they reentered the base. "I'm okay," she said.

"We will have to work," Merlin said. "It will not be easy, but I might… We will see." He looked over at Alexandria. "What information are you looking for?"

"Ideally?" Alexandria said. "A way to strike at his actual body. Scion is just an avatar."

"I…" Claire nodded. "I can work with Merlin."

"After we determine what will happen to those with his powers." Merlin said.

"We do not believe his agents will harm their users after his death," Doctor Mother said. "But even if so, anything is worth destroying Scion."

"Really?" Merlin raised his eyebrows.

"What about going home and getting help?" Jim asked. "If we can—"

"No." Doctor Mother shook her head. "We will not help you, under any circumstances, return home. The way you got here was…"

"Unique," Alexandria said. "While we cannot be 100 percent certain, we believe you come from a… for lack of a better world, universal cluster, where the Entities do not exist."

Claire glanced at Merlin. The older wizard nodded. "From the damage to your spiritual world compared to ours, I'd say that is the case."

"And for that reason, under no circumstances will we endanger your world." Doctor Mother gestured at the room, and by extension, the base around them. "This, even with your help, may fail. We cannot risk your world, because even if we all die, humanity survives there. And nothing is more important than mankind's survival."

"Right," Claire said, her voice thready. She imagined Enrique playing in his room and then the Golden Man rising up, killing him, or worse one of those things infesting her little brother… "Right." She repeated. "Show me the vials."

There was a small cabinet, and in it were glass vials.

"Would it be safe to use your postcognitive power on a vial?" Doctor Mother asked.

"They feel…" Claire shook her head. "Different. A different feeling, I think…"

"I can pull you away, Claire," Merlin said. "But I am interested."

"Let us try this vial," Contessa said. "It is a mixture designed to produce tinkers though their specialties' vary."

"Okay…" Claire stared at it, reached out and touch—and she was elsewhere.

Its name was impossible to say, being made up of nothing but rapid radio pulses. But it was a Builder. The name was capitalized. For the world, living as close as it did to the Angry Lifegiver was dangerous to the people and Building the great, semi-living crystalline cities and power sources was the key to the People's survival.

Even now that the strange days had arrived. Builder didn't know where the powers had come from, but it was content. Its power was minor, merely the ability to work faster, more effectively…

Builder was not interested in war. Soon it would bud off its descendants and they would live in the glorious city it had built, and see the way it had arranged the spires so that they both shielded from the danger of the days when the Angry Lifegiver glared down, and provided light and warmth when it shielded Its face from them. None would forget their species—

"Claire? Claire!" Jim's voice was loud, and Claire heard the echo of sobs in the air. Her sobs. "Why didn't you stop her!" Jim growled at Merlin.

"It's okay," Claire said. "It's okay… It's just… Builder was so happy, so proud of what it made… It's like a recording frozen in the body of the passenger. But there's no… presence. Not like Scion." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, I think that passenger is related to working on crystalline substances of some sort, but there were… blocks on it. Places where the, um passenger, 'filled in' stuff. I tried to unlock parts of it, to see more, but you might not want to use that on a person."

"Understood," Doctor Mother said.

"We need to return soon," Alexandria said. "I fear that even with all of this, we're not freed from the need to work for more mundane duties on Earth Bet."

"Yeah, yeah…" Jim said, still holding Claire. "We need to go, Claire needs to rest."

"I will remain here and speak with Contessa, if you don't mind."

"Not at all." Contessa nodded.

I hope Merlin doesn't piss them all off, Claire thought as the door opened to Costa-Brown's office.

"An excellent display of your power," Merlin told Contessa.

"Really?" Doctor Mother said. "What would that be?"

"Preventing Fair Claire or the Trollhunter from asking questions you didn't want to answer. Let me guess, not only are the Case 53s your creations, but their memory loss is deliberate on your part, to avoid potential leaks."

"Yes." Contessa nodded. "As I said, my power is not… as effective on you."

"My dear, I am centuries older and I wield a power that is quite simply incomprehensible to the entities that granted you your power." Merlin smiled. "And because of that, so long as I keep my full capabilities to myself, your power is ah, in the dark."

"Do you feel that is something you need to do?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Hmmm…" Merlin stared at the vial Claire had looked at, watching Doctor Mother return it to its container. "Your power was quite effective at preventing Claire or Jim from asking inconvenient questions. That must come in quite handy for your organization."

"It does." Contessa nodded.

"Ah, but have you considered that in many cases, the very questions you need to answer are the inconvenient ones?"