Free
Kate lay where she was. She couldn't do anything else even as bodies shifted around her and hands touched her in places she did not want them to touch her! She tried to protest, tried to fight. She couldn't move or speak and fear rose to new heights. But then Elizabeth growled.
"If you continue to molest her, I will obliterate you and be done with it." Elizabeth's tone might have frozen a bonfire. "You exist only in my memories and her willingness to open herself up to pain. Hurt her and I will destroy you."
"So touchy, are we?" The other laughed form behind Kate. The hands did stop caressing her. "All this time and still just a little brat."
"Not really." Elizabeth was calmer now, but not by much. "That is what you wanted, but I grew up. You wanted me to be the perfect little princess for you to use in your plots and I just wanted a life. You failed."
"You keep telling yourself that." The other retorted.
Kate quailed as Elizabeth faded for a moment, only to reappear strapped to a chair while evil looking machinery pulsed all around her. Tubes with foul looking fluid in them ended in sharp needles, poised to pierce frail skin. A metal thing wrapped itself around the girl's head and electricity crackled but Elizabeth's glare didn't waver.
"So strong, but so naive." The voice behind Kate chided as Kate found herself in a similar chair! She could do nothing as the metal closed in. "You will never be free of me, girl. I had to be careful not to break your ability when I made you mine but this one… You feel for this one, don't you? This one will serve I think."
Kate was drifting in a sea of lethargy mixed with bliss. She was aware that things hurt, that her body hurt. That her mind was being damaged, but she couldn't muster the energy to think. She felt so bad, but so good at the same time. She knew she was being drugged, maybe brainwashed again and it didn't matter at all to her because she felt so good!
After a time that might have been minutes or centuries, Kate found herself kneeing on the floor of a room that looked like it belonged to a child. If said child had severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, anyway. There was not a speck of dust anywhere on any of the art that adorned the walls. On any of the toys that each sat in their own spaces on the shelves. Kate felt good, just the memories of pain and fear gave her shivers now. Her mind was clear. Everything was crystal clear now. The fog, the brainwashing she had subjected herself to, all of it was gone. The plan was laid bare at long last.
"I am sorry." Kate's eyes were pulled to the bed that sat against one wall. Said bed was huge and looked very comfortable, but the girl who sat in the middle of it was sobbing as she hugged her knees tight to herself. Elizabeth.
"Don't be." Kate tried for reassurance, but her voice was hoarse and scratchy. From screaming? "It is not your fault, Elizabeth."
"Yes, it is!" Elizabeth retorted. "This is all me! This is all my fault!"
"Fault doesn't come into it. You are not the first child to be abused by their parents. To lash out at anyone and everyone as a result." Kate said as gently as she could. "I don't blame you for acting out. That said? The cycle of violence must end, Elizabeth. Your mother is gone, from what I understand." Elizabeth nodded. "So now, all that you have left are your memories."
"Memories of what I did to people I loved. Like what I just did to you. And you let me!" Elizabeth said weakly. "I am just a copy. A fake." She sobbed and Kate moved to sit on the bed with her. Kate still wasn't wearing anything and she paid that no mind as she wrapped her arms around Elizabeth. "Don't touch me! I am dirty!"
"I don't care!" Kate kept her tone soft and gentle as she held Elizabeth. "You know the plan. It can work!"
"At what cost to you?" Elizabeth met Kate's eyes through streaming ones. "I… I just wanted to make things right."
"We can." Kate promised. "I accepted it, even not knowing exactly what I accepted. I had to forget the plan or you would have foiled it." She reached up with a hand and tweaked Elizabeth's nose gently. "It is okay." She reassured the girl when Elizabeth protested. "Everyone else will be as upset as your siblings were when I proposed this, but I think it can work. The cycle must end. Your mother's evil died with her and you? You need closure. Not death. Closure! I gave it to you. You faced her again and you beat her. Well done."
"You… Why?" Elizabeth begged as Kate hugged her gently. "Why do such for me? I am evil. Bad!"
"Then why am I alive?" Kate asked. Elizabeth would not meet her eyes and Kate pressed her slim advantage. "Why am I alive? Why didn't you kill me when you struck from behind? Such would have been far easier. Far more in line with selfishness. Quicker." Kate tweaked Elizabeth's nose again. "I know why. Do you?"
"You are not thinking clearly!" Elizabeth protested.
"Oh, I think I am." Kate replied, her eyes going far away. "You know, I wasn't abused by my parents, but they did lie to me. They tried to use me to hurt many people. Before that? I was assaulted, so I know that feeling. The helplessness. The rage. The bone deep desire for revenge. I know all of those. I became who I am now so that maybe, just maybe, I could help other people. Keep another girl in danger from having such happen to them. I wasn't here when a little girl needed me to swoop in and save her from her mother's madness." She looked away from Elizabeth and her own eyes were burning. "I can't save you. You have to save yourself. All I can do is this and I do offer."
"They took you." Elizabeth's tone was halfway between horror and awe. "They took you and made you think this way!"
"No." Kate corrected Elizabeth grimly. "Your siblings took me because I could step between realities. They knew you and Lorinos would hunt me for my ability. They wanted to keep me safe, maybe bounce me between realities to keep me a step ahead of you and your enemy. But safe is not what Avengers do. You had a plan for this exact situation. Said plan went off the rails. I can put it back on track and you know how. I proposed this and everyone freaked. I argued for some time before they let me try. Before they sent me back to my reality, having fallen unconscious in battle."
"I… I made a mess." Elizabeth said weakly.
"Yes, but I don't blame you. You are sick, Elizabeth, not bad or wrong or whatever." Kate would not let her go even when Elizabeth started struggling halfheartedly to get free. "You are sick! You said it yourself. Good and evil are matters of perspective. You are still hurting deep inside from what your mother did to you and it is seeping out into everything else. Lorinos is evil. He apparently enjoys what he does. You don't."
"I do!" Elizabeth protested.
"Do you?" Kate asked and then released the girl to sit back. "How long have you been alone, Elizabeth?"
"What?" The girl who wasn't one asked, confusion rising.
"After his hold on you broke, you went after Lorinos." Kate said slowly, not moving at all as Elizabeth shifted on the bed. "I don't blame you in the slightest for that. You pushed everyone away, let no one stay close to you even when many would have tried to help. Either you or with your vengeance. When your siblings found me, they took me in, held me close and kept me safe. They told me stories about you. What you did and why. How you fought so hard not to be your mother. Then they told me what the mad one did and why. You are not her, Elizabeth."
"I am becoming her, moment by moment." The other hugged herself again, tears falling. "I feel myself slipping away. I will hurt you!"
"There will be pain." Kate said quietly. "I know it and I accept it. I will change and even if I do forget or revert or whatever on going home, there will likely be some changes in me. I accepted that. I am what I am, Elizabeth. I stand for those who cannot defend themselves. Do it."
"Please, no." Elizabeth begged. "There has to be another way!"
"There isn't." Kate said as she lay down on the bed. "You need closure. Lorinos needs to be stopped and I am here." She closed her eyes as Elizabeth lay down beside her. "I have been thinking of names."
"What?" Elizabeth asked as softness swept around Kate and she was floating.
"To truly end this, you need something that shows your mother's memory that you are not her." Kate reasoned. "She wanted a dutiful, obedient, mindless daughter. You are anything but that and she could not accept it. You need to accept that you are yourself, not her puppet. You were not then and you are not now. That is the only way this ends. Elliot, I think."
"'Elliot'?" Elizabeth's voice was coming from far away now. Energy flared around Kate and it hurt, but she ignored that.
"Ellison could have worked, but Elliot sounds better to my ears." Kate didn't shrug, but she wanted to. "I can just imagine your mother's reaction on seeing you give birth to a boy."
"Five girls was a bit much." Elizabeth was almost inaudible now. "A boy? She only wanted girls. She wanted more daughters to make into her perfect princesses. A boy would change things. I… I have no words, Kate Bishop."
"Nor need of them, Elizabeth Regina Natalie Sarah Portia Grousa Helga Bethany Rosha Silvia Isabella Rocca Flavia Mika Sina..." Kate spoke slowly and formally. Elizabeth gasped as Kate spoke each and every single one of her names. No one in recent memory had done such and certainly not in such formal tones. Kate had memorized them. Doing so had taken her quite a while, but for this? There was no substitute for formal. It took quite a while but she finally finished up all almost eighty of Elizabeth's names. When she spoke again, it was very formal and in High Orokin. [I stand as surrogate for my hurt sister. I stand as surrogate for my lost sister. I stand as surrogate for my beloved sister. Go in peace, Elizabeth. You will be remembered.]
Pain that dwarfed anything Kate had ever encountered slammed into her gut and she screamed loud and long. Again and again, the pain hit and she could do nothing but writhe in it. Then it faded and she opened her eyes to wonder. She stared down at herself, at the large bulge that now graced her abdomen and sighed deeply.
"Ah, Elliot." Kate rubbed her belly gently. "This going to take some explaining." Kate said a bit weakly as she looked around. The room she lay in looked off, as if the furniture wasn't designed for human sized beings. But it was all golden, so… Good or bad? She had no idea.
"And I thought I was crazy." A hushed voice sounded and Kate jerked upright as a girl appeared near one wall of the room. She was wreathed in pale blue lines of what looked like computer code. Kate didn't know her, but the Avenger knew of this girl. "I…"
"She didn't want death. She wanted closure." Kate said sternly as golden fabric enveloped her. It felt like silk on her sore skin. She tried to sit up and the bed inclined under her, easing her. "Jesse. What are you doing here?"
"She is gone." Jesse said weakly. "I could always feel Elizabeth, scrabbling at the edges of my mind. Looking for a way past my shields. Now? She is gone. What did you do?" She wasn't demanding, she was almost begging.
"You couldn't help her, Jesse." Kate reassured the other. "I could. I did. I will." Then she shook her head. "You need to leave before Lorinos gets here. He is on his way by now."
"He has far too many backdoors into the Tower." Jesse said weakly as she sat in one of the over sized chairs. "I sealed what I could, but he will get in."
"Jesse. That Tower is the safest place in the whole system at the moment. Go." Kate said as something impinged on her mind. She shook her head when Jesse just slumped in place. "Jesse! Please!"
"She is not coming back this time, is she?" Jesse said very softly and Kate shook her head. "And… you?" She stared at Kate's belly, clearly at a loss for words.
"It is a long story, Jesse." Kate tried to sit up, but her body wouldn't obey her. "I don't know it all, but Lorinos will be stopped today. There are several people who will need great deal of help. I can't stay long after this." She nodded to her stomach but kept her eyes on Jesse. "Do you mind a little brother?"
"I have one already." Jesse complained. "All babies do its eat, poop and make noise!"
"And then they grow up." Kate smiled at Jesse as the girl fought through her emotions. Then she sobered. "Jesse, Elizabeth needed this. She needed to show the horrible memories of her mother that she was her own person. That she was not broken by all that happened to her. She could not remain as she was but she could not leave either with her enemy on the prowl and her work undone. Her work is done, if you stay safe." Kate sighed deeply. "If you don't… I don't think she planned for that, but I wouldn't bet against it. Her."
"Me neither." Jesse rose from her chair, un-shed tears shining in her eyes. She stepped to the bed, picked up Kate's limp right hand and brought it to her mouth. She kissed it and laid it back on the bed gently. "Give him hell, aunt."
The Cyberlancer smiled and then she was gone in a flash of blue computer code. Kate smiled after her, but then pain stabbed her abdomen and she fought to keep from grunting. Such rapid changes hurt a great deal no matter how hard Elizabeth had tried not to hurt Kate. Kate's body was rebelling against the intruder within it. Even if she had accepted this intellectually, her body felt otherwise and was making its displeasure felt. She tried to sit up again and gasped as the pain doubled. She lay back down.
"Not fighting like this." Kate mused and then took a deep breath. "I know you can hear me. I won't command you. I ask, no, I beg. Please. Let me help?"
"What have you done?" A cold, metallic voice heralded a human shape appearing nearby. In form, it was a dark haired girl, but the face was all wrong and the golden orb attached to her forehead was why.
"I fulfilled Elizabeth's failsafe plan for her own madness." Kate said quietly, trying not to abuse her tortured muscles. "She could not be stopped. She could not be reasoned with. She had to face her mother again and show the evil bitch that Elizabeth was her own person. I stood as surrogate for that. For the true legacy that she wanted and was denied after being so badly injured in the Collapse of the Orokin Empire. She had no way to procreate, her genetics were too badly damaged even to clone. It took all of her power to make this happen. To make a new life start from her and even then? There was no way she could bear it. Not now, especially." She held out a shaking hand to the girl who stared at her. "She hurt you. I know she did. I don't know if I can help, but I want to try. Please, Cecelia?"
Ric's young wife stood silent. A grim statue and reminder of just how bent Elizabeth had been before Kate's sudden shocking offer had jolted her back to lucidity for a moment. According to Elizabeth's siblings, this girl had been a robot that turned into a little girl and loved a Tenno. It hadn't been her fault or Ric's that she had been caught up in the mess created by the last Empress' death.
"You cannot help me." The other was monotone still.
"I can deactivate the controls." Kate promised and the other stared at her. "I can turn it off, let you seek help. That I can do." She grunted as the effort of speaking jarred her abdomen. "Not much else at the moment." She tried for humor, but it came out strained.
"You hurt." The girl stepped closer to the bed, her face still blank.
"I never had kids." Kate reassured the girl. "My body wasn't set up to handle them. It is trying to cope with this sudden intrusion and it grew far faster than normal. My body does not appreciate the interloper or the sudden shifts. Did you want kids?" She asked.
"Someday. Maybe." Cecelia said softly as she came to the bed side and stared down at Kate. "Can you aid?"
"I have no strength." Kate tried to raise her hand to take the orb off the girl, but she couldn't keep her hand up. 'Please? Take my hand gently and place it on the orb."
"I cannot touch the orb." The girl did not move. Of course Orokin slave tech wouldn't just let people deactivate it.
"You won't." Kate said firmly. "I will. Just get my hand onto it." She tried to raise her hand again, but it fell, only to have the girl catch it in a gentle grip. Cecelia pulled the hand up to her head and stopped just away from the orb. Kate smiled as she touched a finger to the orb which glowed and fell off into her hand. "Abracadabra!"
"You…" Cecelia didn't scream. She didn't react at all for a long moment and then she retreated several quick steps. Kate dropped her orb and it fell to the floor with a clank. She couldn't keep her hand up and it fell back to the bed. Cecelia stared at Kate, her eyes huge. "You… The plan? I... I offered!"
"She wasn't going to do it to you." Kate said softly. "She knew Ric was hunting her. She knew he could track you. You were her hostage. Not to be harmed. This…" Kate groaned as her stomach protested again. "This hurts."
"Easy." Cecelia was at her side in an instant. "Let me see. I was trained… I was training as a midwife! I…"
"That is the other reason." Kate said weakly as Cecelia straightened her very carefully. "She knew… whoever took the burden would need you. Me. She couldn't leave you free, but she didn't destroy your mind either."
"No." Cecelia said softly. "I... It as all golden fog after she put it on me. I never thought she would." She was crying softly now. "She was so kind to me and then…"
"Then she died." Kate was just as sad. "The remnant is gone. She used herself up to create a new life. The one that is growing inside me. Is it…?" She gasped again and Cecelia took her hand. "It hurts and I knew it would, but I know little more about this kind of thing."
"I have few scanners here, but what I can use all says the same. The little boy is healthy." Cecelia said very softly. "You… You did that."
"I can't stay. We will need to find another surrogate." Kate warned. "But first? Lorinos has to be stopped."
"Yes, he does." Ric appeared nearby, his warframe's weapons ready. He stilled as Cecelia jumped to her feet and ran to him, sobbing. His weapons vanished as he caught her and held her close.
"I can't fight like this." Kate smiled, but it was melancholy. "I hope you have a plan."
Ric looked at her over the sobbing, now freed form of his wife and nodded.
"I do."