Who is the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows 'her'?
"This is insane!"
The Magos Biologis was not happy. While Kate had been dealing with the mad empress, the Magos had been a prisoner. Luckily, Elizabeth hadn't seemed to want to hurt the extra reality medic. That said? The crazy woman hadn't been overly gentle either. The Magos' robes were in tatters and now, they were no longer pure red as they had been for most of Kate's time with her. Now, they were white with red trim. That meant something, but Kate Bishop had no idea what.
"Yes." Kate agreed from where she still lay on the same bed she had woken in. It was quite comfortable, but she couldn't get comfortable. "It is." Kate said in a very tired voice. She had been having this same conversation with everyone before the Magos had been escorted in here by a pair of golden statues come to life and now? Her memories were mostly unlocked She remembered far more (and far louder!) conversations on the same subject. "Yes, it is insane! Yes, I am a fool. Yes, it was stupid, irresponsible, all that! It worked!" She all but threw the words at the Magos who stared at her, wide eyed.
"Did it?" The Magos shook her head. "How would we know?"
"I am free of the mental blocks." Cecelia said a bit diffidently from where she sat across the bed from the Magos. The three of them were the only ones in the room, all of the golden statues that had once been something called 'Grineer' had been sent away. "Elizabeth wouldn't have freed me. Kate Bishop did."
"And if this is part of the plan?" The Magos all but spat that. "If there is one thing I know all about from my own experiences, it is being used. Being a pawn in games much greater than myself. Elizabeth outmatched any or all of us in almost every way I can consider. How would we know if she is gone for good?"
Cecelia stared at the white and red garbed woman and then at Kate, her eyes scared.
"We don't. We can't." Kate admitted. "We can only hope that she saw the truth. She wanted an end. The Empress did. She had been hurting for so long, alone for so long, even with her kids…" Kate slumped. "I doubt even the sane Empress really was sane after all of what happened to her. I don't know it all, but what I do know would have broken me if Elizabeth hadn't realized why I was doing what I was. That I could fix this. Make her plan work."
"Because you are a hero." Cecelia reached out to take Kate's closest hand and give it a squeeze.
"And a fool." Kate replied and both women stared at her. "Yes, it was foolish, what I did. Putting myself in her power was a bad idea. I know that. Letting her do this to me was a worse idea! I know that. I could have run. Sanity and common sense both said to run and hide. This was just plain foolish." She nodded at the bump on her abdomen. "Everyone calls heroes foolish occasionally and I have too. But… If I had run? Could I have eluded her and Lorinos forever?"
"You could have found a better way!" The Magos sneered that. "There had to be a better way!"
"Probably. I am not perfect and I know some of what I do not know." Kate shrugged and then regretted it as her belly protested. "In the end? I did accept this, but I cannot carry this child to term. The plan was to find a surrogate and not you." She said quickly when Cecelia opened her mouth. "You have suffered enough for the Royal Family's mistakes, Cecelia. You deserve some kind of peace after that horror. I have been controlled by others and I know many who did horrible things while controlled by others." She shuddered in memory of some of her talks with some of her colleagues. Their stories put any of hers to shame. Jessica Jones' and Jennifer Walters' in particular hurt just thinking about. Not just controlled but used to hurt their friends and family with no way of stopping said controls? Ouch. "You need time, Cecelia. You need to take time to recover. You need to talk to your significant other."
"He…" Cecelia swallowed hard. "He went to get Lorinos."
"Yes." Kate took a deep breath. "It may take him some time to convince the golden twit to check on it and see if we are telling the truth after all of Elizabeth's machinations." She made a face. "That woman defined the words 'paranoid' and 'Machiavellian'. He won't come soon."
"But he will come. He has to, if just to gloat and/or kill you and the one you bear to make totally sure." Cecelia was very quiet as Kate nodded. "And then?"
"Then, this ends and hopefully, we all go home." Kate reassured her. "Magos? How am I?"
"Physically, you are weak and your body has been over-stressed. There are no actual injuries." The white and red garbed being was slightly less stiff, but still clearly upset. "I cannot speak for your sanity."
"Neither can I, Magos." Kate shook her head. "This was crazy, but it was the only choice I saw to end this. She wanted an end, Elizabeth did. She knew how dangerous she was, more than any of us."
"Why am I here?" The Magos asked after a moment. "I really haven't done anything but monitor you. I certainly haven't helped."
"You have helped and you have kept me on an even keel. That was needed more than anything else." Kate reassured her. "Also? Your part is not done yet." Both other women looked at her and Kate smiled. It was not a nice smile. "That is not part of Elizabeth's plans that I know of. It was part of mine." Her smile turned downright vicious. "Direct violence wasn't going to work against either of them. Subterfuge wasn't going to work against Elizabeth and Lorinos has copies of himself spread all across the multiverse, making messes."
"But he is far less dangerous than Elizabeth was." Cecelia said and then paused as both others would not meet her eyes. "Isn't he?"
"One on one, yes.' Kate allowed. "Elizabeth was more than match for just about anyone I have ever heard of. She scared supervillains, for goodness sake! A reality walking insane assassin." She shuddered and the Magos joined her. "No one is ever likely to know exactly how much damage she did trying to stop-" She gasped as golden power slammed into her and was rebuffed! It seemed to bounce off the bed!.
"Kate!" Cecelia cried out in alarm as the same golden power poured out across the room, pinning the Magos and Cecelia to opposite walls.
"Don't-" Kate cried out as the power found a way past whatever was stymieing it and poured all around her, gripping each and every part of her in steel vises. Then it clamped on her abdomen and started to compress. "NO! You idiot! You will kill us all!"
"You call me an idiot." The golden man who appeared at the foot of the bed was sneering. "Did you not think I would discern this infantile trap?" He scoffed as Kate grunted in pain.
"Yes, I call you an idiot." Kate gasped in relief as the pain vanished and her stomach flared golden! "Did you really think she didn't prepare for you being an idiot? I may act the fool occasionally, but you?" She laughed and it was heartfelt. Her belly hurt, but it was worth it for the look on his face. When was the last time someone had laughed at him? "You will never be anything but a fool. An incredibly powerful, lust fueled brat with delusions of godhood. You are a fool and always will be one. Ignorance can be cured with knowledge. There is no cure for foolishness but death."
"I am immortal, you cannot kill me." Lorinos Orokin, also known as Lorinos Executor, also known as Prince Robert, scoffed at the three helpless women. "You will all call me 'Master'."
"Never." The Magos snapped and then screamed as golden power flared around her, stripped her robes from her form in an instant and showing a body that was less human than mechanical. "I serve the Emperor of Mankind, the Deus Mechanicus and the Inquisition. Not you."
"I stay away from that particular reality after Elizabeth made such a mess there." Lorinos stared at the Magos and then shook his head. "You will serve. I will wipe your mind and you will serve."
"You will try." The Magos spat that and then screamed as golden power played out all of her appendages across the wall she hung on like a mechanical spider. Then it flared around her head. It seemed to be held away, but it was pushing in.
"Now? All that remains is to see how long it takes to subjugate you and how much it hurts you. I will savor every tear. I will be with you in a minute, girl." Lorinos spoke offhand to Cecelia who quailed. Kate didn't take her eyes off the golden man who shook his head as he looked back at her. "Even if Elizabeth isn't truly gone, that one is too dangerous to live." He nodded to Kate's belly. Kate didn't react and he shook his head again. "There is no need to be rude, girl. I have won."
"Have you?" Kate asked, her tone now tired. "Then go ahead. Do whatever you are going to do. I will enjoy watching." The last was pure vicious hate and even Lorinos stared at her as Kate sneered at him. "Go ahead! You know you want to! It is all your kind know how to do! Hurt others! Dominate others to make them do what you want! Male, female, human, alien! In so many places it is all the same! Power means you can do whatever the hell you want to people without power. Whether your power is weapons, wealth, physical strength or whatever." Her smile was cold now as she stared down the golden monster. "I know your kind all too well. You may be incredibly powerful, but you are still a fool."
There was utter silence in the room while Kate Bishop glared at the golden madman. It was hard to say who was more flabbergasted by Kate's outburst, Lorinos or Cecelia who had paled so much as to appear almost fainting.
"Go on!" Kate prodded the silent golden man. "Be a good little bully! Hurt me! Kill, whatever! Do it! You know you want to!" Kate sneered at him and then she scoffed. "Oh, wait. My bad." She managed to shift, just a little so she was turned away from Lorinos, her back presented to him. Then she closed her eyes! "Here you go! Stab me in the back while my eyes are closed like the gutless piece of shit you are."
"You are quite funny." Lorinos said softly. "You persist in annoying me despite the danger. Is this your plan? To be designated a jester so that you can insult me with impunity?'
"No." Kate matched his tone exactly, just as soft, just as disbelieving. "You don't have the wit to comprehend what I am planning. Just do whatever you are going to do! I don't have all day and this is getting uncomfortable."
"You want me to act." Lorinos said very slowly. "So, whatever you plan will be set in motion by my actions."
"No, I just want you to shut up. You are boring me now." Kate retorted, her snark back at her normal levels after all the shocks. "Yes, you are a big, bad, scary man. Yes, you have power I don't. Yes, you can hurt me, kill me, what-the-hell-ever… But for the love of whatever, stop boring me, fool." She shook her head.
"Angering me is a bad idea, slave." Lorinos warned.
"Yadda… yadda… yadda." Kate put just the right hint of 'I am done wasting time on you' in her tone. She was quite proud of the fact that she could get a rise out of even the most reserved people with her level of sarcasm. Marksmanship had always been her thing, either with arrows or cutting remarks. It wasn't always safe to do it any more than it was safe to shoot arrows at someone like Doctor Doom, but she was if she was honest with herself, quite good at pissing people off.
"Do you have any idea what I am going do to you?" Lorinos asked, seeming a bit perplexed. Was she getting under his skin? She hoped so. Her bladder was starting to protest this position.
"No." Kate admitted but then she smiled. "Why should I care?" A strangled gasp came from Cecelia but Kate just continued on. "You are going to do whatever you want to do. Yeah, I get it. You have the power, so feel free to monologue about how much better than me you are or how you are going to make me hurt for years, decades, whatever." She snorted again. "You are scary, yes. But, just so you know? You are not a patch on Victor Von Doom's backside in scariness." She gave herself a tiny shake. "Or some of the other people I have met on this odd jaunt." The Lotus, Jesse from the Bureau, even Astra had been frightening in her own way although she had tried hard not to be. Let alone the Magos and her 'compatriots'. "I know I can't beat you, but sooner or later someone will. The thing about good and evil is that they do not exist in a vacuum. Anytime good or bad get too big, something happens to bring them down. I have seen it way too many times to think a small thing like changing realities is going to alter that."
"What are you planning?" Lorinos clearly expected a trap.
"Me?" Kate inquired. "I plan…" She heavily enunciated the word. "...to get out of this bed as soon as I am capable, get to a toilet and relieve myself. I was warned, but I didn't believe. Even at this stage, the bladder does not like this extra pressure."
"You are insane." Lorinos actually sounded admiring. "Wait. I do get it. Well played. You don't have a plan! How can I expect what you will do when you don't have a clue?"
"Give the man a cigar!" Kate was snarking for all she was worth now. "All this time, all this pain and you finally get it! I wing things! I do what I can with what I have! Plans are great, but they seldom survive contact with the real world. I learned that from the best of the best. Plans rarely work as planned and we always need to adapt the plans for changing conditions."
"No one is coming to save you, girl." Lorinos was calmer now since he seemed to have figured things out. "The operative is busy trying to find another copy of me. Your allies have all been put back where they belong and you? You are pregnant and have a small, unarmed girl and a silly religious cyborg as allies here and now. You are mine."
"Then do it." Kate sneered. "I am sure that Elizabeth has some kind of plan for you trying to kill her baby boy."
"Oh, I am not going to kill him." Lorinos replied, seeming offhand. "As you say, she more than likely planned for that. I am going to remove it and probably use the DNA to make some servants who are slightly mouthy than you. Kate fought a smirk. She was getting to him! "You will go back to your reality with no memory of this. I have already angered the wardens far more than I wished. I only wanted to survive, not wage an inter-reality war."
"But that is what you did." Kate said very softly. "You started it."
"They started it!" Lorinos snapped, finally losing his temper. "The Tenno broke everything I was trying to build! They took it all from me and I won't leave them to that moron Ballas! He is too love struck to have any notion of 'building' anything!"
"A fool calling an insane being a moron." Kate actually laughed at that. "Hypocrite much?"
Golden power hit her and twisted her painfully, shifting her back so that she stared the now raging Orokin in the eyes. Then she screamed as the golden power flexed, pulling her into the air to hover in front of him. It did not touch her abdomen.
"This will hurt you a great deal and I will enjoy it, but I will leave you alive after." Lorinos promised. He jerked as Kate laughed again. "What is so funny?"
"You are." Kate managed through her pain even as a golden spear of energy slammed into her forehead. It hurt like fire, but she kept talking. "So smart and so powerful... but still… A fool."
"You 'heroes' are the one who get people hurt of killed, trying to impose your morals on those who want nothing to do with you." Lorinos shook his head. "How many innocent bystanders have your arrows claimed, Kate Bishop?"
Kate couldn't verbalize through the pain now, but she managed a sneer even as the power bored into her mind and she knew no more.
"KATE!" Cecelia screamed from her golden prison as Kate's head lolled down, her eyes open and vacant.
"As I say, I won't kill her." Lorinos spoke up as her power continued to scour the human woman's mind, finding memory clusters from recent events and burning them to ash. "I… What the-?"
He stared at the woman in front of him as she changed! One moment, it was a somewhat pregnant young woman, the next, it was a man in a skin-tight bodysuit and white mask who fell to lie still as Lorinos' golden power faded. He was clearly dead.
"What the hell?" Lorinos demanded as the body disintegrated. The Magos stared at where the body had been and then the cyborg woman started to laugh.
"You really are a fool!" The Magos had a grin in her voice while Cecelia sputtered. She hadn't had a clue that a switch had occurred any more than Lorinos had.
"Yes, he is." Kate Bishop's cold words sounded from nowhere and then, she stood in a distant corner of the room. She was still pregnant, but she wore her Hawk-Eye costume and had a familiar golden bow drawn. She not alone. Ric stood beside her, a two handed sword drawn and ready in the Vauban warframe's hands. But it was the other being who stood beside them both who had Lorinos freezing in place. Jane Talona, former Tenno Jane Talona and now something very different. The skin-tight black bodysuit was dwarfed by the wide brimmed black hat with the candle on it. "Did you really think you could hide your machinations with the Ruinous Powers in his reality from the Emperor of Mankind and from Elizabeth? They did talk to one another, asshole. Inquisitor? This fool is yours, I think."
Lorinos stared at the woman as a snake might a mongoose as Inquisitor Jane Talona raised a small symbol. A stylized 'I' for 'Inquisition'.
"Fool indeed. Well met, heretic!"