Shuffle shuffle sniff

Alexandria awoke to reflex and a press of something against her neck.

Then a yip and a meaty crunch.

Her power made her near-indestructible, but Alexandria still needed to do everything that a normal human needed to do: eat, sleep, shit, etc., so she understood waking up.

But it had been a long time since she'd not remembered falling asleep.

Despite that, it took just a second to recall everything, and then she was up and flying and casting her gaze around.

It was a forest she found herself in, a trail of broken dirt and giant red trees outlining where she had fallen from.

The sun peeking through the clouds and canopy warmed her skin, the faint breeze tickling her, reminding her that she was naked.

But otherwise untouched, a quick check confirmed that.

It also revealed the blood on her hand.

For several moments, Alexandria could only stare, dumbfounded. Then she glanced to the ground, to where she had been laying.

A broken body greeted her, blond fur matted with blood, spine and skull crushed, twisted, by the impact. There was a glint in the sunlight, reflecting off a blood-covered jeweled collar, a name, half-covered in red.

Alexandria stared, eyes drawn in by the juxtaposition of the body and the forest around them. How the red of the blood contrasted with the green, the white of bone with the brown of the dirt.

"Maddy! Where did you go, girl?"

The hero jerked at the voice in the distance-

-then she was gone, high in the air, overlooking the forest, leaving the ground far behind in mere moments.

Alexandria had a rough idea of where she was, something that was quickly turned into certainty as she flew, spotting a lake to orient herself. Then she picked her direction and was off like a shot, leaving the forest behind in a flash.

There was a muffled boom in the air, one that drew the attention of those in the park below, but nothing would ever come of it, and no one would ever learn that she was there.


Traveling via flight was simple, due to her speed and knowledge of geography she could determine where she was and figure out where she needed to go within a minute. This was only marred by how it was often hard to make out the smaller landmarks when at speed, even with her skills.

Her photographic memory played a heavy part in this, having learned all major roads, major cities and their neighbors, coupled then with a half-second's pause to read signs while keeping an eye out for major landmarks.

Provided that they still existed, of course.

It wasn't dirt under her feet: the texture was too rough for that, too jagged. She was reminded of Lunar regolith that Sphere had sent back once, rocks unmarred by weather effects like wind and rain.

The material had been fused and warped, hammered and twisted into shape by impossible means.

What was once fertile land turned into an unforgiving wasteland of grey and black rocks, unbroken by anything.

And Alexandria stood upon a sea of it, stretching out to the horizon in every direction.

'There should have been a town here,' Alexandria reflected. 'A place that people called home.'

Over the years Alexandria had become proficient in reading the land from the air; having photographic memory and being able to calculate speed and distance in her head helped.

So she knew that this area should have been a town, surrounded by miles of farms.

Yet it was anything but the case.

"Alexandria."

The hero twisted her head. Legend was there, floating, a Door in place behind him, one looking like it led straight to an office, one she didn't recognize.

It shut as Legend moved close-

No, not Legend, Nathan.

Legend wore a skintight costume, blue and white. Nathan wore shorts and a shirt, several bandages peeking out from under his clothes.

"… We couldn't find you. Some thought…"

Nathan didn't finish.

The pair stood alone, in a sea of broken stone.

"… What happened, Nathan?" Alexandria asked. "Where is… where is the fleet, the capes? Did you and Eidolon save them?"

Nathan didn't meet her eyes


"-over several hundred miles!"

"By far the worst disaster in American history! Not even the End-"

"-looking at further food shortages, disruption of supply lines-"

"-Ecological devastation on par with Behemoth! Only this isn't something that just can be cleaned up!"

"-Have evacuated! The danger of the storm is well recorded!"

"If people won't even leave their homes when a hurricane is bearing down on them, what makes you believe that they'll do so for this?"

"If you decided to stay in a flash flood zone when a 100-year storm equivalent comes rolling in, the consequences are on you, same goes for this situation. We understand the devastation that comes from this! The fact that people refuse to understand the truth is due it their own stupidity!"

"The storm has never been this bad before! Destruction is normally limited to structural issues! All repairable in the end! How could anyone had known what was going to happen!?"

"-even mentioning the amount of lives lost! How many people were on the fleet again? How many heroes were lost?!"

"-dissipated before it could reach deep into New Mexico, and missed Colorado Springs, but that still doesn't change the fact that six states have been affected by this!"

"They're not actually rocks, but some form of crystals born from the acid rains, the freezing cold, and raging winds. As the acid broke down the dirt, and everything else, it lost its potency, while the cold and winds gathered up the remains and fused them together via pressure and temperature."

"How is the Protectorate gonna protect us now? They wasted my hard-earned tax money for this!? I ain't paying for damages!"

"-So give! Give onto our great Lords! Show them that we had heard their message!-"

"-ago, a great, unthinkable tragedy occurred. We have grown used to the Endbringers, and many of us have truly forgotten the damage they can bring, the scale of it."

"-last seen within the storm. Once that dissipated, however, it was discovered that Tāwhirimātea had vanished. And now the world waits with bated breath, will the Endbringer reveal itself somewhere else? Or has it truly gone?"

"-the real question on everyone's lips is, what the hell happened up there?"


Rebecca rarely spent any meaningful time at her apartment, there was too much to do with Cauldron, the PRT, and the Protectorate. Mostly she tended to use it for sleeping, maybe for one of her mandated days off (Doctor Mother was firm on having at least a few of those, lest they start to burn out).

So when Rebecca stepped inside, it was to a dark and chilled room, lacking pictures on the walls, and any furniture aside from a couch and a tv table.

A couch that creaked ominously when she all but slammed into it.

Over four hundred miles in length, nearly two hundred at the widest: that was the scale of destruction left behind by Tāwhirimātea, an area visible from space, scoured until nothing remained.

There were thousands of dead, tens of thousands; the numbers were still being added up. It was the worst event in the history of the United States, bar none. Not even the attacks from Behemoth were this devastating.

And it wasn't even because of the people, but the damage to the agricultural sector. A truly massive area had been affected by Tāwhirimātea's storm, not just from the storm itself, but from the damaged water table, the runoff that even now was still killing the land downstream.

It was all too much. Why? Rebecca didn't know, she had faced worse things, done them.

Why was this causing her to curl into a ball on her couch, crying like a little girl?

'You know why,' she told herself.

'It's because you never really realized the scale of what you are doing.'


"We need to adjust our plans."

All of Cauldron's leadership was present, each weary in their own ways.

Both Eidolon and Legend were recovering, now fully healed but lacking in spirit. Doctor Mother was unkempt, the Number Man's suit was in disarray, even Contessa wasn't as stiff as she normally was.

"We can't continue like this," continued Alexandria. "Not after what we've seen."

"What do you suggest?" asked Doctor Mother. "More capes? More testing into Eden?"

"We should bring in more people."

That got everyone's attention.

"… pardon?"

"The events with Tāwhirimātea have changed the board," continued Alexandria. "We cannot longer solely rely on the people in this room to handle things."

"And what does that mean, Alexandria?" asks Doctor Mother. "More scientists and researchers? We already are finding the best qualify-"

"No, I mean more people in general," Alexandria interrupted. "More agents, more Tinkers and Thinkers to work the vials, more people on the watch for events that need controlling before they blow out of hand. More people that know about Eden and Scion, about the End."

"… are we sure that this is wise?" asks the Number Man. "The more people we bring on board greatly increases the chances of our work getting undone, from several vectors."

"I also want a plan in place to fight Scion within the next decade."

After several seconds, the room explodes with the sounds of several voices speaking at once.


Things should have been so simple, they had the plan, the backing, the ideas, the tools, the capes…

It all seemed so simple; Contessa could somewhat path Tāwhirimātea, they had a weapon that would make Endbringer shy away from their fights, they even had the support of capes and people willing to die for a chance to kill an Endbringer.

Many of them understood that there was a good chance that they wouldn't be walking away from the fight, even if everything had gone perfectly Tāwhirimātea had shown she wasn't a pushover; several of the ships would have fallen under the beating of the storm, to say nothing of the attacks Tāwhirimātea put out.

But to face a total loss, to have near everyone on the assault teams die, lost within the storm to the one that there wasn't a single body remaining, even among the Brute-style capes, that was…

They had plans, to use this victory to propel new programs and systems into place, to move things along without having to resort to using Cauldron's shadowy reach to do it.

Except it wasn't a victory, they gained nothing aside from disturbing the status quo of the Endbringers.

'But haven't they been breaking the status quo already? By them simply existing?' she asked herself. 'Someone had to take action, why shouldn't it have been you?'


"A million."

At her words, the room went quiet, her tone brooking no argument.

Alexandria cast her gaze across each person there.

"A million people, randomly chosen but geared towards surviving the worst case. A million to pick up the pieces after the final fight a decade from now, anyone else is a bonus."

"And I am not counting ourselves in that number."

"… you can't be serious," Legend spoke the words that everyone had on their mind.

"One million? Of the several billion on Earth B-"

"We are being sandbagged," snapped Alexandria. "Tāwhirimātea showed that quite handily. What are our chances if we can't even defeat one Endbringer? If everything we've seen so far was just a sample, a glimpse into what they really can do? Furthermore, if they are sandbagging us, what does that mean for Scion? Is he even using his powers? Or is he just brushing dust off his desk?"

"But Tāwhirimātea might not be an Endbringer," pointed out the Number Man. "Given your reports, as well as what evidence we've been able to get ourselves…"

"Does that matter right now? Really?" Alexandria interrupted. "While that does bear looking into and is something that we will have to look into, Tāwhiri has vanished for now. So, we need to adjust things, because, despite everything that has happened, our end-goal remains the same. To kill Scion."

"A goal I am now having a hard time believing we can accomplish."


There were many things Rebecca wasn't proud of doing: never seeing her family after she was healed, shifting things around to get people sent to the Birdcage, or using Contessa and Cauldron to arrange things in her favor, be it a troublesome section of the PRT, or a win for the Protectorate.

It gnawed at her, the secrets she often kept for the sake of keeping the peace, of all the decisions she had to make with both of her identities.

Of having to choose who lives and dies.

She made that choice with Hero, before, when he died. But there were others, hundreds, thousands, all remembered so easily with her power.

She chose to be the Chief Director because she needed to be ready to adjust her plan for Parahumans and the PRT.

It had been a hard first few years, with her leaning upon the Number Man and Contessa when things began to spiral; all of her research and planning doing little to prepare her for the real world and all of its exceptions and nuances.

But they managed, even if there were bumps along the way.

The delay in the Wards program, brought up by the final rush in getting the PRT and Protectorate up and running. The lack of a system in place for those parahumans not aligned with either heroes or villains. Not having a plan in place for events outside the US and not even an idea on how to work with outside agencies.

They were all things they hoped to fix over time, but the world of capes never gave them a break.

Taking out an Endbringer should have been a step in the direction of solving those issues, of undoing the damage of years past. Instead, the world was in an uproar, the debate of their actions and the actions of Tāwhirimātea was reaching feverish levels, as everyone and their parents and children voiced their opinion on the matter.

Tāwhirimātea should have been the safe choice. Lethargic, at least when compared to the other Endbringers, still capable of destruction, yet held back enough to allow them a good chance at taking it out.

The politicians and public could debate all that they wanted, hitting Tāwhirimātea was the best bet to get results.

'She was a convenient target, you mean,' Rebecca corrected herself. 'A stepping stone onto bigger things, just like you told Sajuuk. Only they weren't willing to be stepped on so you could get a shot at glory.'


"… perhaps the recent events have affected you more than you realize," states Doctor Mother. "Maybe you should take some time to rest an-"

"NO!"

Everyone in the room jumped when Alexandria put her hand straight through the table.

"No!" she demands at the shocked Doctor Mother.

"We've listened to you before, about the Nine, about the Elite, about Gesellschaft, and letting the South American governments come to us for help. To let them realize that they needed the PRT and the Protectorate. Look how all of that ended up! Look on how everything ended up by us using a gentle hand and trying to rely on the good that should be inherent in humankind."

"Gesellschaft are kidnapping capes with better success than the Fallen. Russia is in the middle of a cape civil war with the Tinker group, Zolotyye Lineyki, who are winning, despite outside help, our help. The Sentinel project is now doomed to failure, which means that it will now entirely fall upon the Protectorate and the Guild to defend borders and take a stand against international threats, if only symbolically. Our plan to jumpstart an UN-controlled counter-cape force has failed, to say nothing of the loss of morale because of what happened."

"There is still a chance that the other seeds in place will continue the project," interjects Doctor Mother. "We have Masamune, Toybox is still willing to cooperate, as is Doctor Gramme. Contessa also has secured Granholme, Stinger, and Chopshop in preparation for Sentinel. We can still establish the foundation of the project, even if it will lack the grand scope that we planned for."

Alexandria scoffs. "Without heavy political backing? Russia is all but ready to return to Communism and isolationism. The EU is split in two due to cape activity in Germany, with German succession from their Union all but around the corner. The British Isles are considering withdrawing from international affairs by order of the new Prime Minister, Adam Sutler, after Leviathan destroyed London and killed the Royal Family. Israel has finished taking over Jordan and the surrounding countries. India has all but fallen to the CUI in the underground scene, even as rebellion has started to take hold in their homeland. The USA is one of the few First World countries that still retains much of its values from the times before capes, and even then, there have been changes!"

Placing her head in her hands, Alexandria continued. "The Protectorate is not and never was built to be an international task force. The PRT is at best classified as a domestic security agency akin to a police force, one that legally can't interfere with global politics. The Guild is the closest thing the USA has to a foreign cape service and they are a volunteer/recruitment group based more with the Canadian government more than the US. Defeating Tāwhirimātea should have gained us prestige and political power that we could have used to jumpstart projects all over the world, putting a slow to the uptick in villainous capes and their actions, counterbalancing the years of damages done by the Endbringers and unchecked cape activity, giving people hope. All done through entirely legal means so that we could fucking stop having to smack the hands of the world away from the fire and keep them from sticking their tongues into an electrical socket!"

"… Instead, we got our teeth kicked down our throats and were gutted from hip to neck by something we knew nothing about."


Costumes were made for a reason; they turned people into ideals. Rebecca's was no exception.

Some costumes, like Legend's, were made to be flashy, to inspire hope, and give a more positive image.

Not hers.

The dark colors, the helm and cape, it all combined together to create an image of power and protection. To inspire fear in her foes and place her on a pedestal for everyone else, of being the biggest and toughest around. It spoke of an idea, facts, knowledge.

She was an icon with her costume, the one that everyone feared and respected. If it was Alexandria that came after you, you knew that you were done for.

Legend wasn't the assaulting type, Eidolon was overkill for most cases, as he spent most of his time dealing with things as they happened rather than given the task of dealing with a problem. While the others of the Silver Seven… each of them had limits, obligations.

So, it fell on Alexandria to be the long hammer of the Protectorate, striking at the issues that bubbled up past their point of being a mere nuisance.

All the while Rebecca also needed to manage the PRT, deal with meetings with the organization and with Cauldron, work with the various governments of the world about capes, respond to the requests of the US government, work with the various cape organizations of the world, etc, etc.

Also while leading a triple life of being Alexandria and working alongside Cauldron to prevent the world from collapsing around them.

It was a balancing act, deciding which of her three parts should react to any given situation.

Alexandria the Parahuman could take on nearly anything, her power set allowing her to always come out on top, even if it meant having to just rip someone in half to stop them from becoming another member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Rebecca as the PRT Chief Director had to decide how everything should be played out with the public, to deal with policies and governments. The dance the tune of debates and office workers, of entitled old men, disconnected officials, and the naive public.

And finally, there was the Cauldron side of her, the side that had to weigh in on letting threats and people continue on because they might be the final edge they needed to win the fight against Scion, or if removing them would bring someone worse into the spotlight.

More than once Rebecca had wanted more than anything than to just put her fist into some 'government officials' head, screaming all the while over their sheer stupidity and failure to understand what really was happening in the streets. It was in those times that she wished that Megan Nagel was still her PR department head; despite the friction between them over many things, the woman was always willing to get into a friendly debate or give a helpful ear for venting.

On the Cauldron side of things, there were also times when an event or situation would crop up, where she would have to make an arbitrary decision on a person's, town's, or area's wellbeing. Having to make these choices never sat well with her, but not making them was always the worse choice.

Compared to her other two lives, being the PRT Chief Director was easy. Half of her decisions involved reorganization and delegating the Directors, the Regional Coordinators, managing capes, approving projects, the typical paperwork that every organization has. The rest dealt with politics and dealing with the big disasters that needed more than the local city could handle.

At times Rebecca felt like she wasn't wearing several hats, but swapping masks, replacing one mask for another as the day demanded. It made her uniquely suited for her jobs, able to keep an eye on all levels, big and small, and understand the intricacies of the world without losing sight of the end goals.

Yet there were times when she wondered if she would slip up, if one of her masks would fail to sit right and result in the whole charade falling down around her.

'A mask just adds a face atop your own,' she told herself. 'The thing about masks is that they are built to cover something up. But you have to remember what's underneath, lest you forget who's there.'


"… my goal is to open up more perspectives," continued Alexandria, lifting back up her head. "Cauldrons' main leadership and direction will still lie in our hands, but we need more people out there, working in the light of day. Even if they know about us, even if they know about the End, that doesn't change the facts."

"The world is too big for us to save alone."

Alexandria made sure to pin her eyes on Eidolon, to impart the unspoken, and harsh, truth.

You aren't strong enough.

They had heaped many things on Eidolon, on themselves, yet theywere rapidly getting to the point that they were simply putting out the fires, rather than being proactive.

Maybe it was time for something different.

"What exactly are you proposing, Alexandria?" asked Doctor Mother. "So far, we've heard thoughts and concepts, but no solid plan. Are you suggesting more general recruitment? More Cauldron control via favors and control? To delay the decay of the world by better shifting it? To take an actual hand in the politics of the world? We chose not to do that long ago, for several reasons."

"The opposite actually," Alexandria supplied. "It's too late for us to stop everything that is happening, and all the data tells us that it will only get worse. No, I'm suggesting that we stop performing nudges, and instead start leveraging the devils we know into our service. We can't keep putting heroes into place as a stopgap, moving and removing people that would cause the next world war with their actions; with how things are going, at some point, the villains will be the ones with power, so we need to get some of them on our side, on Cauldron's side, even if that means telling them the truth."

"Are you listening to yourself right now, Alexandria?" demanded Eidolon. "You want to tell people about Scion? About the Agents? And tell the worst kinds of people about it as well?"

"Yes, I am, I understand what I am saying and why we don't want to and never did this, and it grates on me because of it," stated Alexandria, somehow keeping a hold on her anger and frustration despite the pounding that was going on in her in her head.

"Because I hate this. Before my powers I was dying, my own cells turned against me, surrounded by people that would lie to my face, just to make themselves feel better. So what I'm doing now makes me a hypocrite, even if I know that the world won't understand or even be able to cope with the fact that powers are a single piece of a whole, a network of an unfathomable alien system, built for the sole purpose of testing these powers, seeing how they interact, what they can be used for, like we're all nothing more than a fucking petri dish to some scientist. And when the tests are done, are to be sterilized and eliminated before moving on to the next group of subjects."

"I hate lying about this, about the fact that we are facing a power all but beyond our comprehension, the setting up of false promises, of hiding within the shadows so the world doesn't see what is happening yet smiling about it all, just like my family, just like the doctors that kept telling me that everything was going to be all right, that I'll get better with time."

The room was quiet, solemn. It didn't take a genius to figure out the basics of where the situation that one would get offered a vial in the early days, after all, they were among the first experiments.

To talk or ask about it was taboo, however; each of them carried their own burdens, their own secrets.

"We all know the best estimates," Alexandria let her gaze sweep across the room, flicking over each face there.

"No matter what happens, the fight against Scion will not be some back-alley brawl, and that the scale of death and destruction will overtake anything this world has seen so far."

"We are fooling ourselves with hope, thinking that the creator and manager of these powers will make some silver bullet to kill him, then toss it to us to play with."

"Yet despite knowing all of this, we continue on, because what other options are there? Get the people of the world to stop fighting each other over opinions and foolish notions? That people wouldn't panic upon learning the truth? While others move in to take advantage of it all for their own gain? What of the people that will only whine and complain for others to save them, the ones that view themselves as more important than others? And who are we to judge that? Who are we to decide who lives and dies?"


'But someone has to,' Rebecca told herself. 'Everything starts when someone decides to do something, good or bad, sometimes both.'

It was easy to pronounce judgments, to make grand moral and ethical gestures, but reality often presented itself in far more complex ways.

No one liked what Cauldron had to do, what they did, but their Earth- no, all Earths, were in unfathomable danger, of the type never to be even considered.

A cluster of extra-dimensional aliens showed up, gifting people abilities (as there was no simpler way to say it) just to see better ways for them to use said abilities, before using the planet and all connected dimensions as an explosive launch pad to leave and start all over again on another planet once their research was done.

Even now Rebecca was struck by how ludicrous it sounded, like something out of the realm of a Forties or Fifties science fiction story.

Yet it was real; she could fly without aid and bend metal with her bare hands, she'd seen people fire lasers from their fingers, shapeshift into other people, teleport across entire continents, and build unfathomable things from scrap metal.

And now people saw it as a normal occurrence. Unusual yes, but it was normal enough that it was spoken about in casual conversation.

Just as people like the Nine were considered normal, the Endbringers, and villains that could fight heroes and get away scot-free regardless of the judicial system. How it was normal that people could hide behind masks and get away with anything, just by taking them off without anyone seeing.

The end goal to normalize the world about powers involved understanding and following the rules until they no longer mattered, as enough people would have gotten powers for them to no longer matter. In fact, in the early days of masks and the foundation of the rules, getting caught once meant your identity was no longer kept secret from those that caught you, but a public reveal would only happen with a trial.

Having to undermine the laws for criminal activity for the sake of not setting the world ablaze because some fools that just didn't understand that there were consequences to their amoral actions and refused to accept them.

It wasn't the greatest option out there, but considering the state of the world and capes, the sheer destruction and chaos that would have befallen the world if they had taken a hard stance with heavy hands with criminal capes, it was the better decision.

No matter how bad it was.


"… Despite this all, I do what do because I can't stand the other options, because this is the lesser of a dozen evils, one that costs us our souls, but leaves our bodies free to act for it."

"And yet I still fucking hate that we have to do it."

The group kept their silence, each stewing in their thoughts, some heavier than others.

Doctor Mother and Contessa were of the other side of that coin. They were the ones that had started Cauldron years before any of the others had come into the picture, and both had been affected by and gotten over the consequences of this fact. Although Contessa cheated, and Doctor Mother viewed things through the lens of clinical observation more than anything, something that Alexandria believed was a coping mechanism.

Of the others, Legend was clearly wrestling with himself, having not known about the darkest secrets of Cauldron, while Eidolon was more sullen, accepting.

Of the pair, Eidolon was him that understood the whys and reasons that they did what they did, his power giving him a far better understanding than most. While at the same time, placing him squarely in the position capable of doing not only something about it all, but also being the best chance they had at their goals.

"… We need more parahumans," continued Alexandria, her voice weary. "More vials, more experiments, even if they are Case 53's."

Then she turned to address Legend, her voice shifting to cast away her weariness.

"Yes Nathan, we are the ones making them, and you have to decide, right here, right now, whether you will walk away or stay. I would prefer that you would stay however if only to have the man behind the mask here to help us, as he might be the best one of us all in that regard."

"Just know I'm not asking you to like it. I don't like it, the roll of the dice involved, the hypocrisy in our actions. I'm just asking you if you are willing to do what must be done; we've already accepted the thought of sending people to their deaths against Scion, how is this any different? Especially considering we stick to the protocols regarding the blind tests."


'None of them were going to live anyway,' Rebecca told herself as she finished getting her costume on. 'Which was why they were picked."

Most people would view what Cauldron did for their powers testing, creating the Case 53's that was, as horrifying.

To scale it was, but every single one had started out just like she did, watching death approaching, unable to prevent it, unable to fight back. Then given a chance, a choice.

Many had not accepted the changes caused by a vial, shifting their anguish into a rage against Cauldron, leading to many of them seeking to attack the very people that had saved them, the people that had warned them of the potential consequences.

This led to the removal of all subject memories going forth.

The decision to take their memories was actually theirs and was the idea of a Case 53. The contract for the vials spoke of it, though it was slanted to be for the benefit of Cauldron.

And it wasn't like many of them had a choice, given that Cauldron always picked people that would choose to take a vial, even if Contessa never sold the point home herself.

Removing the memories of the Case 53's had stopped them from not only becoming the very monsters they and the world would view them as, but also prevented them from revealing the truth behind Cauldron.

Even some of the 'better' cases sometimes had to have their memories edited, largely due to unsatisfactory results.

This led to some Cauldron capes weren't even aware of the fact they were Cauldron plants. Some were often 'programmed' into certain situations, such as to be a villain to be defeated before becoming drafted into the side of the heroes later on, a stepping stone to build up organizations like the Protectorate.

Others were put into place for controlled measures, to slow or even stall the growth of capes in a particular area.

Some, however, accepted the conditions and rolled with it, fighting those that Cauldron pointed them at in exchange for their new lives, understanding that failure to comply would result in less than… favorable outcome for them.

But for every one of those that took things in stride, there were three that took things badly and had to have their memories removed.

How to deal with them and what to do with them was something that Cauldron had to learn to do pretty quickly when they were just getting started, and something that was only really addressed as they gained the numbers and capes that could build a proper facility.

But even with that issue solved, there was still the matter of utilizing those capes that survived taking a vial and were still clear of mind.

Doctor Mother and Contessa had done much by themselves in the early days, but it wasn't until the team-up of Legend, Alexandria, Hero, and Eidolon, the first of the Sliver Seven, did any of their long-term plans and goals become more than abstract things.

A trend that largely continued given the amount of sway the group still held regarding everything Cauldron did.


"… can this plan of yours even work?" asks Eidolon. "We already know the world has been on fire for a while, do you really think this can fix it? I mean, the term villain is given for a reason."

"Fix it? No," stated Alexandria. "Whether we like it or not the world is going to hell, and we're just going to have to adjust to that. Not even with everything we have, all the powers at our disposal, would stop the decay of the world. Even if we tried to take over it would fail, there are just too many problems that need fixing. We might as well leave Earth Bet and take over another, less advanced Earth if we wanted that, lord knows we could manage it with ease."

There was no uncomfortable shifting at the table; it was true, not even considering the present group in the room, Cauldron had enough power in the vials and its support staff to theoretically take over several 'lesser' Earths.

But ultimately, what would be the point in that? Even if Scion never visited their Earth, never destroyed it, that wasn't who they were.

"And you're right, but it isn't groups like the Empire or Gesellschaft that I want us to start working with, but groups like The Suits or the Lost Sentai, to better explain why the teams like the Red Gauntlet and the Elite got some backing and support to keep going, why we have let Accord basically take control of all of Boston. Some of them will take one look at what we do and side with us, stepping into the world and cape politics to help contain the fires if only for their own survival. Some of the hero groups might be more difficult to explain everything to, but if they were easily swayed into seeing everything we've done as ok, then we have bigger problems."

There had been talk, years ago, of Cauldron taking over the world of Earth Bet via shadow government, in order to better set things up for the end fight. The requirements to make it happen or even begin to get it to work meant that it never got past asking Contessa as a thought experiment, however.

Having to either quadruple the amount Cauldron capes, kill off half the population of the world, plunge it into World War Three, or eliminate all the heads of governments down to the lowest conceivable levels just to get the foundation ready for takeover was just too impractical in every case considering Cauldrons other and ultimate goals.

Simply being a shadowy voice in the night, people that stomped out the embers of destruction before they could begin to burn, the ones that strengthened the pillars of Earth Bet to prevent it all from collapsing down around everyone's heads, that was far easier to do.

Let the world run itself as it always had done, Cauldron would solely provide intel and the occasional helping hand as they worked toward dealing with the real threat.

In fact, outside the vials, propping up hero groups, and the heroes currently in the room, Cauldron's actual influence was so negligible that the ghost stories surrounding it had more of an impact than the group did themselves.

Considering everything they did, that was both frightening and flattering.

Propping up groups like The Suits or getting Red Gauntlet into position (who were much more preferable than the Old Guard style capes, the ones that wished to sink the world into a new Communist Revolution) while stopping people like Moord Nag and Ogun from overstepping themselves on the world stage, were some of the more active methods that Cauldron used to keep everything from going up in flames.

Giving out powers was just a small part of what they did.

"But are we ok with this?" Eidolon asks. "I mean, all these years of work, all the effort and time spent maintaining things… are we just fine with tossing that all away?"

"We've made harder decisions," Alexandria countered. "Ones that ultimately failed as well, yet we were so sure about them at the time. Why would this be so different?"

"Legend, you've been quiet. What are your thoughts on this?" asks Doctor Mother.

The man doesn't shy away from the sudden attention and kept his gaze on the table. For several moments no one spoke. Whether they were willing to admit it or not, the other members of Cauldron leaned heavily on Legend at times, using his kind and supporting personality to anchor themselves, relying on his vocal nature to serve as a counter-balance to some of the more extreme decisions they would have made, to remind them of the people they were trying to save.

Alexandria knew it was the height of hypocrisy to hide the truth behind the Case 53's from him, but one made with good intentions.

With a sigh, Legend reaches up and pulls off his mask, setting it down on the table.

"… Sometimes our job calls for ugly choices to be made," states Nathan, one hand resting on his mask, eyes downcast.

"This job… it isn't for the faint of heart. The choices that often fall upon us to make, are often forced to make… then have to listen to others say we should have acted, what they would have done, how it would have been better if they had been there… as if we weren't dealing with enough already as it was."

Nathan sighed and Alexandria hid her wince. They had never really talked about the death of Hero and the events of Case Zero, nor Legend's indirect actions in making it happen; she viewed the whole situation as just a set of bad luck and events outside their control, events that had no good decisions at the time.

Still, it was a black mark upon the actions and legend of Legend, hearing how the hero had let the Siberian take a hostage just to keep her in place.

Continuing, Nathan looked up at the group, eyes firm. "Yet I never waver, never made plans to walk away from it all. The thought of having my powers and not doing my job, not defending people that need it… it's anathema to me."

The man locked eyes with Doctor Mother, his gaze becoming sharp.

"That being said, the issue with the Case 53's is wrong, and I'll want to see what you've been doing with them."

"It isn't like we've been treating them inhumanely," defended Doctor Mother. "Most of them which have experienced extreme deformities we've shunted to an off-site location, aside from the most physically impaired or destructive cases."

"And the rest of the cases? What about the ones that found their way to Earth Bet?"

"A small test sample," stated the Number Man. "Ones who were handpicked for several reasons. From all the vial testing we've done, we've managed to refine our samples even further, far more than what would have been achieved if we had not been testing in such a manner. We narrowed down the key aspects of our samples by a considerable amount because of this, even if the how was done with less than moral actions."

"This ultimately led to better vials, which led to more stable capes and powers," finished Doctor Mother. "If you wish to review the data and see the subjects of course-"

"Stop, calling them subjects."

The room went quiet at Nathan's outburst.

"… it's not like we have much of a choice, do we?" the unmasked hero asked. "Scion can fight off Endbringers within minutes at most, while we struggle to do it without having the city be destroyed. If we are to fight him, we need more capes- more powers, which means we need stable people to use them while keeping the world from ripping itself apart because then we won't have the unified means to fight him."

Nathan sighed and dropped his head into his hands, before rubbing his face slowly.

"… what else can we do?" he asked, resigned.

"I will want to check everything out myself but… I'll stay… I'll stay because someone needs to make the hard decisions. No matter how bad they are."

"… I'll need to work with our contacts and the Number Man to get things started," Alexandria said in the intervening silence. "Contessa, if you can help where you can, but making a path about this will likely interfere with our projects, yes?"

Contessa nodded smoothly. "There are also the blind spots of Scion and the Endbringers to consider, but I will assist where possible."

"We also need to better investigate the Clans," stated Alexandria. "That… thing, Sajuuk… it brought them up as if it knew them, like it was familiar with them…"

"The Clans, a group of capes wielding armor and do not shy away from lethal force," recited Doctor Mother. "Named from the symbols often found on their chests and shoulders."

"We marked them as a low priority, due to their limited actions and numbers," stated The Number man. "They've made waves, but not anything on a noticeably global scale. At best their actions could be considered… chaotic."

"Yet Sajuuk talked about them," said Alexandria. "And I don't think it was just using them as an example."

"… We don't actually know much about the Clans," admitted Doctor Mother. "As stated, their intermittent moves never put them on our radar other than noting their clearly powerful skillsets and powers. Outside a few occasions, they have never taken any major large-scale actions. As such, unless something changed, it was decided there would be no plans for interacting with them, as one of their more defining traits is a strong sense of morals, as noted by several of their actions in the past and the words of those that have met them."

"They almost sound like an inverse version of us," Eidolon noted.

"I will have to do more research, but based upon the records, I believe there are less than fifty of them active," stated the Number Man. "Less than a hundred at most if one were to take into account the possible unknown cases and rumors. This is all conjecture and theory; however, I'll need to look at the cases and run the numbers to get a better estimate."

"That will take too much time," interrupted Contessa. "But I know of a cape that will be perfect for the task. She will be able to gather all the necessary data and work with us, while ensuring discretion. Doctor?"

"… ahh, you mean… very well."

At the older woman's nod Contessa Doored out of the room, leaving behind a confused room.

"Doctor?" Alexandria asked. "Care to explain?"

Doctor Mother smiled.

"I believe we have found a powerful asset, provided that take things cautiously, and don't place her in a contradictory position."


Rebecca gave one last look around her apartment, the final look she decided.

She would not be coming back here after this.

The apartment held no memories for her, it was just a place she had gotten to rest and provide more to her cover as the Chief Director. She would not miss it.

But it did represent something, a slice of normalcy.

Leaving it behind meant something, Rebecca understood that and knew that any psychologist would love to dissect what it meant for someone like her. Talking about her past and sickness, how her jobs have affected her mind, if her power had influenced her way of thinking.

Which should be obvious that it had, no one gained the mental abilities she had and acted the same way from before. But that didn't mean the question wasn't a good one.

Even then Rebecca wondered how she was able to bounce back so quickly. She had dealt with difficult situations before and worked through them or had got over them. Yet part of her wondered if her power was helping out there as well, adjusting things so she could recover faster from mental stress.

Her mental based skillset allowed her to read and comprehend things both academically, practically, and emotionally, yet where did the thoughts and actions of Rebecca end and the influence of her power begin?

Just how much of her mind was Rebecca Costa-Brown, and how much was the Agent?

How much of her actions leading to this post hers, and how much was the Agent giving her the boost and support, the edge that allowed her to read a full-length technical book in a handful of hours and still remember it all years later?

Was it her that that worked past the emotional and mental anguish of what had happened, or had her power subtly influenced her to get over it? Like an extra person, there at her side, giving sound advice and speaking reasonably?

Only one that had its own agenda.

For several seconds, Rebecca wrestled with the problem, before deciding to leave the quandary of Self and Id behind. Because…

'There's work to be done. Best get at it.'

With thoughts of how to contain the fallout from multiple directions, from the now large tract of inhabitable land, the aftershocks on the world's psyche due to the reveal of how much damage Tāwhirimātea could do, the shift of Parahuman power because of those lost in the fighting, all jumbling in her mind, Rebecca took a single step onto her balcony, before flying off in a crack of displaced air, thoughts of her apartment vanishing as fast as she did.

On the couch, Rebecca wiggled its hand at the vanished Alexandria, a grin splitting its face from one glowing black eye to the other.

'Good luck Becky… you need it.'


A/N: To be honest, this one chapter took waaaaay to long to make. I was going for this whole flip back and forth thing with Rebecca to show her shifting mental state and inner thoughts and couldn't quite get it to work, so I jumped onto working on finishing the upcoming Security Override and Transfusion chapters, then work got in the way, I became stalled with those chapters, got kicked in the face with depression…

Everything just spun downhill from there.

Anyway, for better or for worse this arc is finally done, expect the interlude and the even longer overdue side story over the next few days (hopefully).

A belated thanks to nexus4123 from Ko-Fi for that one, I completely forgot to say that when you donated. I was never good at the whole 'social networking' thing.