Step 9.9

Dinah said she could almost see things. Things that clung to the edge of her mind. Is that what happened when an Endbringer popped up in her possibilities?

Fuck, it was bad enough with three.

I stepped back as the thing approached me, but I stood near the edge and didn't have much room to step.

Dinah said don't fight.

Did she see some way for me to survive a fucking Endbringer by not fighting? That seemed far fetched. They usually trashed everything.

Nine Eyes—it worked enough as a name—clambered forward with a silence that unnerved me. The thing was big. Bigger than Leviathan or Behemoth. Pretty sure it was even bigger than what I saw of it earlier. Its body wrapped and coiled around the standing crystals of the platform, moving as one big long mass.

I flipped my saber on and pointed it in front of me.

Nine Eyes crept closer, head slithering over the ground on its many-many legs. It stopped a dozen feet away from me, eyes staring. I couldn't make anything out in them. Looking at them actually turned my stomach. They didn't look right. More like what something that didn't have eyes would think eyes looked like.

Fake, like Leviathan's.

It held its position and stared at me. I stared back, heart pounding in my chest.

"Um." I gagged a bit. My throat was drier than I thought. I took one nervous step back. "Hi?"

Nines Eyes tilted its head and inched closer. I didn't see a mouth. Its face look like a flattened T, but pointy at the ends and freakish.

Actually…the thing reminded me a bit of Hellhound's dogs. As it drew closer and its form became more concrete I saw the spikes and muscle like bulges beneath them.

The eyes were just pure red and empty of anything like an iris or pupil. They looked wronger and wronger the closer they got.

I took another step back, conscious of the ledge yet one more step behind me. My eyes darted from side to side, looking for a way I might manage an escape.

And then it pulled back a bit.

Again its movements were eerily silent. I didn't hear anything in this place, actually. Except for the sound of my own heart in my head and my ragged breaths.

Nine Eyes pulled back to a distance of a dozen feet again and turned its head as if to look at something distant. Or so I thought.

Some of its longer legs reached out toward me, and I raised my saber high. An attack? They moved so slow. Almost like they wanted to assure me they weren't an attack.

The limbs pressed into the platform ahead of me, and Nine Eyes tilted its body.

I stared, trying to puzzle out what it was doing. It offered no response to my silent pleading and simply held its position.

I stood for a long time.

It looked like an Endbringer, but it sure wasn't acting like one. Looking around, I didn't see any way for me to get past it. The body was huge and coiled around the crystals rising from the platform. It was hard to see while standing still against them, but I doubted I'd be able to go anywhere it didn't want.

"I must be fucking crazy…"

I kept my saber up as I took a step forward. Nine Eyes' head tilted slightly. Still able to see me even with its head pointed another way, I guessed.

I pressed a foot against one of the limbs. It was broad and flat, and held firm as I stepped on it. The others nearby didn't move. As a group, they made something of a ramp leading onto the creature's bac—

Does it want me to get aboard?

As if to answer my question, the legs snapped up. I raised my saber to swing as two wrapped around my body, but one of the longer and thinner legs coiled around my arm and trapped me.

I fought against the hold frantically, willing every muscle of my body to resist. My free legs kicked and my free arm tried to grab my saber. I remembered Sophia, crushed in Leviathan's hand like a fruit. I'd never understood why she didn't simply phase away, but I didn't have that option.

Least of all because the limbs didn't crush or tear or any of the horrible fates I imagined. They deposited me on Nine Eyes' back and released me. Didn't even try to stop my saber from swiping at them. Not that the beam did anything when it struck the thin appendage untangling from my arm.

I fell back with a yelp.

Nine Eyes started moving, clambering along the platform in a new direction.

I blinked, staring straight up as I lay on its back.

I sat up, hands finding some smaller spikes to hang onto. Nine Eyes weaved through the crystals, and I just held on trying to figure out what the fuck. I felt bizarrely calm, actually. Aside from the initial shock of being grabbed and lifted up onto a maybe-its-not-an-Endbringer, just calmly hanging on for a ride wasn't hard.

Maybe I'd gone full circle. After Bakuda, the PRT and Protectorate being inexplicable, and trying to get anything done…Yeah, fuck it. Go for a ride.

The crystal grew taller and thicker the deeper into the platform Nine Eyes went.

"Do you understand me?"

If it did, it didn't respond. The creature maintained its steady, silent march to wherever.

Wherever it turns out, is the other side of the platform. One of those long vein-like bridges connected the platform to others nearby. Nine Eyes scuttled forward and began to climb across the bridge. I felt a little nervous as it did, because Nine Eyes looked a lot bigger and if it was anything like an Endbringer then it would be heavy as hell.

The bridge didn't give though, so I tried very hard not to look down.

Nines Eyes made its way across, and I looked back. The platform I'd started on looked bigger than some of the others. Other bridges connected to it. A lot of them actually.

Getting a better view at the area, thousands of bridges stretched, connected, and entwined through the space. All the platforms more or less looked the same, but some were more connected than others. Some hung so close they were nearly touching. I got a weird sense of some kind of logic to the arrangement, but I couldn't get a good enough view of anything.

Nine Eyes kept moving along without input from me. I considered jumping off, but I probably should have thought of that before the only thing below was an endless void.

At a junction where several of the bridges connected, Nine Eyes made a turn and climbed the cord down to another larger-than-most platform.

I blinked, squinting.

There's someone there?

Nine Eyes climbed onto the platform and weaved through the crystals, its speed picking up. The platform didn't look like the others. It almost seemed to be bleeding. The crystals were broken and jagged, and some kind of sickly fluid leaked from cracks in their surfaces.

The ground itself was uneven. That didn't seem to pose a problem for Nine Eyes as it moved over the ground and moved toward the center.

I looked ahead, the strangest feeling twisting in my gut.

I've seen her before.

The girl stood on a raised area, next to a massive broken crystal. She rested her hand on its surface, apparently not grossed out by the goop flowing over it.

She turned as Nine Eyes approached.

I have seen her before.

Where?

Average height with a slight frame. Long dark hair with a sheen to it, tied back into braids. Dark skin with a red dot on her forehead, and green eyes. She wore a yellow sun dress with sleeves that hid most of her figure.

"Administrator," she said as Nine Eyes came to a stop. "What are"—she stopped, eyes rising to meet me—"Oh."

She tilted her head to one side, apparently confused by my presence.

"I've seen you before," I muttered under my breath.

I released the spikes I'd used to keep myself balanced and started forward. At Winslow. I saw her at Winslow. When Aisha triggered and I saw the war. She was there. I saw her with the others in New York as the fire consumed all those people.

I moved toward the edge to jump down, but Nine Eyes threw up a bunch of limbs and stopped me. Cursing, I tried the other side. Which was stupid because the same thing happened.

"I'm really off my fucking game if I'm suddenly this stupid," I whispered to myself.

"I would remain there," the woman suggested. She pulled her hand from the crystal before her and walked toward Nine Eyes. "Combinator is unwell and may lash out at the unexpected. Remain with Administrator."

Administrator? And Combinator?

I glanced down at Nine Eyes.

It has a title? Or is that a name?

The woman continued forward, Nine Eyes reaching out with its limbs like it had to me. It didn't grab her though. She simply walked up them and onto its back.

"I've seen you before," I mumbled as she came to a stop a few feet in front of me. "At Winslow."

The woman gave me a small smile. "You do seem familiar, but I don't believe we've met. How did you arrive here? I didn't expect any parahumans to reach this place this soon."

Parahumans? She said it like we were a distant thing.

Is she the person in control of…wherever this is?

My brain went to shaker, but she did say parahumans like she wasn't one. I'd also never heard of any Shaker able to do so much. Labyrinth could supposedly reshape the world around her but creating an entire world that didn't look like it ran on essential universal properties?

Nine Eyes looks like an Endbringer, even if it doesn't act like one. Is this where they come from?.

"Who are you?" I asked, hand still tight around my saber. "Where is this?"

She gave me a puzzled look, and her smile faded. She narrowed her eyes, and a chill ran through me.

"You did not mean to come here?" she asked.

"Where is here?" I asked back. I didn't plan on giving her any answers I wasn't getting.

But she looked…disappointed?

"I see," she replied. "You've arrived unintended." She crouched down, a hand pressing against Nine Eyes' not-flesh. "No. No you did good bringing her to me." I stared. Was she talking to it. "Darkness has encountered some kind of problem. Combinator can endure a while longer."

Nine Eyes started moving, and I grabbed onto some spikes for balance. Unlike me, the woman sat calmly.

"How did you arrive here?" she asked.

"Where is here?" I asked again. I was completely out of patience for cryptic bullshit.

"If you don't know where here is," the woman said, "I will not tell you. But it is important I know how you arrived. It may be difficult to return you otherwise."

Return me? I stared at the woman. I'd definitely seen her before. It was like a distant memory, and very vague but I saw her at Winslow.

There's an idea. "You fought Scion." I watched her face for a reaction, but she offered me none.

"I did," she said.

Then she was a parahuman? "Who are you?"

"I was once named Lalah Sune," she revealed. "We can use that name between us."

I looked around as Nine Eyes climbed onto another bridge and started moving.

"And you're not going to tell me where I am?" I asked.

Lalah Sune smiled.

"I am not trying to frustrate you. This is a delicate place, not one people should stumble about. My fear is that telling you too much too soon will have disastrous consequences."

I started trying to puzzle that out.

Glancing around the space, I didn't know what she meant by delicate. Though, thinking back to that platform I'd found her on, something was distinctly wrong with it. It seemed sick. She said Combinator was unwell? She was touching the crystal when Nine Eyes showed up.

Turning my eyes back toward that direction, I wondered.

Did she mean the platform itself?

The woman watched me in silence as Nine Eyes scurried its way to wherever. Darkness, she said? Another one of those name-titles like Administrator or Combinator.

I set my focus on Lalah Sune. I needed to work her at the moment. She knew things, I just needed to get them out of her.

"There were others with me," I said. "Do you know where they are?" Are they alive?

"Others?" She turned her head, eyes scanning the void around us. "I see. Someone has forced their way in, and they brought more than they intended." She pressed a hand against Nine Eyes' back again. "Warp is reaching out with confusion. We'll go there first."

Nine Eyes continued forward and turned at another junction, climbing up the bridge onto a small platform above. Nine Eyes moved over the edge fluidly, and I blinked.

Just looking at it made me dizzy. A swirling twisting mass of nothingness that bent forward and backward and into itself. I thought looking at the crystals made me nauseous, but that thing—

I saw her laying on the ground within the twisting maw.

"Vista!" Missy.

I started moving, but again Nine Eyes stopped me.

"Do not," Lalah Sune warned. "Warp is agitated, and Administrator's presence has not helped."

Don't fight. Is this what she meant? Did she mean all of it—No. Fuck, Dinah wouldn't hide that much. There was something I was missing.

Sune rose up and walked forward, Nine Eyes reaching its limbs out for her to step down. I kept my saber in hand regardless of what anyone said.

I hated this.

Nine Eyes prevented me from getting off its back. It apparently listened to her, and if she controlled this place and the Endbringers…If I had Astraea, maybe, but I didn't. Bakuda blew it up!

Shit, what is Veda doing now?

I felt like an idiot not thinking of it before.

I watched Lalah Sune walk towards the fucked up mess around Vista and pulled out my phone.

sys.t/ Veda?

I looked up. Lalah Sune held out one hand, and the twisting had stopped. My jaw slackened. As it calmed down, it looked like Vista's power. The way it bent in and back on itself? Without the constant flurry of twisting it looked exactly like what Vista did.

sys.d/ Taylor?

Dinah?

sys.t/ are you okay?

sys.v/ are you?

sys.d/ Sovereign said you disappeared
sys.d/ all of you

sys.v/ where are you?

I blinked.

My phone functioned and maintained a connection, but Sovereign couldn't feel our presence? How did that work? Because I based the system on quantum particle interactions?

sys.v/ I cannot locate your signal

sys.t/ we're somewhere
sys.t/ I think
sys.t/ I see Vista

I looked up again, watching Lalah Sune as she stood over Vista silently. I wanted to get down there, but Nine Eyes continued raising limbs to block me as I paced up and down her length. I'd hoped for some gap if I kept doing it, a lowering of the guard. But fuck me, so what if she did?

I had no idea where I was or who I was dealing with.

sys.t/ veda
sys.t/ lalah sune
sys.t/ anything you can find on her

sys.v/ searching

sys.d/ I can't see you
sys.d/ I tried

She went over her limit. And she mentioned Sovereign.

sys.t/ get yourself somewhere safe.
sys.t/ I'm working on it
sys.t/ actually I'm not even hurt
sys.t/ give me time to figure something out

I forced the panic in my throat back and inhaled. Panic wouldn't help me, and a low level freak out got nothing done.

I was right. The kids wanted to go somewhere, and somewhere was seriously somewhere. Another dimension or space. Not Earth. Definitely not Earth.

Lalah Sune walked back toward Nine Eyes.

She carried Vista in her arms.

She walked back up Nine Eyes' limbs again and I rushed toward her as she set Vista on Nine Eyes' back. She still had that device fixed to her head.

"What is this?" Lalah asked, pointing at it. Her eyes narrowed, and she frowned. "Is this how you arrived?"

"I—" I thought back to what I heard Labyrinth say. Or rather, her voice. Twister forces it wider, she said. "Maybe? I don't know. I was trying to rescue her."

Kid Win was next to Vista.

I didn't see him on the platform. The twisting—Twister?—maw had settled into some kind of vague shape. A moving space that held the outline of a thing. Was it alive? It faced Nine Eyes, standing in place.

I leaned in and started inspecting the halo.

A band of simple composites with a whole bunch of electrical nodes I did not understand. Something to excite brain activity. The needles didn't penetrate the skin, but they pressed against it. As before, she didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Can you remove it?" Lalah Sune asked. "It is the reason for Warp's anguish. I have calmed them for the moment, but I do not think it will last."

I glanced at 'Warp' and got a strange feeling it was what Labyrinth called Twister. Warp and Twister. The way it seemed to occupy space while not being anything at all and the way it looked like Vista's power.

There was a power core attached to the device at the nape of Vista's neck. I didn't see an off switch.

"I can't," I said through gritted teeth. "The nodes along the rim. I think they're messing with her brain. I don't know that I can remove it safely."

And I would agree with Panacea in such an instance. Don't do brains.

The kids.

"The people who did it to her might know how to take it off," I said. "I was chasing them. They took her, and another cape with space warping powers. I thought they were trying to go somewhe—" I raised my head and looked around. "They wanted to come here."

"I see."

Lalah Sune turned toward Warp, walking along Nine Eyes' back toward her head.

I looked over the device again, but I couldn't do it. Ripping the power core out would probably shut it off, but I couldn't tell what they might do to Vista. It was designed to enhance brain activity, maybe force a certain kind of behavior?

Force her to use her power.

"Thank you, Negotiator. That will help."

I raised my head. Lalah Sune was staring into the distance, talking to herself.

"Yes. Bring them to Darkness. I'll go there now and see what I can do."

Or she wasn't talking to herself?

"Who are you talking to?" I asked.

"You can greet him yourself if you like. He is going to do us the favor of gathering the others who were brought here."

I glanced down at Nine Eyes' back, and then ahead to Warp.

They live here?

Nine Eyes began moving. Warp followed at first, but stopped at the edge of its platform.

"Not all of them can go as they please," Lalah said. "Keep an eye on, Vista you called her? Warp will be calmer if she is well. They are quite fond of her."

"Okay. Seriously. The fuck."

The words spilled out. In all, I think I'd done remarkably well on the patience front given the runaway trauma train around me, but I had limits.

"That thing looks like Vista's power. What is it?"

"I suspect you'll get some answers soon."

My brow furrowed. "Do you enjoy being cryptic?"

"No."

I pulled Vista close and looked at my phone. Lacking an obvious means of escaping my captor—if she was my captor—I started reading.

Veda did find information on a Lalah Sune. A cape who showed up just a little before the Gold War. She appeared suddenly with two others, Red Comet and Ray. All three died in the war though. Or did they? No one ever found any bodies from what I could tell. They were just gone.

Looking up at Lalah Sune, she seemed pretty alive to me.

"Where are Red Comet and Ray?" I asked.

She smiled at me.

"You know the names they chose. Are they famous? They'd deny it, but they always liked the spotlight."

"Not really," I answered. "You three showed up out of the blue and then you vanished after the Gold War, right?"

And I had the feeling they weren't dead either. I went fishing through the articles Veda found. They all showed up suddenly as a group. Didn't really do that much crime fighting. They fought Behemoth once in 1997, and then the next big action they took was with Eidolon during the Gold War.

"Amuro and Char have moved on," she explained. "They considered our purpose complete with Scion's demise."

"And what does Scion have to do with it?"

"Nothing anymore. He's dead."

More cryptic crap.

sys.t/ keep looking
sys.t/ I can't act right now
sys.t/ need more info
sys.t/ Dinah, do you know anything?

Last time I got a cryptic message from her she wanted to save Tattletale's life. She didn't think I'd do it if she told me everything. Was it that situation all over again?

sys.d/ I know there are things I can't see

Cannot?

sys.t/ what do you mean?

sys.d/ I mean I see them
sys.d/ but I don't

I frowned.

sys.t/ and don't fight?

sys.d/ its the sense I got
sys.d/ I don't know
sys.d/ my head feels weird

And didn't I fucking hate that feeling. My head hurt, though that might just be the mounting mix of frustration, confusion, and what-the-fuck. She had a sense? Capes usually matured their powers over time. Was she learning to see things she wasn't meant to see in some indirect way?

Fuck, I need out of here.

Other dimensions did exist. I'd never heard of any that lacked an Earth though. Nothing like this at all. Did the PRT know about it? Is that why they suddenly pulled back? Looking down into the black void below, I didn't see anything down there.

Nine Eyes crawled up onto another platform. I blinked, watching the black mist churn and twist. It covered the floor of the platform, and looked exactly like Grue's power.

Darkness?

The mist rose ahead, forming something of a shap—

The kids were staring it down, rifles raised. They didn't see Nine Eyes coming. Their backs were turned and Grue was in the middle of them on his back.

The first person to see us was Aisha.

I met her gaze and blinked a few times. Still there, standing by her brother and looking confused. Grue didn't seem hurt, but he wasn't moving. The kids didn't seem to be restraining him either. If anything, I'd say they were guarding him. Him and Aisha from the big black shape standing over them.

Aisha raised a hand, and I shook my head to try and stop her. She tapped the shoulder of one of the kids in front of her, and she turned right as Nine Eyes snaked between the crystals surrounding their little clearing.

At that, half the children turned and aimed their rifles. Nine Eyes came to a complete stop, and Lalah Sune rose to her feet again.

"Would you mind lowering those?" She called. "Darkness is misunderstanding your intentions."

More of the kids turned, Stella stepping ahead of the others.

Nine Eyes reached out with its legs and Lalah Sune stepped down. The mist on the ground retreated as she walked along. I lifted Vista and carried her with me. Again, Nine Eyes raised some limbs to keep me from getting off her back, but I'd given up on that prospect for the moment.

Nothing to do but watch. Again.

"Are you the source?" Stella asked. The laser guns moved from Nine Eyes to Lalah Sune.

"Source?" she inquired.

"The network is collapsing," another kid said. "Is it you?"

Also something Cranial said. What did she babble about? The source and network collapse. Network collapse is inevitable?

Stella got a surprised look on her face. She tilted her head to one side, staring at Lalah Sune.

"Administrator," Lalah called. "Allow her and Vista down."

Nine Eyes didn't respond at first. It shifted, in a way that felt uneasy.

"It will be fine. We're discussing things as they understand them."

What? I looked at them but I didn't see Stella's lips moving, or anyone else for that matter. Who the hell was talking?

Nine Eyes' limbs moved, forming a ramp leading to the ground. I hesitated, looking at the thing and then at Vista. Hefting the girl in my arms, I took a single cautious step. Then another.

The mist pulled back as I set foot on the platform. But Nine Eyes stayed right behind me, creeping forward as I walked. Protecting me? Why would it do that?

I came forward and stood a healthy distance from Lalah. I tried to edge my way toward Aisha and Grue. All the kids were solely focused on Lalah Sune now, and they didn't seem to pay me any mind.

Nine Eyes started to circle, keeping a distance. Its eyes never left me though.

"Are you okay?" I asked in a low voice. I set Vista down. I was fit, but another person is heavy, even a young one.

Aisha looked up at me.

"Do I look okay?" she asked. She sounded a lot worse than she looked honestly. Voice a little hoarse, but she didn't seem emaciated or anything. "The fuck are we?" She glanced at Vista. "And what happened to her? And my brother?"

"I don't know," I replied, to all of the above. "How are you awake?"

"I don't know. How would I know?"

I was getting really sick of the feeling myself.

"I just woke up," she continued, "and one of the weirdos"—she nodded to the kids—"said 'hello Aisha', like I'm supposed to know them or something."

Normally when I didn't get something, my power filled me in. That wasn't happening here though. In fact, thinking back, I barely felt my power at all. It seemed distant and the empty feeling that came with that did not improve my sense of unease.

I glanced back at Grue. Between him and me, we might be able to slip away. Though I had no idea where we'd slip to. The black mist surrounded everything, the big form standing where I'd first seen it. It didn't move, but I swear I felt it watching me.

One of the kids moved, drawing my eye to her. She dropped her rifle to the ground and walked over.

"I'll remove it," she offered, pointing at Vista.

I watched her, very closely. "What is going on?"

"We are talking. Lalah insists we undo what we did. We have agreed."

I glanced to Lalah. She nodded to me and what? They weren't talking. I didn't see anyone's lips moving at all, despite the occasional turning of a head or glance to the side.

God fucking damn it I needed some ground here. My feet were stable enough, but I had no idea what was going on. Or, maybe I did.

And I just really, really, didn't want to think about it.

I glanced at Aisha and Grue. Unlike me and the kids, Lalah, and Nine Eyes, the mist didn't retreat from the siblings. It clung to them, embraced them. It floated around and over Grue, and clung to Aisha's legs. The thing I saw before looked like what Vista did with her power.

"She'll be okay?" I asked, glancing back to Vista.

"Yes."

"I'm watching you," I warned.

She nodded. I stepped back and the girl crouched. I noted her almost silver hair. The girl I'd seen thrice before. The one with the brown haired boy.

My eyes watched her hands carefully, hand on my saber. I'd stop her if anything looked out of place, but it seemed okay. She was disengaging the device one section at time. Watching her do it actually gave me some peace of mind. Something to focus on other than the abyss.

"I understand." Lalah shook her head. "I'm sorry. You are mistaken. I am not the source of this place's problems. Those are consequence of the Warrior's demise."

The Warrior? She said Scion before.

I glanced down at Vista, watching as the halo came off her head.

"She'll be alright," the girl explained. "We never meant any harm."

"You knocked her out and kidnapped her," I noted.

"We needed her to get here, and she would not understand."

As one, the rifles fell. I spun, watching the kids carefully. I'd seen them a few times, but their faces were always off. When Cranial died, they looked determined. They seemed much the same when I fought them at the gas station.

They looked defeated.

Heads slumped, shoulders sagged. Stella wasn't smiling.

"The network is collapsing?" she asked, her face afraid.

"Yes." Lalah Sune's face turned melancholy. "It is."

"What network?" I asked.

Both turned to me and said nothing. I held my saber out, more for a lack of anything I could actually hold over them than anything.

"I'm getting tired of this no answers bullshit."

"Um, there's more of them," Aisha whispered behind me. "Like, a lot more."

"Don't care. I've had enough for one night. I'm done. Someone is going to tell me what is going on!"

I glanced back at Nine Eyes, wondering.

The mist on this platform clung to Aisha and Grue, like it was trying to protect them. Nine Eyes, picked me up and took me to Sune, and then kept me close until she insisted it let me walk away.

Warp and Darkness looked like Vista and Grue's powers.

Professor Katagiri said that no one knew where powers came from…And I had a very sinking feeling I'd figured that out. Not that it made one lick of sense. These things didn't look human. They looked like Endbringers. Were Endbringers supposed to be the source of powers?

My head continued hurting as I tried working that mess of what-the-fuck out.

Stella and Lalah Sune looked at one another, and continued being silent.

"Anyone?" I asked, the thoughts creaking at the edge of my mind. "Has it occurred that you keep saying no one will understand and you never bothered fucking explaining anything in the first place?"

"It is not entirely their fault," Lalah said. "Whatever Cranial did to their minds has compelled them to act as they have. They're not slaves, but they're not entirely free either. I think discovering the nature of this place was more than Grace Hicks could handle."

I indicating our surroundings. "And this place is?"

"I think you know."

Network collapsed. Endbringer things that mimicked powers I kne—Vista was just behind me when whatever happened happened. Instead, I found her I didn't know how far away with something else. Aisha and Grue were here, and I woke up near Nine Eyes.

I turned, looking up at the thing's eyes as they looked back at me.

"They're the network," I mumbled. "They're the source of powers, aren't they?"

Vista was near Warp. We knew powers weren't genetic, but they did appear in families. Aisha and Grue were near Darkness. It gave them both powers?

That makes Nine Eyes—Administrator—my power.

"That's it isn't it?" I asked. "That's my power!" I pointed my saber at Nine Eyes. "This is the place where powers come from."

"Oh sure," Aisha grumbled behind me. "Point the lightsaber at the giant bug monster."

My mind was still racing, eyes watching the defeated kids who didn't seem to be paying much attention to things now. How did Scion fit into this? How—

Something twisted in the corner of my eye. I froze, my eyes noting the contorted and vaguely geometric.

I threw my arm up as Aisha started moving and turned my saber on whatever it was.

The lines twisted into a pair of cones, one inverted into the other. They spread across the surface of the ground as they emerged, lines of thread falling from the edges of the shapes.

"There is no need for that," Lalah said. "That is Negotiator. He has come with your friends."

I stopped, took another look.

The figure solidified fully across from Nine Eyes and I spotted them when the threads pulled back to fully reveal their contents.

Kid Win. Tattletale. Hellhound and her dogs. Laughter. They all looked asleep, like Grue. I turned back, looking down at Missy. She was still asleep too, even with the halo removed.

Only Labyrinth was on her feet.

She looked around, eyes wandering. "Thank you." She turned and walked toward Lalah Sune. "Coney said you could help me if I came with him."

Lalah Sune tilted her head. She reached out, pressing her hand against Labyrinth's temple.

"I see," she whispered. "One moment."

"What are you doing?" I called.

When I didn't get an answer I started moving, only for Nine Eyes to get in the way. A cage of limbs blocked my path.

"Out of my way!" I shouted.

And I didn't get much further, because it did get out of my way. The limbs pulled back with a start and Nine Eyes retreated a little. I stared at it in confusion. It cost me time.

When I turned back, Labyrinth was crying.

Lalah Sune lowered her hands, and Elle raised hers. She tested her fingers, moving them one at a time and watching them. Her eyes lacked that vacant look I'd seen in them before. That sense they were watching something else.

The girl's tear-streak face broke into a smile and she threw her arms around Lalah.

"Thank you!" She cheered "Thank you thank you thank you!"

"It is alright." Lalah smiled and patted her back. "I've tried to prevent such things, but this place is vast. I'm sorry."

"Thank you!" Elle repeated, jumping on the balls of her feet.

I staring in disbelief. "What did you do?"

"Her connection was ill-formed." Lalah Sune pulled back and turned to me. "I've mended it."

She can do that? The question surprised me, because in the moment I asked the pieces came a little closer together.

"I'm right," I mumbled. "Aren't I?" And you've been dropping hints on purpose.

"Yes," Lalah Sune admitted.

Yes? Fucking yes? "You fucking play twenty questions with me and you just say yes?"

"Finding the truth on your own is different from having it handed to you."

"How very zen," I snarled.

I glanced to Labyrinth, who'd taken to doing jumping jacks and laughing. I didn't know her at all really, but I'd seen the videos in her file. She was always distant, like her mind was somewhere else. Now she seemed…A little loopy but not completely out of her mind in a disturbingly literal way.

"Elle," Lalah said. When did she learn her name? "You helped bring them here." She held her hand out to the sleeping forms of everyone else. "Can you take them all back the way you came."

Labyrinth stopped and looked at her. "Huh? Oh, um. Maybe? My power still works right?"

"It should still have all its functions, yes."

Labyrinth lowered her hands and looked around.

"I don't know. Vista was helping I think? And there was that other girl. I just followed her to get here. I'm not sure which way back is, actually."

Back? I stepped forward again, the pieces all falling into place.

This space, whatever it was and however it worked, is where powers came from. From these things. Aliens? Ghosts? No idea. Might need to think on that one. The network. We were connected. Parahumans and them.

Aisha's trigger was broken.

Did that leave something to trace? A path Labyrinth's power could use to reach this place…and the kids used Vista to punch a hole through space-time to reach it. I didn't have the slightest idea for the mechanics. It was beyond any physics humanity had conceived, but I understood the concept.

Sort of.

"What about this?" I raised my phone. "I can still talk to people outside, or back home. Whatever."

Lalah Sune's eyes snapped to me. I turned my head to her.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing for the moment."

I'm so tired of this.

I ignored her, sent a quick message to Veda to lock the screen, and handed my phone to Labyrinth. She remained shockingly lucid for what I knew of her. She turned the device in her hands, eyes tracing some invisible string.

"I see it." She smiled. "I can do it! I think. Give me a few minutes." She stated, staring intently at my phone and hummed a tune to herself.

"If you could," Lalah said. "None of you are meant to be here. Not yet." She turned to Stella. "You may remain, if you wish."

I was tired of asking questions only to get shitty answers.

"May we?" Stella asked.

"If you desire." Lalah smiled. "It will take me time to undo what was done to your minds. In the meantime, you are able to hear them, aren't you?"

The kids turned, looking at Negotiator, Darkness, and Nine Eyes.

"Yes," they said.

Lalah smiled. "I could use the help. There are far too many for me to keep company on my own."

"The network?" Stella asked.

"Is not something you can solve." She turned her eyes to me. "Some things must wait for their proper time."

And I thought I was done before.

I'd figure the rest of the mess out. At some point. Right now I wanted out. I wanted to get back to Brockton Bay, and if no one was going to stop Labyrinth from getting us there then fine.

I ignored all of them and walked over to the others. Kid Win. Lafter. Hellhound. Her dogs. They were all breathing. They just seemed asleep.

Why were Labyrinth, Aisha, and I the only ones awake?

"So…" Aisha stood behind me. "The fuck is going on? I was confused before, but now I'm completely lost."

I checked Lafter for a pulse. "What do you remember?"

"My brother got outed, someone grabbed me, and now I'm here and shit keeps happening."

Was it because of her trigger? Network collapse.

The broken triggers are because the network is collapsing.

That's why they increased over time, and Scion fit into it. They only started happening after he died. That one platform, Combinator, looked sick and damaged. Was that related?

"I don't know," I admitted.

"And what was all that stuff about powers?" she asked.

"I don't know," I repeated. "I can't deal with that right now. Just sit tight. It looks like they want us gone and they're not going to prevent us from leaving."

I moved toward Tattletale, not that I'd shed tears or anything.

Before my hand could touch her to find a pulse, a stream of threads came between us. Negotiator bore no eyes I could see, but I felt it glare.

Guarding Tattletale? I glanced over my shoulder to find Administrator suddenly very close and staring at Negotiator.

Guarding her like mine guarded me.

I think I'd prefer to be hallucinating at this point.

I took a moment and inhaled. My hand shook at my side. No wonder Cranial went crazy. I felt a little close to a cliff edge myself. With a strong wind trying to knock me over.

"Maybe we should talk after all."

I raised my head and looked at Sune. She held my phone in her hands, turning it between her fingers.

"You…" She trailed. "You were already on the path to this place." Her eyes turned to Administrator. "Someone, has chosen their side."

I stood up.

"What side?" I asked.

"This place is not that different from the one you know," she told me. She held my phone out. "There is a war here. Victory and Priest are hastening the collapse Scion's death began."

More names for more power-alien-ghost-things. Another cryptic hint? Thinking back over what she said, and the fact that apparently psychic people did actually exist, the fact she bothered speaking aloud at all was weird. She said things she wanted me to hear.

Victory and Priest?

"What does Scion have to do with things?" I asked.

"This was his domain," she explained finally, "from which he pursued his own evolution by the means of a parasite." She frowned and closed her eyes. "We destroyed him, to prevent the annihilation of your possibility and many others. Char, Amuro, and I and a few from your world."

I took a moment to fit that into what I knew. She was telling me people on Earth—Earth Bet—knew this place exis—Eidolon. Holy shit, Trevor was right.

She died right as she intended to speak. Eidolon killed her. To shut her up? To keep her from succeeding?

Scion ran this place. That would make him the literal administrator, in a networking sense. The head administrator.

"Annihilation?" I asked.

"He would have destroyed you. All of you and everything you were. When we sensed him and learned his intentions, we intervened. That is as far as Amuro and Char would go."

Right. Still feeling like crazy would be preferable.

The three of them weren't human either then? They showed up, picked off Scion for whatever the fuck he was planning to do, and then two of them went on their way?

"And you're still here?" I asked.

"I remain behind to calm the seas."

"The broken triggers?"

She nodded. "I try to contain them, as best I can. But this is not my place, and like the children"—she nodded to Cranial's kids and pointed at Nine Eyes—"they are not entirely free. They are a snake whose head has been cut off, but the body endures."

I nodded, but I only really got half of that. Too much too fast and fuck I want to take a nap.

"I think that might be all you can handle for now, but as I said." She pointed to my phone. "You were already on the path to this place. You will find your way again, on your own. And when you do, my time will be done."

I blinked. "Time?"

"I will not be here forever."

Her expression became dark.

"Cranial did not find her way to this place alone. Someone deceived her and they may turn their eyes on you. I would consider saying nothing of what you now know."

I glanced past her at the kids.

The network was collapsing. The collapse caused broken triggers. They thought someone was behind it, and tried to come her and end that?

That's what they meant by 'the Source.'

"Who?" I asked. Victory and Priest? If someone set Cranial up to take that course…Not the PRT. They tried to stop—I stopped myself.

I sighed, and said, "You're not going to tell me."

"Your future must be forged by your own hands, not mine. When the time comes, I will step aside. You and your world will make your own tomorrow."

The ground opened up again, turning pure black.

"Sorry!" Labyrinth shouted. "Was that too fast?"

Lalah Sune smiled.

"Goodbye, Taylor Hebert."

I stared blankly at her, trying to remember when I gave her my name.

I fell again. I didn't see anyone around me.

Just those nine eyes.

query

I blinked.

You can talk?

confirmation

designation, Administrator Cluster, subjects withheld

What—Why didn't you talk before?!

restriction

I swallowed. I kept falling, or I felt like I was falling. Nine Eyes was still there, watching me. Lalah said they weren't entirely free. Chained, like Dragon? Something Scion did, or someone else?

I stared into the eyes.

If I was right, then Nine Eyes—Administrator—was my power. How did that work? The Pollentia and the Gemma? Did they connect us? I'd always assumed that one way or another, my power was my own. My hands at work. My mind.

The fact that some space-alien-bug-worm-ghost thing was in there doing who knew what did not make me feel better. How did it even pick me? Did it pick me? Was it a willful interaction or forced?

What do you want?

query, objective

What?

reciprocation, "what do you want"

The voice was my own.

What do I want?

The void burst into light, an image taking shape around me. I knew it. I'd seen it. In my dreams so many times.

Earth hung in the darkness, a massive ring circling it. I recognized the design. A solar array. A massive globe-spanning solar array. The perfect solution. Infinite, limitless energy for the entire world.

I know this.

I told Veda about it. The future in my mind, the one I couldn't quite picture.

It went beyond the ring. Orbitals hung in the stars, massive cylinders and rings. Mining rigs and refineries birthed them into the stars. The moon lit with the light of cities. Small fingers stretching further into the void.

This. This is what I want.

The future.

Reciprocation

I looked up, watching as space tore. The red crystals broke out above the Earth and spread. My heart jumped at first. An attack, I thought. But the crystals twisted and turned, taking on a distinct shape.

A massive red flower with broad open petals.

objective

The flower was huge, far too large for any single platform I'd seen. Maybe all of them?

All of them? In the same future I wanted.

That's what you want?

agreement

I stared at the scene. The network is collapsing. The broken triggers. The Endbringers. There is a war here, Sune said. Their war was spilling into my world…and ours spilling back into theirs.

I fixed my eyes on the flower. This one tiny thing, I understood.

My open hand balled into a fist.

Agreement.


Author's Note: This chapter marks a significant turning point in the plot of Trailblazer. Namely, the gradual transition away from Brockton Bay and toward a much larger scope and an overt focus on preventing the collapse of the Shard Network and the spectre of a Human-Parahuman war. The story becomes less and less about street-level conflict and the stakes are a lot higher. Some people didn't like that in the initial run of the story or didn't seem to expect it, so I'm putting this here so people can be aware of it and make their own choices.