A Waken 16.13.N.1
"You said you wouldn't be angry," Lafter pleaded.
"I am not angry."
Angry wasn't a strong enough word for what I was. Honestly, whatever word was strong enough probably wouldn't be soon enough.
I was still wrapping my head around it.
Dinah and Veda went after the Slaughterhouse Nine. On their own. Without telling us. And Lafter decided to pitch in. Bakuda and Armsmaster were there. I didn't even know why Labyrinth's name came up! And Orga—Shit.
I stopped at the back door and looked to the front. The extra guards. Did a reporter even get close or were they there to keep me here?
Yes. Yes, whatever word was stronger than angry was no longer strong enough.
They could have been fucking killed!
Throwing the back door open, I marched up toward 00 as Kyrios swung around and landed on the other side of our backyard.
"You're mad," Lafter mumbled as she followed behind me. "Let the record show I said this was a bad idea!"
"She did," Veda told me. Her body stopped at the door, watching as I climbed into 00. "We have neutralized Crawler and Burnscar. Shatterbird, March, the Siberian, and Jack Slash are deceased."
"And Bonesaw is marooned on Kyushu," I finished. Dinah had gotten that far before I cut her off because it was the part that mattered.
Honestly... Part of me was proud.
Furiously enraged. Absolutely livid. But proud. Dinah and Veda outsmarted the Slaughterhouse Nine. Mostly. Yeah there was that rage-inducing caveat that they'd either missed something, or Jack Slash was just fucking with them, but still.
They beat the Nine.
Holy shit they beat the Nine.
I sighed as 00's armor closed around me. The HUD flashed into life and the GN Drives started. The cameras came on and I watched as Lafter pulled herself into Kyrios and closed the suit up.
Connecting my suit to my phone, I asked, "What exactly did Jack Slash say before Bakuda turned him into an icicle?"
"And I was trying not to be morbid," said not-villain grumbled.
"He said we should have killed Bonesaw," Dinah answered. "Well he used her name but that's not important. I told everyone not to that. If she dies bad things start happening."
"Which means she's still alive." Duh.
Bonesaw being a walking plague waiting to happen was a persistent rumor. If she died, it would all be unleashed from her body. I didn't want to imagine the deaths that could follow from a tinker-made super virus. Nilbog had wiped out a city, and if Blasto weren't so high and reserved, everyone would probably be freaking out about him too.
The PRT named tinkers who could create tech that outlived them as the highest kind of threat. Most capes stopped being a problem if they died. The work of a tinker could persist for months or years.
"If they were planning to come to Brockton Bay they must have had a plan." 00 lifted off the ground and started rising. "I'm guessing you know what it is?"
"They were going to attack our periphery," Veda explained. "Chariot's mother. Dockworker's union. The nunnery. Londo Bell's office."
"Sister Margret?" Lafter asked.
"They wanted to force me to choose," I snarled. "Divide us by forcing me to pick who to help protect what they loved."
"Yes," Veda replied. "But we do not think Jack Slash expected this plan to work."
"Because we'd obviously see that coming and attack them."
"That's why they had March," Dinah continued. "I don't think he was lying about that. They massacred a prison up in Canada but let a bunch of the prisoners out."
I remembered Murrue saying something about the Nine attacking one of the facilities associated with the Birdcage. A supplemental prison? "That was months ago now."
"It was part of some other plan." Dinah said something to someone on her end for a moment. I turned 00 out toward the Bay, positioning myself to respond to anything. "He changed it after deciding to come after you."
"Because he needed a way around you," I surmised.
"His explanation was confusing," she scoffed. "The point I got was that March used her thinker power to try and get around mine."
Thinkers interfere with one another. Sound logic. March's thinker power was some kind of enhanced sense of timing. Tattletale couldn't read her. I didn't know how that related to getting around Dinah—Victor.
"We missed the Butcher coming to kill me because she wasn't going to do it until after Victor died."
"I'd used all my questions the night before," Dinah realized.
"That's what they were doing. Using March to try and time your power and their decision making."
We never should have advertised Dinah. If we'd kept her hidden and in the background, then no one would know how her power worked. Thinkers might pull information from the void but they couldn't work with nothing.
"Well, that part didn't work." Dinah sighed. "I didn't know about March. I never saw her." She must have avoided being near them. Dinah wouldn't see her that way while looking for the Nine. "I did see the Nine working on other stuff though."
I brought 00 about and came to a stop.
The city spread out around, at the edges of the bay. It was a good plan. Even with Doormaker and Claire, I couldn't be everywhere. Expecting Trevor not to help his mom, or Lafter to not help the nuns who shielded her for so long, wasn't fair. The Nine wanted to force us to split up.
Except I'm not sure that would really work.
Out of the Nine, only Crawler and Siberian could directly contend with a Gundam. Any of us could kill Shatterbird or Burnscar. Surely Jack wasn't that ballsy. They might succeed in hurting us, but they'd get themselves killed in the process.
It's a plan we were going to stop.
"What were they going to do?" I asked.
"They were taking people," Dinah revealed. "Bonesaw was doing stuff to them. I don't know exactly what."
Veda jumped in, elaborating, "Our headline projections revealed several series of deaths associated with specific days."
"Something Bonesaw cooked up," I guessed.
"Most likely."
Fuck. "How did they die?"
"There weren't any pictures," Dinah noted. Which meant the bodies were too gruesome for publication, or the PRT quarantined them. Either was bad. "But there was a subheading on a few of them."
"The victims had the same birthdays," Veda offered.
Birthdays? They were killing people by birthdays why?!
I'd done my own research. The Nine were sociopathic monsters, but they weren't random. They targeted their attacks. Their killings had purpose, whether it be their own enjoyment or hurting someone.
Killing people on their birthdays was specific. "Was there a pattern in the dates?"
"Yeah," Dinah admitted, her voice grim. "You."
I gawked. "Me?"
"I correlated the dates to our activities," Veda confirmed. "We only recovered seven when looking, but all relate to important dates of our activities. 0 Gundam's first flight, our threat to enforce the unwritten rules, Teacher leaking cape identities, the collapse of the Empir—"
"Wait," I snapped. My mind reeled, trying to process that one detail. "The leaks?" When Teacher outed half the capes in the northeast? "Why that day?"
"It is an important day in our history," Veda noted.
"We got in the news for all of five seconds," I admitted, "but that's not a day we did anything that major. Why that day?"
"Jack wasn't sentimental," Dinah pointed out.
"That was what, May third?" I asked.
"May second," Veda clarified. "Oh dear."
"What?" Lafter asked.
My heart sank. I hadn't thought about it in so long. The dates of her birth and death were marked on the monument in Boston.
"That's Sophia's birthday."
I twisted 00 and shot back into the suit as I accelerated. Kyrios burst into motion behind me. I took aim for the courthouse and started dialing numbers.
"Isn't she already dead?" Lafter asked.
It wasn't about her. It was about me.
"I should have seen that," Veda muttered.
"We didn't look that hard," Dinah told her. "We wanted to stop them in the first place."
They did. "You did. Those people they were taking were the delivery system. How many did you track down?"
A video popped up on my HUD. About twenty people huddled together, confused and afraid. Yellow was handing out water and pizza. The room was plain and white, like one of the PRT's quarantine cells.
"One of Dragon's facilities?" I asked.
"Yes," Veda answered. "I tracked them down by"—she stopped, apparently thinking better of explaining in the present moment—"I tracked them down and secured them in an isolation cell. I have informed the PRT and the Guild. Narwhal is putting a team together."
Twenty was a lot. "Correlate their birthdays to those of my bullies."
"I have matches for all of them," Veda revealed, "except for Oliva Perroit, Juliet Hall, and Madison Clements."
"So," Lafter drawled, "the dickbags didn't get anyone for those days—"
Veda interrupted, saying, "We evacuated one Kimberly Gardner who shares a birthday with Emma Barnes before the Nine captured her."
"Or we missed some," Lafter finished. "I'm guessing we're not taking chances on that one."
Emma hadn't been in the news of the case much, not since it first broke. Blue Cosmos had revealed the rest of my bullies though. Their names and faces were well known. The Nine would have known about them but might have only learned about Emma after she reappeared.
So they hadn't thought to target Emma until she testified the other day.
I didn't have twenty bullies though. Were they targeting others? Blackwell? Gladly?
"Go through my history Veda. Find anyone related to me who shares a birthday with those people."
I didn't have time to ponder it. Right now I needed to get all of those bitches out of the courthouse!
I connected to Hannah's personal phone, and the numbers I had for Renick and Commander Noa.
I wasted no time.
"Veda, connect Recoil into this. We don't have time to run through chains."
"One moment."
"Taylor," Hannah greeted. "What's happening?"
"Something big if we're all on this call," Renick assumed.
"We need to evacuate the courthouse!" I snapped. I threw 00 into a sharp dive, swung my feet back up as I descended into the streets, and then flew down Lorde toward downtown. "The Slaughterhouse Nine are targeting my bullies."
A silence followed my pronouncement.
Lafter kept up with me, following a parallel path with Kyrios.
"Connecting Recoil," Veda said.
"Who is—"
"Are you with Emma?" I asked.
"Newtype?"
"We have an emergency," Hannah interjected. "Where is Weaver right now?"
I swept over the courthouse and swung 00's thrusters around. My chest struck the chest plate and I pulled back on the controls to descend. The damn protestors were still there, crowding the front ste—
The protestors!
"We need to clear out the area in front of the courthous—" My voice caught. I grimaced. Grit my teeth. Let out a faint pained whine. "Give Weaver the phone."
"What is—"
"NOW!" I shouted.
There was some kind of fumbling and a protest.
Then there was her voice, saying my name.
"Taylor?"
"W—Weaver. The Slaughterhouse Nine are targeting my bullies. I need you to take the phone you have and use the camera to record the faces of everyone in the courthouse."
Veda caught on immediately. "I will cross-reference everyone you record. We are looking for anyone born on the same day as one of the bullies. They may be a victim of the Nine intended to deliver a bio-weapon targeting dates of birth."
"Wait," Renick protested. "Weaver is—"
"I'll do it," Emma said in a low voice. "We should evacuate the building."
00's feet slammed into the ground. Some of the protesters started. They turned. Some stumbled back or started. One threw a can at me. A fucking can. Idiot.
Kyrios landed next to me and Lafter looked left and right. "The crowd," she realized.
The perfect place for someone terrified and threatened by the Nine to do as they were told. "Evacuate the"—bitches—"girls out the back of the building."
"I'm sending Colossus, Win, and Valiant your way," Hannah said. "They're on patrol nearby."
"Deploying a team now," Noa added. "Give me a list of dates. I'll exclude anyone born on those days from the team."
That's right. If this weapon only killed my bullies, that wouldn't be in the headlines. The Nine didn't care to be that discriminate though. They would just kill everyone born on those days as a fuck me.
Assholes.
I switched to the external speakers. "Everyone needs to evacuate. It's not saf"—another can hit 00—"it's not safe here!"
"We have the right to protest!" some shouted.
"No one wants you here!"
"Get out!"
"Fuck you!"
"Aren't they pleasant," Lafter mumbled, raising Kyrios' arm defensively as a beer bottle shattered over the shield.
A mechanical hand caught the glass.
"What's going on?" Trevor asked. His suit stood beside Kyrios, bedecked in pearl armor and with a lance fixed to its back. "Veda said we had an emergency and Barbatos is gone."
Barbatos? What was—
"Taylor."
I flinched and threw 00's arm out. The hand caught the next wayward can sent my way, right before it could hit Dean. He flinched and shuffled behind my suit.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Get our people out of here," I told him. "The Nine are launching an attack on the city."
"Where are the Nine now?" Hannah asked.
I switched lines. "They're dead except for Bonesaw and Burnscar."
Silence.
I switched lines again. "Get out, Dean. It's not safe."
He nodded and ran back to the Londo Bell protestors. Many weren't sitting and had risen up when I landed. Mrs. Knott was there among them, watching me.
Turning back to the angry crowd that was now chanting at me, I did the only thing I could think of.
"Please," I begged. "You need to leave! The Slaughterhouse Nine don't care what you say!"
"Shut up!"
Another can, followed by a damn picket sign heaved like an ax.
"Taylor," Lafter pleaded. Kimaris' head sank slightly.
"They can't be this stupid," I whispered. "How can they be this stupid?!"
Even if we assumed the Nine only had one victim picked out for each birthday, there were at least three we had to assume were out there. Searching the crowd, I couldn't see anyone who stood out. But there were just so many people. Shouting. Glaring. Even cowering. Cowering because of me.
This is what Jack wants.
He wanted to tear down everything I wanted to achieve. No, not tear it down. Tell me it was pointless.
I considered shooting my pistol. A few shots and the crowd might scatter. I'd be all over the news in no time, but at least these morons would be alive to bitch about it. No one deserves to die. I could live with being bad-mouthed in the news if—
I blinked. "Forecast, Jack said 'we should have killed Bonesaw' right?"
"Can we rewind to the part where the Nine are dead?" Recoil asked.
"Later," I told her. "He said we should have killed her?"
"Yes," Dinah answered. "Which means..."
This weapon wasn't automatic.
Well, it might be. But saying we should have killed Bonesaw implied that not killing her was a mistake. "When were these headlines? When did the attacks happen before you went after the Nine?"
"One week from now," Veda answered.
One week. "Bonesaw has a way of triggering the attack."
The trial was going to last at least that long. Testimony would end, but there'd be news coverage, arguments, and back and forths at least that long. In a week we might even have a decision on the case.
That's it. The decision. All the bullies would be there. I might even be there, maybe.
"I need to reach Bonesaw," I realized. "If we pin her down we can stop her from triggering anyone we haven't caught."
I set off, pulling 00 back into the air.
"Lafter," I called. "Stay here. We may need to remove anyone Weaver spots. Trevor."
"I got it," he said. "Get going."
sys.v/ Clear so far
Spinning about, I fired the drives and launched straight up into the sky.
"We should evacuate Weaver," Recoil whispered.
"No," Emma protested.
No time. I grit my teeth and as I ascended and prepared to call Doormaker.
"Door, please," Veda said. "Kyushu."
I faltered. "Veda?"
"You are not going alone," she said, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to convince her otherwise.
I wasn't doing it again, was I? No. No I just—Old habits. "Okay."
I waited a second. Long enough for Veda to fly the Thrones through her door and make it out the other side.
"Taylor," Dinah snapped. "There's something else. I saw Bonesaw experimenting with GN Particles!"
I paused as the portal opened above me. "What?"
"They were red. I don't know how she got them, but they looked like GN Particles and she was very eager to talk to you."
GN Particles? How the hell did Bonesaw get GN Particl—Did she capture some of the leftovers from my encounter with the Nine? How on earth had she kept them around this long?
The network.
I grit my teeth and exhaled slowly. "Door please, Kyushu."
A Waken 16.13.W
Emma pushed the door open and moved toward the stairs
"You need to leave," Recoil ordered her.
"I refuse," Emma replied.
She hustled up the steps, sweeping the building with bugs and watching everything.
The courthouse was evacuating behind her, guards and police officers directing people to side and rear exits. Her own escorts had broken off and were rushing Madison and the others out of a separate exit, all while their lawyers shouted nonsense.
One of the cameramen was being detained. He had the same birthday as Olivia. Emma didn't think he was dangerous. When StarGazer—Veda—pointed him out, he looked confused more than scared. When the police asked him to leave he calmly did as they asked.
He didn't seem like someone recently threatened by the Slaughterhouse Nine.
The rest of the building was hectic but calm. An alarm had been pulled and an announcer used a PA system to ask everyone to calmly evacuate the building. The only person not moving was the one down in the basement.
"Emma," Recoil hissed. The older cape grabbed her arm as she reached the bottom of the stairs, pulling her back and pleading. "Emma, you're not safe. You need to leave and get somewhere safe."
"She may in fact be the only one who is," StarGazer said from the phone. "I believe we intercepted the Nine on their way to acquire someone intended to target Ms. Barnes. If so, then the vector intended for her was never prepared."
All the more reason not to run.
Recoil's expression softened, and she added, "This isn't the way to make up for what happened."
Goodbye.
"This isn't about what happened," Emma said firmly. "I'm a hero. I don't run."
She pulled away and continued down the hall. Casting her dress aside, she unrolled the sleeves of her costume. The silk was flexible and thin. Easy to slip under everyday clothes.
A spare mask came out of her pocket and she quickly pulled it over her face.
The silk was thin, and not exactly a gas mask, but it was better than nothing.
It's not like she wasn't afraid.
She was terrified.
But she didn't run away from fear anymore.
That's not what a hero did.
"Doesn't matter," Recoil snapped. "You are not hunting—"
"I'm not stupid," Emma insisted. "I know I have to stay away." Anyone they found who was carrying whatever the Nine created might be meant for her. "But I don't have to be close to help."
Shoving the rooftop door open, Emma stepped outside. Worst case, she could just use a Door to escape.
It would be easy enough to explain Weaver's presence in Brockton Bay. She'd already been sent back and forth to a few different cities to help with searches. The PRT could say they sent her to Brockton Bay as soon as Newtype warned them of the attack.
Recoil hung back in the doorway, torn.
"I'll be okay," Emma assured her. "I'm just going to search the area."
Crouching down, she closed her eyes and focused on the bugs. It was weird in a lot of ways, but she 'felt' them all; every single insect was like a dot for two—two and a half—blocks around her. They covered everything. They were everywhere.
Lifting the phone she'd taken earlier, Emma tried to think of who to address.
"Um, Veda?"
"Yes, Weaver?"
She sounded like Aunt Annette. "What would these people look like? The ones the Nine messed with?"
"We don't know," Forecast answered. "We caught about twenty of them earlier before going after the Nine, but it's likely there are more."
Emma focused on the back of the courthouse, feeling out the people rushing through the halls. Madison. Juliet. Olivia. Tori. Heidi. The others she honestly didn't really know. They weren't—It didn't matter.
They were stupid kids who did something horrible together.
That wasn't a reason to die.
Police officers and the bailiffs were rushing them outside. They were guarded for now, at least. Emma doubted some guys with guns could stop anything Bonesaw made. No one needed a briefing to know what she could do.
Emma shifted her focus elsewhere, touching and feeling every surface inside the courthouse building. The crowd out front was getting loud and restless, especially as guards and police officers tried to clear a path outside. How were they going to deal with that?
The way it was described, anyone with the same birthdays could die. The Nine weren't discriminating. The Blue Cosmos protesters must number at least two hundred people. One or two had to share a birthday with one of the girls.
"Can we go back to the part where the Slaughterhouse Nine are dead?" Emma didn't recognize the man's voice. "That's um, how?"
"By ambush," Veda explained. "We can give full statements after the crisis has passed."
"You said Burnscar was unaccounted for," Miss Militia said. "You've lost track of her?"
"She vanished during the fighting," Veda said. "We're not sure where she went, but she hasn't made any attempt to attack us or avenge the other members of the Nine."
Emma flinched and turned her head.
A Door.
Two figures walked out of it and she quickly directed bugs to feel them out. One was a tinker. She could tell by the sounds he made as he moved, the surface of his armor. He seemed kind of beat up though. The second was a woman in a long coat and a gas mask.
That had to be Bakuda.
"My armor is still airtight," the man said. He sounded a lot like Armsmaster. "I'll meet up with Laughter."
"Yeah, yeah," Bakuda answered. "I'm kind of out of good shit. I need to head back to my workshop."
"A bomb based on Stratos' power would be ideal," Maybe-Armsmaster suggested. "Just in case."
"I know. Ah, door please, my workshop."
Another door opened, and Bakuda stepped through it.
They knew about that power?
Taylor had seemed to recognize the cylinder, like she knew what it was. She'd left so fast Emma couldn't even explain. Were they working with Count? Emma felt her mouth dry up a bit. Something about that didn't sit right, but there wasn't time to puzzle it out.
Maybe-Armsmaster continued out into the street and Emma got up to creep toward the edge of the room. He looked like Armsmaster, if Armsmaster had repainted his armor blue.
Kyrios stood near the street among a body of police officers and ambulances. Had Taylor really left to go after Bonesaw? Armsmaster went right to Laughter, and the suit turned to face him. In the distance at the edge of her range she felt another suit approaching. Two men in armor were riding on either side of it.
That must be Colossus, Win, and Valiant.
"We're bringing Vista in," Miss Militia announced. "If we find someone, we can use her power to isolate them."
"That will work," Armsmaster said from the phone. "Is Stratos available?"
"I'm here," a man's voice answered. "You suited back up already?"
"What do we call you?" Miss Militia asked.
"Defiant for now."
"We're on our way," Commander Noa said. "We're combing missing person reports."
"The Nine were targeting people who were traveling or isolated," Veda explained. "They likely intended to spread them out and trigger Bonesaw's weapon during the trial."
"Televising the deaths of a bunch of people," Renick mumbled.
Emma tuned their conversation out. Mostly it was ETAs and directions.
"We can evacuate the targets," Veda revealed.
A rush of wind drew Emma's eyes up. Kyrios flew overhead and then descended behind the building. The men escorting Madison and the others stopped. One actually pointed a gun at the suit.
Emma leaned over to get a better look. She was vaguely aware of Armsmaster—Defiant—launching into the air and landing on the roof. Chariot was at the front of the building, talking to someone. An older woman? She sounded vaguely familiar but voices were a bit weird when heard through bug—
"There's someone in a back alley behind the courthouse," Emma called. "A hobo or something?"
"Why do you bring them up?" Renick asked.
"Because they're not moving."
"Are they dead?" Emma jumped and spun around. Defiant looked down at her and then at the street below. "Which direction?"
Emma pointed her finger and a few bugs incidentally began buzzing around her finger. "That way." Emma grimaced. "He's not dead. He's shaking, really bad. He doesn't even react when I fly a fly into his eye."
Defiant launched himself into the air with a jetpack and called, "Lafter—"
Emma flinched. "Something's happening!"
The man was shaking apart, and something was spilling out of him. The bugs couldn't quite make it out but it smelled awful.
Kyrios' shields opened and the green light intensified around the suit. A shield projected around the group and a black miasma spilled out of the alleyway and rolled down the street. Madison screamed and Juliet closed her eyes.
Emma's heart seized up when a hand grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth.
"Don't breathe," Recoil snapped.
The crowd.
Emma tried to turn her head but couldn't with Recoil holding her down. Maybe the shield would protect Madison and the others, but there had to be people in the crowd who didn't realize the danger they were in. They'd absolutely die.
It was a split-second decision.
She'd suffer for it.
She didn't care.
Pulling at every bug in her range, Emma swarmed the insects over the courthouse steps. The swarm was small. She didn't have time to build one properly, but once all the roaches and bugs from inside the building poured out the protestors began shouting. She set them to bite and buzz at people's faces. That got them moving.
The crowd ran, flooding away from the building and into the street.
Armsmaster landed as the miasma began to clear, walking into the alley.
"I am experiencing no ill effects," he announced. "The victim is deceased. Whatever happened has caused a lethal amount of bleeding."
"The cloud's fading," Lafter replied. "Um. No one here looks like they're dying?"
The shield protected them?
Emma breathed a sigh of relief, and then she sucked the air back in.
"Weaver?" Recoil asked. "What is it? Are you okay?"
"Not me," Emma choked out.
She closed her eyes, directing a few bugs toward the people on the steps who weren't moving. The ground around them was wet. Blood. Lots of it.
"We're here," Colossus said. "There's a huge crowd stampeding out of here."
"There's two bodies on the steps," Win reported. "I… And a third body streetside."
Emma saw it. Chariot's suit leaned over the woman, shaking her shoulder.
"They're dead," Valiant confirmed. "They've got no pulses."
Recoil tensed up, but relaxed a moment later. A hand pulled Emma's mask away, and Recoil turned her head back and forth. "Anything?"
"N-No," Emma blurted out. "I—I feel fine."
"Still alive down here," Lafter added.
"Evacuate the targets anyway," Miss Militia ordered.
"There may be another victim," Armsmaster warned. "At least now we know it spreads and kills almost instantly."
"And still only kills people with the right birthday." Behind her on the steps, Valiant was looking through a wallet. "September Twenty-three?"
"Same here," Colossus said as he looked over another body.
"Veda," Defiant called. "Who was the intended target?"
Emma braced herself, but she knew most of the girl's birthday. None of them were born on September twenty-third.
Chariot's voice cracked, heavy and sad.
"It was Mrs. Knott…"
A Waken 16.13.N.2
The sight shocked me for a moment.
Water spread out in every direction, but it wasn't empty. Darkened lines revealed streets sunk in the sea. Less dark blocks and lines marked the position of buildings and cars. The tallest rose out of the water, leaning or even laying atop one another. Waves crashed back and forth over the aged concrete and rusted steel.
It extended for miles around me. In the distance I could see the remains of other sunken cities. A few strips of land were barely visible, disappearing and reappearing as waves rolled over them.
Kyushu, where Leviathan drowned millions of lives.
"Claire says this is the general area she directed Doormaker." Throne Eins flew up on my right. Throne Zwei took position on my left, and Throne Drei hung slightly above me. "Apparently, she was not prepared for Orga's request and simply 'looked.'"
"But it's this area?" I asked.
"Yes."
I swallowed and tested my grip on the controls. "Alright. She's ground-bound and with all this water I doubt she's made it off whatever building she found herself on."
"Two of Tekkadan shoved her through the portal. I believe Orga intended to do it himself."
I looked back. "We'll find them then." Save them if they were alive, and...bring them back if they weren't.
Switching to sonic cameras, I focused on the buildings that rose out of the water.
"Split up," I said. A GPS search identified the location as Miyazaki, Kyushu's largest city. "There aren't that many places to hide here."
We directed our suits in all four directions. I switched to the sonic cameras and followed the streets. If Claire simply dumped them here at a glance, maybe she latched onto one of the more stand-out structures.
I saw a few options.
A leaning skyscraper with a slanted roof and a needle tip. The tip had snapped off and fallen into the water, taking an entire face of the structure with it. Only the very top still rose above the water. There was a Big Ben looking structure further ahead.
I started with those.
The downside of searching was Bonesaw would probably see us. Then again, she had to know we'd come after her. Dumping her in the literal middle of nowhere was a decent stopgap while the rest of the Nine were dealt with, but we couldn't exactly ignore her. Even if lives weren't in dang—
"Taylor."
"Did you find her?"
"...Mrs. Knott is dead."
I froze.
Mrs. Knott? They—"They targeted Mrs. Knott." No. No that couldn't be. "I told Dean to take everyone away."
"She was attempting to convince the Blue Cosmos protestors to leave."
The only word on my mind was why.
"Whatever it was," Veda continued, "it spread rapidly once released. Two of the protestors were killed as well."
I swallowed. "The girls?"
"They are alive. So far no other releases have been apparent. It's possible we only missed one."
And the one we missed killed Mrs. Knott?
Why? Why her? She—She was the only one who ever tried. She didn't exactly help in the end but she tried. That's more than basically everyone else! Of all the people who could die, why her? And while trying to convince those fucking morons to save themselves?!
This was the Nine's master plan to break me? Killing everyone even remotely connected to my trigger event?
All that did was piss me off!
I burst into motion, flying low as I checked the buildings.
"It's not your fault," Veda said.
"It's not yours either."
It would be easy to blame Dinah and Veda for doing this without telling me, but not fair. The Nine were coming after me. Not just coming after me, coming at me. They wanted to hurt me. Hurt everything I'd tried to do.
Dinah and Veda wouldn't have gone off half-cocked. They'd have gathered all the information they could. Formulated a full plan. Dealt with every eventuality. They'd wiped out the Nine in one fucking move. It worked.
Doing all of that with only one, two fatalities?
No one could have guessed they could do that. Even I hadn't thought they could do it. Yet, they did.
It just so happened the person we lost was—
"There you are," I snarled. I twisted 00 around and dove. "My position, Veda."
The structure was an old hotel. A long building that had been split in half at some point. One side lay completely collapsed with only bits of debris visible from above. The rest was bowed, but still standing.
I slid over the ground and gently set down. The floor creaked but held.
The boys weren't familiar to me, but I knew their jackets. Tekkadan. Attempting to shake or speak to them seemed pointless. One lay on his stomach, face down. The other lay on his back, eyes staring straight up. The irises were bloodshot, and his veins bulged black and contorted under pale dead skin.
I drew both longswords from 00's back but I didn't see Bonesaw.
She can't have gone far.
Movement behind me drew my eye. I didn't turn, but the other boy—the one lying face down—was moving his head.
He was alive.
I hesitated but without knowing what Bonesaw did it was too risky.
Throne Drei rose up from below outside. The suit set down behind the boy and he weakly turned his head.
"Remain still," Veda said.
His lips parted, blood spilling from his mouth. "Is the boss okay?"
Orga. "He's okay," I told him. "The Nine are dead."
A smile crossed his face and he closed his eyes. I didn't want to leave him, but I couldn't take him anywhere. For all I knew he had a super plague that would spread through the whole building in seconds.
"Hang on," I told him. "Orga's orders."
He chuckled weakly. I proceeded further into the building carefully. If I were a tinker in Bonesaw's situation, I'd find somewhere to hole up. Build something fast. She probably knew a Gundam was coming for her. Acid or something.
That's what she'd use.
Throne Zwei moved past Throne Drei and followed me.
I swept ahead with the sonic cameras. The building was pretty barren. Not even a piece of ruined furniture or discarded items. Someone came through and cleared the place out at some point.
I looked down and then up. There she was.
"Above us."
Outside, Throne Eins circled at a distance. The suit lined up on Bonesaw and Veda began charging the particle cannon. That would incinerate Bonesaw with a direct hit. Or it might not. Hard to say when we didn't know what she was doing.
She sat on a box of some kind. Veda would have mentioned if she'd managed to bring anything with her. Was she just waiting?
"She may have a deadman's switch," Veda considered. "Killing her might kill those in quarantine."
It might. It might also unleash worse. Who knew what she might have set up over the years. Incinerating her body would only destroy what was on—or in—her.
"We need time," I mumbled. "Stay trained on h—Can Doormaker reach orbit?"
It took a moment to get a response. "Yes."
The Simurgh was up there, but Earth's orbit was massive. Anything up there wasn't getting back down. Worst case scenario, we shoved her out there. She'd die in the vacuum before gravity pulled her back to Earth. Reentry would incinerate what remained.
Shit. Kati was going to have a heart attack.
I glided 00 down the hall with Throne Zwei behind me. Entering a vacant elevator shaft, we proceeded to the top floor. Bonesaw was sitting at the end of the floor overlooking the water.
"Hello."
A bloody face smiled back at me, eyes gleaming.
It occurred to me for a moment that the little girl in front of me—no older than Dinah or Aisha—was one of the most dangerous villains alive. A monster. That reputation clashed with the very girly dress she wore, even if it was smeared red. Her hair was curled. She looked like a horror movie version of someone I'd expect to see on an old tv show from the 60s.
"Taylor," Veda whispered.
"I know."
Killing her, and suffering the responsibility of killing anyone her death killed, was something I might have to live with.
She was too dangerous. I doubted she'd ever undo the damage she'd done. Stalling her for time wasn't going to be enough. Even if we rounded up Panacea right now and sent her to start fixing people, she might need hours. I couldn't keep the girl busy that long.
Tightening my grip on the controls, I closed my eyes.
"Veda, get Panacea…" No. We might need her in Brockton Bay. "Find her." I'd figure out what to do after we did. "We'll... I'll keep her talking as long as I can. We'll save as many as we can."
And when I couldn't keep her talking, I'd kill her.
Throne Zwei took a defensive stance at my side. "I understand."
Noelle's words echoed in my mind. Some people just have to die. Even a little girl.
"I've wanted to talk to you sooooo much!" Bonesaw cheered. She clapped her hands. "Uncle Jack said I had to wait, but you're here now!"
My eyes opened and I focused on her. "Forecast says you have GN Particles."
She tilted her head. "Oh! Yeah that's what you call them. I've been calling them Broadcasters because they broadcast stuff!"
She reached for a fanny pack at her side and I pointed a blade at her. The movement didn't seem to bother her. She didn't even comment on it.
From the fanny pack, she withdrew a cylinder no bigger than an index finger. There was something solid inside, but all around it floated a familiar light. I felt a headache spiking up just staring at them.
The particles were red, but, "How did you get those?"
She blinked and turned the cylinder. "It wasn't that hard. I just needed to find a Gemma to make them"—a Gemma?—"but once I figured it out it was easy to yank them out!" She squinted, leaning toward the glass and holding it close to her face. "I can't get them as pure as you, though."
A Gemma. Communication.
My eyes widened and my headache broadened with them. "You call them broadcasters?"
"Yeah! They emit this weird signal but I don't think it's coming from them. The shiny bits I mean. I'm pretty sure it's coming from the Gemma!"
…This might be easier than I'd thought. "The particles are a transmission medium."
Bonesaw got a manic and excited look on her face. "So you do know about that?! I was curious 'cause you only ever seem to use them to smash stuff!"
"I've been studying it."
"How many Gemmas do you really have in there to make that many of them?"
Ge—"None!" What the fuck did she think I was doing?!
Bonesaw looked confused. "Then how do you make all"—she waved her hand at 00—"that?"
"It's complicated." I narrowed my eyes on the vial. "Who—"
"Oh, this was Mannequin!" She waved the glass. "He didn't need it anymore."
It was Mannequin's? Well, at least she hadn't murdered a cape for it. "How are you getting GN Particles from it?"
She shrugged. "You know how tinkering is. We get some tools, we find some stuff to play with, and we make things happen! It's as much art as science!" She leaned in, whispering, "Don't tell Uncle Jack. He didn't like my experiments."
Well that would be ea—"He didn't like you using Mannequin's Gemma?"
"He didn't like the Broadcasters," she grumbled. "Um. GN Particles. He wouldn't say why."
Shards tried to hide themselves. Did Jack's notice what Bonesaw was doing and influence him to dissuade her?
"You already know they broadcast stuff," she observed.
"Maybe."
"Do you know what? I've been trying but it all comes out as gibberish to me."
Probably because trying to translate whatever the Shard was saying wasn't a simple matter of cracking a code.
sys.t/ progress?
sys.v/ I am still searching for Panacea but Helix has arrived
I didn't know that name. Another healer or tinker? We needed time.
I could keep this going. She really was interested. Fascinated even. She wanted to know more and wasn't questioning anything about my going along with her. Another cape might be able to neutralize whatever Bonesaw did.
Which wouldn't help anyone we missed, but this was better. It was better.
"I don't know," I admitted.
Bonesaw hummed to herself. "I think you know more than that."
"Maybe."
She narrowed her eyes. "That's not very nice." She turned the glass in her hand. As it moved, the light seemed to intensify. "I'm sharing. So should you!"
No. I winced at a sharp throb. "What should I share?"
She stopped to think, waving the vial back and forth. There was something nauseating about it. A piece of a man's brain being kept alive out of curiosity. What was the Shard experiencing on the other end?
"Well," she mused. "Ideally, I'd have you lay down so I could look at your Gemma. The Broadcasters do weird things to brains!" Wait what? "You've been around them so much, I'm really curious."
They do weird things to brains? Well, I mean I... I knew that? The headaches. Administrator. It was all tied into the GN Drive and the particles. We were trying to reach each other. The Drive had to figure into our attempt to communicate.
"What does it do to brains?"
Veda's sudden question startled me. Throne Zwei hadn't moved, and Bonesaw's head snapped toward it in surprise.
"Oh right, you're here. AI is kind of neat but I don't think I could learn anything from you."
"What do the 'broadcasters' as you call them do to brains?"
"Hm?" She turned the glass again and—Something's wrong. "Don't know. I haven't had enough test subjects. They excite some brain waves though, ones I hadn't ever noticed before. Brains are a pretty complex organ you know! Even I don't know everything about how it works and I've seen hundreds!"
Something was wrong.
She turned the vial again and the pain spiked again.
"What—"
Stupid. She wasn't talking. She was doing something. She was turning something but not the glass itself. The glass container wasn't moving, only the Gemma and particles inside.
Throne Zwei's head turned. "Taylor?"
Bonesaw smiled. "I think you know lots." Her smile widened, showing teeth. "I think you've been trying to talk to your passenger!"
Passenger? Administrator.
The pain was getting worse. Spreading from my head to my eyes, my ears, my neck. Everything. "What are you doing?!"
Without warning Throne Zwei fired. The beam hit Bonesaw in the leg. She started to fall, but the limb split into a tripod and she caught herself. Veda fired again, and Bonesaw scurried behind cover.
"I'm just curious!" she called. "I've never met anyone who was studying powers like me!" The Fangs launched and Bonesaw turned her device again. The Fangs dropped to the ground. "Maymay seemed interested but I don't think Uncle Jack likes her much so she'll probably be dead soon."
She was already d—
Bonesaw twisted again and I screamed.
"Oh yeah. I was wondering if that would happen! It's really interesting. Once these started coming out, I could see stuff but I can't figure out what it says!"
"Cease now!" Veda threatened.
"But if you try to stop me, I'll kill all those people!"
I screamed again and 00's legs fell out from under me. Everything fell out from under me.
"Taylor!" Veda called.
Her voice was distant.
My hand lashed out, grabbing her wrist and wrenching the light away. "STOP!"
Bonesaw flinched and tried to pull away. She smiled a far more nervous smile than she knew, threatening, "I'll kill—"
"No. You won't." Pulling on her wrist, I reached for my waist. "Door—"
My voice froze.
My hand patted at my waist. No beam saber. No Gundam 00 either. I'd just been inside it. I was certain. I hadn't blacked out, had I?
Negation.
Everything still hurt. Hurt so much tears involuntarily streaked down my face. Fuck it hurt.
Reciprocation.
My grip on Bonesaw's arm was turning both our hands white, and it hurt so much I could barely—
Snapping my eyes forward, I stared daggers into the monstrous facade of the child before me. She had to be stopped. I never wanted my bullies to die. No one deserved to die. No one deserved to die but—but Noelle was right.
Still holding her wrist, I thrust my other hand forward and closed it around Bonesaw's neck.
Noelle was right. Count was right.
Possibility.
I couldn't save everyone. The war was happening no matter what I did. So many people were going to die. How could I accept that and refuse to kill fucking Bonesaw?!
Agreement.
I forced her to the ground.
Straddling her chest, I leaned my entire weight in, crushing her throat under my palms. Her free hand began to slap me and her legs flailed. It didn't work. I was taller, stronger. My fingers squeezed.
Some people had to die to save everyone else.
Possibility.
They'd never stop until they died.
Confirmation.
Bonesaw's eyes widened as reality came crashing down on her. Shock followed. Shock that something was wrong. My fingers dug down, grinding her neck into the floor. It shouldn't work. I shouldn't be able to choke her. She'd modified herself to stop that from happening.
It hurt.
It hurt a lot, cutting into herself and weaving the mesh along her own esophagus.
She liked that it hurt. Any pain was better than... better...
My grip loosened.
The masks fell away.
"I can fix it." Riley whispered the words over and over, like a chant. "I can fix it. I can fix it. I can fix it. I can fix it."
Uncle Jack watched. He came and went, asking how far she'd come and if she'd managed to do it yet. If she said yes, he stabbed them again. If she didn't answer, he stabbed them again. If she lied, he stabbed them again.
"I can fix it. I can fix it. I can fix it."
Her hands worked, crusted over in blood and grime. She tied, sewed, and fixed. She got creative. She moved things. Rearranged others. She kept trying and trying to save them from the blades.
All the while, her mother's eyes cried. They stared back at her in horror and pain, begging her to stop. Begging her to—Good girl.
No. "Riley."
It was a trick.
"Stop," I whispered.
She was mutilating them. Twisting them. Torturing them. She was doing exactly what Jack wanted her to do.
"I can fix it. I can fix it. I can fi—"
I grabbed her wrist again and pulled her back. "Stop, Riley!"
I fell back and the tools clattered to the floor. Riley screamed, kicking and swinging her arms to break free. I held her back, begging.
"They're gone, Riley! You can't save them!"
"Giving up already?"
Riley froze at the sound of the voice.
I turned on it, glaring hatefully as he sat there laughing.
"Don't you love mommy and daddy?" he asked, mockingly. "You can fix it, can't you, poppet?"
Riley began struggling again, screaming her chant. I tuned it out and focused on Jack Slash. The man behind the mask. The monster behind the monster. He shouldn't be here. He couldn't be here.
"You're fucking dead," I growled. "Disappear already."
On the floor ahead, the woman's eyes continued to cry. The man's gaze was empty, staring vacantly at nothing even as his exposed lungs continued to breathe and bleed. The small girl pinned to the wall was mutilated beyond recognition. Like a puzzle someone shoved off the table and that someone else had tried haphazardly to put back together.
She triggered here, in this room.
She triggered and they tortured her. Killed her mother, and her father, and her sister, over and over again. Every time Riley tried to put them back together. She tried to be smart. She tried to keep them from dying.
Jack trapped her.
He tricked her into mutilating her entire family. She tried to hide their organs but he always knew where they were. She tried to protect them but he always knew where to cut. No matter what she did, he killed them again.
And by the end of it what she'd put together and tried to keep alive wasn't anything human anymore.
My stomach turned, like I wanted to vomit. Except there was nothing to throw up. My body felt empty, like it wasn't really...
Raising my head, I looked beyond the now vacant couch.
The void extended around the room, reaching out in all directions.
My mind twisted, trying to reconcile what I was seeing.
Riley continued screaming in my arms. She screamed so much. Spit and snot covered her face, her eyes bloodshot and red from lack of sleep and tears. "I can fix it! I can fix it! I can fix it!"
They broke her. They took a six-year-old girl and tortured her to oblivion. Turned her into their monster. His little art project.
Query. Some things can't be fixed. Possibility. They stay broken.
My voice hitched. My hands gripped at Riley, holding her to my chest.
"You have to let them go." I held onto Riley, refusing to let her go. "They're gone, Riley. I'm sorry. They're gone."
Rejection.
I flinched at the sudden alien sensation.
The tendrils pulled me away, throwing me across the room and coiling around Riley. I scrambled to my feet, running back to her but...I couldn't reach her. No matter how fast I ran she didn't get any closer.
I'd been thrown out.
Something threw me out.
It was big. So big. Bigger than Riley. Bigger than me. Bigger than anything.
It wrapped itself around her, guiding her with small pushes. Look at the tools. Pick up the tools. Look at the bodies. Touch the bodies.
"Riley!"
It didn't understand. I didn't know if it could understand. It only knew knowing. It had to know. It needed to know. That was its purpose. Its only purpose, all it had ever done. Dissect. Process. Share. Riley was just a medium. A way to do its job. She didn't matter.
"Let her go—"
A golden light filled the air, and Administrator forced the tendrils back. They didn't leave Riley. They couldn't. They didn't know what that meant and what they didn't know they couldn't do.
But they receded, pulled further back on her arms and legs, and watched.
Riley stared up at Administrator, tears streaking down her face.
Administrator looked back for a moment, and then turned to the bodies of Riley's family.
Query.
I blinked. Administrator looked back at me. A memory rushed through my mind. Hugging my mother in this place, and the pain of watching her leave. Knowing she had to leave because she was gone, and I couldn't go on living if all I did was cling to her memory.
Administrator raised her head.
The image appeared again. The static and unmoving visage of Scion. Administrator approached him, watching. Longing.
She missed him.
Release.
Her head turned to me, face questioning.
I met those eyes, and I said, "Yes."
She hesitated. Did she understand? Did I understand? What was happening? When did I—
Scion's visage faded away and something changed. Like, a wind blowing through the air. Riley's voice cracked, and she fell to her knees. Her hands gripped at the non-existent ground that held us up, muttering to herself. Pleading.
Holding it in.
My legs pushed me up and I went to her.
She flinched away from me, searching the void for faces that weren't there. Not at the moment, anyway. They wouldn't come even if she called. The Nine never cared about her. Not one. Not even Jack.
She was nothing but a project for him.
Dropping to my knees, I scooped the girl up.
Administrator stood behind me, looking down at herself.
"It's okay," I whispered.
I'd tried to strangle her a moment ago... I didn't feel very proud of that. I understood it. I knew why I'd wanted to. Yet, I looked back and that me wasn't who I...
With one hand, I pulled Riley's head to my chest.
"We're all weak," I whispered, "because we're all afraid." I breathed, slipping my other hand under her. I held her as I rose. "You have to let it go."
Riley tensed up.
"Let it go, Riley."
Then she melted. She put her arms around me, and her legs too. She clung to me and she screamed. Screamed like a little girl who'd watched her family die over and over again, and knew that nothing she could do would ever save them.
Or bring them back.
Uncertainty.
Administrator looked to me.
Release.
"Yes," I told her. "You have to let it go or you'll never go forward."
Release.
I blinked, grimacing as one wayward hand from Riley tugged at my hair.
Administrator met my eyes and there was a moment.
A moment where it all made sense.
"It never stops," I told her. "The pain will always be there."
It was all the same. Riley and her family. Me and Emma. Me. The network. People. Shards. The World. I knew her. The doubts she felt. The uncertainty. Scion was dead and he took the entire world as she knew it with him.
She was afraid. Afraid that there was no answer. That we'd fail no matter what we did.
I knew my answer.
Shifting Riley to one arm—not sure why I needed to hold her weight when we weren't really here—I lifted a hand and held it out to Administrator.
"It'll never stop," I repeated. My lips turned up in a weak smile. "But we don't have to linger in our pain. We can rise over it. We can live with it."
Administrator gazed. She raised her hand and reached out.
"There is a way," I proposed. "And if we fail, then we fail together."
Our fingers touched and I closed my hand around hers.
"Agreement."
A Waken 16.13.V
Veda took aim. She'd accept the consequenc—
Bonesaw stood stock still, tears streaking down her face. The device, whatever it was, fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. Her body shook, heaving violently. She stumbled back, neck craning as her lips parted.
She screamed.
Her body collapsed, crumpling to the floor and wailing louder than Veda had ever seen before. So much pain. Anguish. Fear.
"It's done."
Throne Zwei's head snapped around. "Taylor?"
00 rose and straightened itself. Inside the suit, Taylor's eyes flut—Her eyes. They were glowing again. She started to move and an alarm tripped in the system.
00 locked up and Veda received a half dozen warnings.
"Veda?" Taylor asked in confusion.
Veda said nothing, and she didn't like that.
The system was tracing seven distinct variations in Taylor's brainwaves that radically altered from the norms. They weren't that far outside of the set bounds. Taylor had been approaching those bounds for months. Was this simply a continuation or—
Veda singled one of the errant wave patterns out.
"Veda? Veda, I can't move."
She was well accustomed to accessing Dragon's databases now. What remained of them anyway. The fighting to save her had done significant damage. None of Cranial's materials were lost, however. Dragon set those aside in a specially isolated system.
She had been casually trying to make sense of them.
Cranial maintained dozens of scans of each of the children. She'd recorded and tested their brains frequently. She was searching. Mapping the Shard Network made the most sense. Like a sonar. She used the children to signal and then recorded the returns.
She'd made some progress but her methodology was radically…inconsistent.
But the brain scans themselves were detailed.
"Veda?"
Veda reminded herself to follow procedure. Taylor came up with it for exactly this situation. Most of it.
Stella's scans were the most extensive. She'd been the first and was now the oldest.
Analyzing the data, Veda spotted the similarities immediately.
Quantum brainwaves.
Taylor was generating quantum bra—
Veda turned the data. Sorted it. She'd scanned the notes given to them by the Travelers. Cauldron had spent its final years trying to decipher the means Shards used to communicate and configure themselves. Attempting to undo the Case-53s mutations, among other things.
Applying that data to the stream, and spending several seconds parsing...
There was an active upstream and downstream.
Connecting to 00's helmet and switching some systems back on, Veda asked, "Taylor, are you talking to anyone right now?"
"Um. Yo—" Recognition followed. She scanned her HUD anew. "We triggered the M/S system, didn't we?"
We? "Yes."
There was a brief flash of fear. Loss of control. Being subject to the will of another. Again. Taylor's deepest fear.
She inhaled and closed her eyes. "Then it's up to you, Veda." Her shining eyes looked down on Bonesaw. "You do what you need to do."