Worm Loops

by gbear605

This is not her first time here. Nor will it be her last. Innortal-style time loops in the Worm verse.

8. Chapter 8

AN: In a bit (could be a few hours, could be a few weeks), I'll be reuploading some of the earlier chapters, to remove a select few loops that aren't canon, and also to upload some new loops to 1.11 (where the Simurgh is an Undersider)

8.1 (Rex)

I recovered the phone with a muffled curse, its sudden massive size in my hands now recognizable as a lack of technological advancements rather than misfiring neurons in my sleep addled brain.

It is not because I was really freaking small before I got my growth spurt or anything like that. Really, I was perfectly proportional for my age. Which was currently six years old, as Lisa was enthusiastically informing me in her uninterrupted rant.

"Got to deal with my goddamn parents when I had managed to mostly get over all the issues they gave me the first time. And for a fun bonus, I still have my powers! So hello exploitation train! Come rolling right on in, because this time they aren't even going to wait until-" She cut herself off with a sharp gasp. I could guess why.

It was the same thing that I had realized the very first time I had woken up as a child. Admittedly, it hadn't been this young, but five years had been more than enough time to stop the accident.

"Rex." Lisa breathed out. Trying to control herself. It had been a very long time since I had last heard Tattletale mention her brother, but I still remembered his nickname. "He's alive, Taylor. I can save him! This will change…" She trailed off, overwhelmed at the possibilities. Sadly, I had to cut a few of them off.

"Lisa," I said softly, gently. She wasn't going to like what I was going to say. "No. He's not really."

"He is. I mean, it's just for the loop but he's still breathing and thinking right now so he's alive again and I can maybe see what he'd be like as a grown up." I breathed out. She hadn't fallen into the same trap I had.

"Yeah, it's more like… a visit from an old friend than a revival." I was glad Lisa had accepted that so easily, when Mom hadn't been there when the next loop started, It had sent me into a depressive spiral deeper then one I had been in when I first became Skitter. But her power didn't work on the mechanics of loops so, "How?"

"Did I know it wouldn't carry over?" Lisa completed my question. "You weren't really that surprised about us being younger then normal. Implies this has happened to you before. In most loops, you don't have a mother. Implies that you either couldn't or deliberately chose not to save her. Your relationship with your father and the way you talk about your mother is way to positive for things to have turned out worse between them if she survived. Therefore changes we make to the timeline here will have no effect on the future. Same as all the other loops. We just have more options than normal." Lisa chuckled to herself. "Come on, I didn't even need to have my powers to work that one out." I noticed that she didn't say she hadn't used them, but I didn't bring it up.

"You mentioned options. Got anything in mind?" I redirected the conversation to the single most important question any loopers could conceive.

What are we going to do to entertain ourselves?

"Not sure yet, either go whole hog and make as many ripples as possible, or set up some sort of long con for massive payout. But first things first, did you know that my family apparently owns a house in Brockton Bay?"

"I did not. It's honestly managed to never come up. You moving in?" My cheeks were beginning to hurt from the size of my smile. Me and Lisa loose in Brockton in the 00's? I hadn't done that before!

"Give me a week or two. And then I'm thinking Marquis acquires a pair of new minions that get all sorts of rumors flying around. I wanna see what sort of shit Panacea gets up to without Glory hole fucking things up."

"Sounds good to me. Now if you will excuse me, it's waffle day and intend to give my mother a very large hug to celebrate this fact." I waited for Lisa's goodbye before dropping the phone and bounding out of my room and down the stairs with every scrap of energy my six year old body could muster. Just because they were only visiting, didn't mean it wasn't nice to see your old friends and family.

8.2 (Prim-the-Amazing)

His orders given, Lung turned around and began walking. Time to waste some fuckers.

"Hold it right there!" A young female voice rang out behind him, and Lung restrained a sigh. Probably some overconfident rookie cape again. Why did they always get into fights with him? Was it his face? His accent? The way he referred to all of his enemies as children? Nah.

He turned around.

The girl's costume was… girly. Very… very pink. And frilly. Dear god, the frills. He'd never seen so much lace in one place at a time before in his life either.

"Who the fuck are you, bitch?" He asked, just to get the introductions out of the way. The rookies always dramatically shouted their name anyway.

She did not disappoint.

One hand on her hip, the other pointing straight upwards at the sky, she shot him a determined look.

"My name is Princess Ladybug, Brockton Bay's very own magical girl, here to fight for justice, freedom, peace, and the AMERICAN WAY!"

Ah. So she was one of those. The capes that insisted that powers were magic. Ugh. This was downright painful to listen too. And watch. The sooner Lung got this over with, the better. Princess Ladybug, huh? Some kind of bug power then, probably. Feh. He'd never heard of a weaker sounding power in his life. This would be easy.

Scales bursting forth from his skin, Lung, heh, lunged. (Get it!?)

And that was the day that Lung was beaten up by pretty little butterflies.

8.3 (The_One_Butcher)

This time around Taylor made her début under the name "Princess" and showed off none of her control powers, just supernatural martial arts and style. Posing as a proud warrior she challenged Lung to a honour duel and made a wager. Lung was a man of his word, so a good while later when it came time to cash in on it he was broken out of the Birdcage and stuffed into a snazzy tuxedo that still showed off his pecs. It was one of Rarity's, especially made for a draconic gentleman. By controlling him for microseconds at a time she kept his power active.

Rarity did impeccable work, the tux fit perfectly the whole time and not even Armsmaster's nanothorns could cut it.

And Lung was scary on a visceral "I am going to be eaten." Level that no amount of Nightmare bugs or pet Endbringers could match. (Mostly because Endbringers were overkill in that her brain just shut down for a few seconds in which she can gather some of her composure.) Nothing could give Emma a more horrified look. She was honestly jealous of him sometimes.

It was the most awesome prom ever.

8.4 (The_One_Butcher)

"Twilight!" Taylor grinningly greeted her favourite fuzzy purple pointy amazing Anchor. "I have a wonderful present for you! A completely new theory of literature! It challenges all assumptions made by human or humanlike storytellers. It is a coherent and completely new and alien way of storytelling that teaches how to write amazing novels completely free of conflict!"

"Oh, really? And it works? Who created it?" Twilight asked.

"Dragon."

8.5 (rick1497)

Sam exited her pod in full costume. She also made sure that her current body looked banged up due to the nature of her "journey."

"People of Brockton Bay, My name is Delphi and I come from the future," She began, "could someone please tell me the date so I know if I have arrived at the right time?"

While the surprise was starting to wear off, and the reporters were arriving, someone finally answered her with "It's January Seventh."

"Oh dear, I seem to have gone back a bit further than I intended. I did not mean to arrive until late early April after my mother joins the wards. Now I arrive less than a week after she has triggered."

At this time one of the reporters approached her and began to ask questions. "Excuse me, but did you say you were from the future?"

"Yes, three decades from now."

"But how did you come back, is that your power?"

"No, I'm have precognitive powers. I knew a tinker that specialized in the time stream."

"But if he could do that, why didn't he send himself back?"

"He could only send one person back, and only a precog can track the changes that are made to the time stream. My mission is too important to leave to somebody who can't adjust for a changing time stream."

"What mission?"

"I can't give you any specifics at this time, but I have to prevent a series of disasters from coming. Unfortunately, I arrived months ahead of schedule and I can't act without changing the time stream. As such, I will spend the next couple of months living with my mom. Bye."

Despite desperate attempts by the reporters, she didn't give out any more information, and somehow managed to lose them.

Danny Hebert watched the news with worry, his daughter mirroring his expression. Assuming that this woman was telling the truth, and she really was from the future, than that meant that there was a series of disasters on the way for his city. That meant that he should take Taylor and leave as soon as possible. Still, this Delphi mentioned that she didn't intend to arrive until April, so they had some time. Still, he had to leave town early, the news stations had been repeating it enough that everyone in the city knew about it. Come late March, the streets would be packed with people fleeing.

"Hi mom, grandpa." Came a voice behind him.

It was the woman from the news, the one that traveled back in time.

8.6 (Guardian Box) or Miss Hebert Goes On A Vacation

She considered this loop. Frankly, the thought of even entertaining the thought of enjoying the subtle pleasures of the Trio's company made her sick. The very idea of, once again, fighting, trying to clean up the Bay, or doing anything at all really, filled her with disgust. So she made her decision.

"Fuck it, I'm going on a vacation"

And so she did.

-=B=-

First, she needed a car to quickly get away from this mess of a city. She ventured into one of the more up-scale neighbourhoods and found a suitable vehicle. It was quite a nice ride, and considering all that happened to her thorough all of her lives, she quickly decided she quite deserved to travel in style. Employing all of her considerable experience, painstakingly acquired thorough uncountable aeons, she checked for the security, blocked off cameras, broke into the car, hot-wired it and rode away, happily and quite deliberately ignorant of the world around her.

-=B=-

Max Anders scratched his head in befuddlement. He could have sworn he parked his automobile, imported from Germany at no small expense, right where the empty spot on the parking lot was. Suspecting a theft, he promised himself to have words with the security responsible for this place later. Still, he had work to do, and no way to get to his workplace. He dialled for one of his employees who owned him a favour to come and pick him up.

Minutes later, a nice but not as nice car arrived, and good old Frank stepped out and opened the door for him. Max got in, readying himself for a day of hard work as a CEO of a successful medical company, ignoring Frank's incessant blabber about his 'psycho wife'.

What Max didn't know is that Frank's wife recently learned that her husband was cheating on her with a younger woman. When the car bomb went off, neither knew what hit them.

-=B=-

Taylor knew how to drive. Say otherwise to her face and you'll get a face full of spiders.

So when she swerved off to avoid a kitten on the road, driven through a side walk and hit an unsuspecting older Asian guy, it was totally his fault. An unfortunate accident by no means caused by Taylor forgetting which pedal did what.

And unless you have some weird fetish for spiders invading your every orifice, you better believe that's exactly what happened.

-=B=-

When the police and paramedics arrived, they were unable to help the older gentleman. It was pronounced that he died instantly, and a warrant for the car that hit him was put up. Later in the morgue, the identification process for the man began. Unfortunately, one Mr. Kenta didn't have any listed family left to contact.

-=B=-

She stopped at a gas station. She had a long way before her after all, not that she knew where she was going, and needed her tank full for the trip.

Still fuming from the earlier accident, which was by no means her fault, she was lost in thought enough not to notice her tank overflowing and gas starting to leak on the pavement. Upon finally spotting the leakage, and realising she had no money to pay for it anyway, she calmly went into the car and drove the fuck away before anyone could stop her.

The ancient and faulty dispenser kept happily spewing forth flammable substances.

-=B=-

Thomas didn't get much sleep last night, so it could be forgiven of him to forget to do a thing or two in the early morning.

Still, he went on with his routine admirably, getting up, cleaning himself, eating breakfast and driving to work, all the while having a nagging feeling he forgot something. Of course, as luck would have it, his car was all out of fuel, so he drove to a nearby gas station to fill up his tank. Just as he drove in, he saw a car speeding out. Thinking nothing of it he got out of his car, ready to refuel, when he noticed the smell of spilled gasoline and a youngster on a bike who didn't quite take the "no smoking" sign seriously. He could only watch in fascinated horror as the still smouldering remnant of a thrown out smoke sailed through the air, straight for the puddle of spilled gasoline.

'Ah, that' he suddenly remembered, as the flickering ember ignited the spilled fuel, 'forgot to split the timeline', he thought half a second before the gas station exploded.

8.7 (Rex)

I was smiling. Fortunately, my mask was full facial, so none of my jailers could tell. Well, not jailers exactly. I Had gone to some trouble in order to make sure they brought me here. Though really, with my reputation I doubt they would have tried to keep me away even if I was still a villainous warlord rather than a probationary ward.

"Jitterbug, it's time." Chevalier's rich voice was as calm as ever. I had once devoted 50 straight loops to trying to make him squeak in fear. I hadn't succeeded. Yet.

I opened my mouth and began to sing.

"Four and a half billion years of peaceful existence,

Before they came along just to end it.

So the tri-annual problem for our generation

Is finding a way to defend it."

Behemoth, first and least terrible of the Endbringers obligingly tore his way out of the ground at just the right time for me to transition into the second verse. Pretending to be a song based trump became so much easier with Ziz on my side. I encouraged the defending humans to start their attacks with the second verse.

"Like maybe...

Building a rocket

Or sending a mecha

Or setting up a giant blockade."

All of which were useless against the Herokiller of course, but it's the thought that counts. And besides the two extras for this loop were the ultimate trump card, so even for a Jitterbug loop I was being extra silly this time around. Speaking of which,

"Utilizing someone that doesn't exist." I gestured at my former teammates, drawing a butterfly arrow over the youngest team member's head prompting her to give a token 'hey' in protest to being singled out like that.

"or giving a villain your aid." Entirely a space filler, and inappropriate for this early in the combat. I just couldn't come up with something better for this specific situation, so the line from when I arrive much later on snuck its way through.

"Stopping lightning bolts" Go go golem power. Oh, and Alexandria blocked one too, but if she would go ahead and fuck off already that would be great.

I may still be bitter about all the times she killed me when I tried to stage a brutal take over of Cauldron using only capes under the age of ten.

"Creating nanobots" Which were pretty much completely useless against Behemoth considering how fast those things burnt up, but the Azazel made a decent attempt at it anyway. People were always so willing to trust thinkers once they were on the same side. I'd be annoyed if it didn't tend to be so very useful.

"Or locating Clockblocker's brain." I continued to sing. I couldn't let my cynicism get in the way of the tempo. If this didn't work out, then the deal was that I would land straight back in prison, this time without the PRT's favor. I ignored Clockblocker's squawking about how he was right there, instead choosing to pause for a brief interlude. I hummed under my breath for a moment to stop anyone from being suspuscious. Behemoth was battering away at a massively fortified wall that had sprung out of nowhere to separate him from the rest of New Delphi. The next verse was done all in a rush, the last of the high energy listing before I switched to the new verses I had prepared.

"Finding a helpful plan

Protecting a city

and driving Tattletale insane"

Tattletale called out my cape name in annoyance. I didn't bother hiding how much that made my smile grow. When she wasn't in the loop my apparent ability to succeed in any task so long as I sang about it gave her power fits as it tried to work out the mechanics behind it.

"As you can hear

There's a whole lot of stuff to do

Before he breaks that wall"

A bird themed cape in blue and gold power armor was sent flying backwards from a swing of the endbringer's mighty fist. Despite being torn in half, the obvious tinker showed no signs of difficulty. I doubt anyone else heard the pilot of the top half call down to the legs.

"Come on Ferb!" And there was my pair of ace in the holes. Fused loops with the most overpowered reality warpers I had ever encountered short of the gods and goddess of Yggdrasil themselves. Neither of them seemed to be awake, but it was notoriously hard to tell the difference with these two. I reached the final, triumphant verse.

"So laze around 'cause Phineas and Ferb

Are gonna do it all

So laze around 'cause Phineas and Ferb are

Gonna do it all!"

My task completed and the destruction of Behemoth ensured. (again.) I pulled up a convenient lounge chair, stripped out of my costume, and began working on my tan. My relaxtion was interrupted by Armsmaster's complaint to his not yet girlfriend.

"Dragon! Jitterbug's neglecting her duties against an Endbringer!" It was amazing how much of a stick up his ass Armsmaster managed to maintain if he wasn't exposed for his truce breaking during the Leviathan attack. Still, I would have to deal with this, or he would keep pestering me about it.

"That's nice dear," Dragon's electronic voice came through the speakers on our armbands, "but you'll have to bring it up about after the fight. Right now I'm busy talking to a platypus about a pharmacist."

I managed to suppress a flinch of sympathy for my fellow super villain. That Agent P was a threat to all law a-breaking super villains!

As Behemoth was struck by a green ray fired from an orbiting satellite and was suddenly transformed into a flock of moths I chuckled at my brief mental descent into hammy silver age super villainy. I might do that full time next loop.

…

Oh my gods! The Behe-moths still had dynakineticism!

My evil laugh could not be restrained as the possibilities exploded before my eyes.

8.8 (Prim-the-Amazing)

I was headed back to Winslow High the day after my Trigger event when he found me. Huh. It usually took him a shorter amount of time to find me. He often accosted me on my way back home from the Locker Incident, or, on some admittedly hilarious occasions, while I was still inside the locker. Christ, the looks on the trio's faces. Priceless.

He offered me an uprooted bush. I accepted it with a sigh. He smiled slightly.

There was a method to his madness, I could see, after so many Loops of him hounding me. He observed that romantic couples often exchanged foliage (flower bouquets), and so he got some foliage to get me as well, in an attempt to woo me. This wasn't even the first time he'd pulled this particular trick. I remembered the time he'd given me a Redwood tree, after hearing someone stupidly say in his hearing range that 'bigger was better' (yes, it was Alec).

I walked to my high school, bush in hand (if I threw it away he'd just try and find a 'better' one), and Scion floated happily after me.

God, I hated crushes.

I'd been pretty freaked out the first time it had happened, the first sign. It wasn't a particularly unusual Loop. So far I'd broken out Marquis from the Birdcage, convinced Amy to abandon her adopted family and elope with me and her father (it was always so easy to do that if I made sure to first kill Victoria and make it look like an accident and then give Amy time to mourn a bit first), and we'd been posing as a nomadic group called 'the Associates'.

We were walking down the streets of Canada, covered in Heartbreaker's blood, citizens shrieking and fleeing at the sight of us, discussing where we should visit next (Amelia and Marquis wanted to go to France, and I was considering overthrowing the Yàngbǎn again), when he showed up.

He took a kitten stuck up in a tree and carefully placed it on the ground. And then he looked at me. He stared. As usual, he radiated his emotions and he felt, he looked, shocked. Curious. Hopeful.

He had no reason to pay attention to me, to feel like that, to change his facial expression! Yet he did it.

After the Loops had started, I'd taken a strange approach to surprises. On the one hand, few things surprised me these days, so I absolutely loved it when it happened. On the other hand, I only did so when I understood the surprises, could explain them to myself, why so and so was doing so. When I didn't understand them, couldn't explain them, I-

Well, long story short, I, at the ripe old age of fifteen, somehow managed to die of a heart attack. Despite the greatest healer in the world and a freaking Entity interested in me being only feet away.

Just my fucking luck.

So then I'd woken up in the locker. Again. I couldn't stop thinking about the Scion thing, so I sought him out. He pretty much had the same reaction as the last time he'd seen me, shock, hope, and curiosity. I decided to carefully question him about this.

"What the fuck!?" I said.

That was apparently a bad idea, as then he tried to reply. In his native language, for lack of a better term.

GREETINGS

That single word consumed me and my entire existence. Each syllable, packed with so many nuances, so many underlying ideas and thoughts and emotion.

It tore my body up into mush on impact.

When the next Loop started I sighed, and decided to do something that I had mixed feelings about. Contessa. My instant win button. Also my biggest crutch. She made everything so easy when I used her. So boring. But I didn't have time to solve this mystery the hard way. I was curious now.

If I'm let out of this locker and told what's different about me now, I'll kill the Endbringers. I decided, careful to leave out any mentions of Scion. He blocked her power. She'd want the Endbringers dead. There was no way to control them to hurt Scion (that she knew of), so all they did was kill potentially useful Capes. The world would be better off without them.

Barely a moment later I heard the sound of someone opening the lock on the door to my locker. A second later and it opened, and I fell into a suited woman's waiting arms. I looked up at her expectantly.

"Your power, it's so old, so experienced. More so than any shard has had the possibility to be before, so it's not just budding anymore, it's growing. You're becoming less human." She wrinkled her nose in confusion at what had just come out of her mouth, but just shrugged and walked away.

I didn't bother to watch her leave. Contessa's power was of limited help in this situation, as it was so close to Scion, but I had enough information to connect the dots. I understood. Slowly, ever so slowly, I was becoming an Entity.

I spent that Loop killing the Endbringers, thinking, and avoiding Scion.

I spent a while uselessly angsting about this, until I finally decided that it didn't matter. No matter how Entity like I became, in the end, everything was still connected to my human brain, which wasn't that sociopathic, thank you very much. I'd once spent a few hundred or so Loops convincing Miss Yamada that I was a perfectly sane and stable individual and succeeded. Eventually.

I tried to see if this growing thing made my powers any different. Turned out, it did. I now had my bug powers, but I could also switch to my Khepri power set. I learned that the Khepri power set had the same limitations as the original one, rapidly disappearing sanity, for one, when I woke up in my locker again, a fresh new Loop before me. At least my sanity (what little I had left) came back to me when I died and started a new Loop. My bug powers turned on automatically at a new life.

After that, I made sure to keep my Khepri powers in reserve, except for on special occasions, and I usually switched back to my bug powers before I became too much of a drooling wreck to even consider it.

After a while, I got more powers to switch between. Mainly Master powers, but there were some different ones here and there. It was pretty cool. And I managed to get enough powers that I didn't instantly die whenever Scion tried to talk to me his way (although I did get a nasty migraine from some of our longer 'conversations', if they could be called that. Scion wasn't that bright).

But what was more annoying was the side effects of that. As I acquired more and more powers and became more and more Entity like, the less and less closer Scion had to be to me to notice me. He usually did as I said, but if it was one thing I couldn't order him to do, it was leave me alone. He just couldn't bring himself to leave my side for too long. He was, for lack of a better way to put it (and because it was true, sadly), in love with me. Hopelessly, head over heels, blindly, doubtlessly in love with me.

According to Dinah, it postponed the end of the world to exactly after my natural death, at least. I had to take her word on it, as the Loops didn't really last that long. And apparently my natural life span was absurdly long now as Scion pulled out all the powers he had to elongate it when he noticed that I aged like normal humans for some reason. He was kind of sweet, for the guy who often killed almost everyone I knew on the most epic murder spree of mankind. Well, until I became a viable mate for him, at least.

If I didn't take great pains to try and hide it, it usually came out fairly quickly. The reactions varied. Cauldron usually either did something ridiculously drastic (kill me, kidnap me, protect me with their life, one notable time making me Queen Mistress of the entire world) or nothing at all that I could see. The trio collectively pissed their pants, the Protectorate became overly aggressive in their eagerness, until they ticked off Scion of course, at which point they followed the trio's example, dominating the local Cape scene became even easier than it had been before, and PHO always bugged the fuck out in the most entertaining way possible.

He made things a lot harder, in some ways, and a lot easier in others. What mattered was, he had good intentions. Sort of. Vaguely. I tried not to think about it too much, to be honest.

Which brought me back to the present. I was entering the school, and Scion was flying behind me, radiating love and devotion, his eyes fully fixed on me. The school body's reaction was fairly hilarious, as usual. Emma fainted, Madison screamed forever, and Sophia jumped out of a window in her haste to run away.

The PRT reacted pretty funnily too, when I insisted on attending all of my classes first before deigning to talk to them. The man who'd been chosen to speak for them, an unassuming man called Thomas Calvert (heh), tried to protest at first, at which point Scion glared so ferociously that Thomas pissed his pants. I was mildly surprised that he didn't collapse that reality.

He dropped an apple tree on my desk and Mr. Gladly stuttered in the middle of his lecture, sweating bullets, and then at my pointed look forced himself to continue.

I put a hand on the apple tree and smiled indulgently at Scion. He smiled back, wider, radiating pleasure at having made me do the face thing that humans did when they were content.

Definitely one of the weirder relationships I'd been in, and that said a lot considering how long I'd had to fool around.

And surrounded by one beyond happy Entity, a class terrified for their lives, a news crew pointing their cameras in at the windows of my class room, PRT vans, Alexandria and most of the local heroes all waiting tensely at the edges of the school property, I really couldn't bring myself to care.

GRATITUDE, I projected.

8.9 (NemiTheNen)

She was a thread, a single strand. Small and fragile, but infinetly more than any other Shard on this world and any other variation.

When Scion looked he could not see how this came to be, how a Shard, unhoused, unmatured, managed to split before attaching to the human female.

A single thread, his partner, smaller than even their offspring would be.

The Entity was aware that she was not as he was, he came to view the world as one of the natives, assuming their form, learning their thoughts; she was the opposite, his opposite. It pleased him, because they were supposed to be complementary, but she was too small and too weak to bare him, to bare the joyous ending that would spread them out to the stars.

Closer observation showed him how her shards were nearly all identical, all administrative shards twisted in various directions. A good start, but not ideal. She needed more shards, more variety. He had to give her ones full and ripe with conflict and power, different from her own, ones that would keep that mortal coil of hers alive, ones that would complement her powers. But not so many as to crush her, infintesimal in size.

Scion sent his awareness out for the most promising of shards, and left in a flash of gold.

Bonesaw looked up, "Oh Fuck."

8.10 (NemiTheNen)

After so many lives Taylor had learned a trick, she could influence her powers.

Her Shard remained the same, a {Control} Shard, but its powers were filtered through her state of mind, her thoughts, her needs, and her very DNA.

When she Awoke in the locker, provided she was of a clear mind when she died, she could throw her metaphorical weight around, heaving her thoughts away from darkness and rot, and instead focus on, say, escape, rending metal, and other such things.

Telekineses, super strength on a few occasions, more often a sort of unnatural awareness of the breaking points of materials. Tinker abilities didn't come often, her Shard was not one that carried information from other civilizations, but she could bend her analysis of other Tinkers. Telepathy of some sort happened frequently, a sort of Kephri-lite.

This time she was focusing on wanting the smell to stop, wanting to control herself, and wanting to be aware of anything other than the small space she was trapped in.

She was going to go for Body Control, specifically, her own body, and Awareness. preferably a sort of astral projection.

When she finally got it to work, the locker opened a 'dead' body fell out.

Taylor metaphorically cackled and kicked her legs back, watching things unfold.

8.11 (NemiTheNen)

The last thing I saw before Scion's open hand, glowing and sliding in sideways fractals, impacted with me chest was his open, hopeful, helpful face turning to one of abject horror.

Taylor Herbert died and Didn't Wake Up.

Oh, I was certainly aware, but I wasn't in the locker, I wasn't...anywhere really. Neither waking not sleeping. Awake, but not.

I was Aware.

Between my {hands} there was a string of {pearls}, {thousands} of them. Glowing, each subtly different from one another, but the {core}, the {irritant} was the same in each.

I {touched} them, and memories sprang up in my mind perfectly vivid and sharp. True recollection, and I nearly wept. There were painful memories here, but they were mine. To forget, to be {severed} from {my anchors} was horror, even if they were gone, I would recall them, and have them with me. Kephri, was I, but monster I would not be, so long as this held.

And this would hold forever.

My {fingers} slipped down the line, tripping over darkness and dwelling on light, feeling the subtle changes where I wrenched my Shard into expressing differently.

So many years, so many lives, loops, some were small where I gave up, or where I was foolish, some were so very long indeed.

Then I reached the last one, and felt it be so different to my {touch}.

I also felt like I was sticking my finger into my belly button which was also somehow my ear.

I felt {energy}, {growths}, {grafts}, {fertiliz}-

ACK.

I {jerked back} and braced myself, what did that crazy idiot do to me? I reached again and...

Shards, additions, one was {projective weapon}, another was {adaptive healing} and yet a third was {biological analysis and data storage}.

There were six more.

The big golden idiot had shoved the Shards of the fucking Slaughterhouse Nine into me.

Stop. Think.

There...I didn't {feel} the memories or shades in them that I felt in my own. Which was a big relief.

Why did he do it? Right, he obviously took me to be some sort of baby Entity or something. But there was no way he couldn't recognize my Shard was from him so...

No, he wouldn't care much about incest, he had been planning on reproducing on this planet and all the 'little' entities would already be paired up. So why couldn't he simply make a new partner on his own? Shards were already growing and budding, my string of {pearls} was proof enough of that.

Unless, of course, he couldn't. He obviously kept a lot of shards to himself, and I knew from personal experience that my Shard wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, it needed me for it to think, it needed me for direction and personality. Perhaps he couldn't give up enough shards for that sort of thing to be viable without killing himself, but split between two they both could survive and regenerate it so they could repeat the process.

And I wasn't budding. I was...all of my shards were still connected to each other, which was probably why I was getting strong. I probably resembled the mutation that got his species stepping up to being multi-shard organisms, just as my distant ancestor stepped up to become a multi-cellular organism. But I was still by and large identical, undifferentiated.

So he had been trying to feed me, and, uh, force my evolution I guess, to develop specialized shards.

I did not know if my Shard was going to reset after this or not, and I had already pulled massively stupid shit, and I always wanted to be a tinker...

8.12 (Mr Tebbs)

Class being the queen of high school is... surprisingly boring. Glad to see that UnAwake me didn't think the world of Mr. Gladdy. Turning on him would have been, awkward. Fun, to be sure, but still awkward, and I didn't really feel like getting up to too many shenanigans this early on.

I wonder what dinner with Dad will be like.

Actually, why don't I cook for him! I'm always a better cook when I'm in a good mood *Ruummble* and hungry! Well, might as well make something he likes, I'll eat anything I cook.

Hmm. He should be coming home 5:30… I hope he isn't late, food's best when eaten warm. Actually, why don't I just call him? Would that be out of the ordinary? Check the memories and... Eh... yeah it would be, but hell. This is my show now, I don't care what Unawake me would have done.

Dialing "Hey dad?"

"Sweetheart? Is, is something wrong?" He sounds really surprised.

Damn. What the hell old me? "No, not really I was just making sure you were going to be home on time."

"Um, I should be, why?" he sounded thoroughly confused now. I mentally sighed.

"I just have a semi-time sensitive surprise for you."

"Oh? Well, I should be back home at my normal time, I'll see you around 5:30 ok?"

"OK, bye!" *click* Hanging up on my dad… Maybe that'll put him back to rights? Or he's thinking I've got a boyfriend I want him to meet but the guy's only got so much time before he has to go to work or something? Well, whatever. Time to cook! Let's see, consult the memories for what he likes, etc. Hmm. My memories say I'm constantly embarrassed by him. But, it's mostly out in public, so that's something. We still get along fine together at home, which makes sense because for all that my 'past' is different I'm still my father's daughter. Now, for the important memories: Food.

"Taylor! I'm- Wow." Hahaha, he's stopped in his tracks.

"hee hee" Damn, didn't mean for that giggle to escape. "Surprise!"

"That, smells really good." He seems to be in a bit of a daze.. cool. Good to know my cooking's still up to snuff.

"Thanks! It should be ready in a few minutes; I shot for 5:50 for everything to be ready."

"That..thanks. Um…" It looked like questions were fighting for dominance in his head. "What brought this on?" And we have a winner!

"It was just something I wanted to try." I give him my best canary-eating-cat grin. "I left the dishes for you though, wouldn't want you to think I'm mature and domesticated now, would I?"

The conversation was decidedly one sided during dinner, on account of the fact that dad was too busy eating to ask me any questions. At least until he was fuller, anyway. Ahh, small talk with my dad. Especially nice considering he doesn't know he needs to tiptoe around any subject. It's nice being able to be mostly honest with him.

"This is the most amazing dinner I've ever had. Where did you learn to cook like this?"

"Oh I just read it online somewhere, got side tracked on Wikipedia or something?" See? Mostly honest!

"Well, it's amazing"

"Thanks!" despite needing to hide my skill I do love moments like these with him.

"You seem remarkably happy today."

"Uh! well, I'm, uh. I'm just, really happy today!" Ehhehehe, I may have spoken too soon about the mostly honest part...

"I take it school's still going really well then?"

"Oh..yeah.. uh." Crap! Dangerous ground, again. He's expecting me to go to school tomorrow... No, that's not right, he's not even considered that I might not want to go to school tomorrow! Damnit! I don't really want to disappoint him, but what a pain! I'll have to see Sophia, Emma, and... actually just Sophia and Emma. Huh. I wonder what happened to Madison. Oh crap, dad's looking at me funny. I'm frowning. Crap! What happened to my poker face?! I guess it's been a tougher century than I thought.

"Uh, I just remembered." Before he could ask the question. "There might be something unpleasant I need to take care of tomorrow. But it shouldn't be a big deal." I'll take my lumps at school, if nothing else I'll get to enjoy a day of being popular.

"Oh. Well. As, as long as you have it under control... It won't affect your sleepover will it?"

God. Damn. It. "It..might actually." May as well plant that seed now.

The next day

Let's see what it's like walking in the front door of school without needing to worry about the Trio! Oh, hell. Here comes Emma and boy she looks pissed! This is going to end poorly. Hey look, Sophia's chasing after her! This is definitely going to end poorly! I guess I won't get to see what walking thru the front door without being harassed is like. I was worried this loop was going to be weird.

"You call off the sleepover, and you can't even tell me yourself!? Seriously?! Soph gives me some cryptic B.S. excuse and you just-"

Sophia managed to catch up just then, panting a bit. "Woah, woah, let's… let's get." *sigh* "Let's do this somewhere else. Emma, I'm sure she has a good reason, but-"

Emma butts in with a glare. "She cancels the sleepover for no reason, doesn't tell me, apparently tells you, and you're just fine with it!?"

"No", she said. "Uh.. damnit! I can't think straight after sprinting after you like that."

"Why do you even need to think straight?! She either did or she didn't!"

"That doesn't even- I'm trying to remember what she said!"

"Sounds like you're trying to come up with an excuse!"

"All I'm trying to say is we shouldn't be shouting here!"

"Okay, okay okay." As amusing as their banter is, I REALLY need to head this off, before... well, I suppose it's too late now, fan-f#cking-tastic. "I'll clear things up later, but seriously... People are looking at us funny." I hissed. Freaking high school drama.

"Why not now?!"

"I promise I will -later- But! I think everyone needs to cool off a bit, and Sophia's right, we shouldn't be shouting here."

*sigh* "Ok… you promise." Giving me a rather pointed look.

"Yes, I promise!" Jesus, Emma. It's not like I've ever given you a reason not to trust me

As we walk inside, Sophia and I break off for our first period class together. I lean in and whisper "What the FUCK was that, Sophia!?" If other people's heads turned, it just meant they had really good hearing.

"Jesus Taylor, keep it down. I'm right here…"

Ok, maybe not. Deep breaths Taylor. "What, the fuck. I told you to explain it to her, I assumed you'd to keep her under control."

"You told me to 'explain it to her' without mentioning Triggering or Possession, how the hell did you expect me to do that, exactly? It's not like there are any other real reasons. Except for… let's say… time travel?" Sophia smirked. "Something tells me that one would go even poorer than the other two."

"…Worse."

"Huh?"

"Even worse, not even poorer."

"Whatever, stop being such a pedant."

We walked in silence the rest of the way to class. It was, if anything even more boring than yesterday. Afterward I left before I could be stopped; being popular and seeing all these kids as the fakes they are was quickly souring my mood. I seriously hope Sam contacts me soon, not sure how long I can take all this fakeness. Speaking of fakes, I didn't sense Sophia in my immediate area until lunch. Aaaaand, she's sitting down next to me… seriously, is it impossible to give her a hint? I'm practically screaming 'I'm PISSED and don't want to talk to anyone, let alone you!'

May as well call her on it. "Can't you take a hint?"

"Sure…but who do you want me to give it to?"

That took a few seconds to parse… "Wow, that… that was awful."

"Yeah.." She coughed

"Wait, if I'm popular, shouldn't there be, like, a bunch of people around me?" How friggen out of it am I? Or do I always associate eating in the cafeteria with eating alone. That's one hell of a depressing thought. Well, if I wasn't angry before, I was now!

"I told people that you were pissed, and it'd be a good idea to give you and I some space."

Huh. "That's pretty good thinking, actually. Gives you a chance to talk to me alone. Though why you think I want to talk to you is-

"I'm sorry. I, uh.." A pause, was she waiting for me to continue? I hope not, cuz that pretty well wrecked my train of thought, I may as well see where she goes with it. "I've had lots of time to think about things." I chuckled at that, and she cracked a smile for a second. "I get it, I'm huge bitch. I'm one of the first people to hurt you. Hell, I turned your friend on you and-"

"Sophia." I interupt. *sigh* "In my first 'run through' I was a crime lord, went toe to toe with the S9, stared down and killed Alexandria, to say nothing of Coil and Scion, and you think-? Seriously, I don't give a shit about that anymore, I mean hell, that's-"

"Is that why you called off the sleepover then?"

Motherfucking Condescending little shit! The FUCK does she think she is!?. I clenched and relaxed my fist a couple times. Deep breaths. Keep it together.

"I'm sss-" She pauses. Deep breaths Taylor. "no, I'm not sorry for that." It's not worth going to the birdcage for that remark, yet. "You've got some serious hang-ups on the past, and-"

"Sophia" for all that I whispered the word, the room seemed to shake with the force of it. "I Awaken in a filth filled locker. Or in the process of you, Emma, and Madison pouring crap on me. Or five minutes to the end of class to be bounced around by 5 or 6 idiots who are terrible at coming up with insults! How could you possibly think opening myself up to you two- to let that do some real damage- is a good idea for me? I'll take your damn apology, but if you think –for a second– that that's the reason I want as little to do with you as possible, you're delusional and insane."

What, no response to that one Sophia? I can feel my bugs starting to gather. I let them.

I glance at her, and she's actually taken a more meditative air... She meditates? Eh, whatever. I stab a few mouthfuls of food in my maw and continue "You want to be my fwend? Cute. Then in a few years I can end up back in the locker, or covered in soda, or bounced around by your minions and remember that, 'Hey, in a different time and place we can be good friends' and know that it won't happen at least for the next few years, if ever again!" Real it in Taylor, deep breaths, and let's start calling a bee swarm together whynot "I can deal with all the bullshit of a normal Awakening because I can distance myself from it. You want me to let you close so it can hurt worse? Go to hell. I'll fucking send you there myself. You done your deeds and made your choices, hundreds of thousands of times and you'll have to deal with the consequences."

"No."

"No?" I scoff "You won't have to deal with the consequences?"

"No, I didn't choose bullying you." I gave her my best Spock (I've been told it's quite good). "Alright, I made decisions like that a handful of times," she amended, "relatively speaking BUT, I can't actually choose anything different."

She sighs "You're right. Even if we actually become besties, again, we'll most likely end up with me shoving you in That locker. By the time I Wake up, I'll have already been bullying you. Again. And again."

"Right, that's what I said… Which is why I can't really be friends with you'n Emma." I was a bit lost with where she was going with this. It didn't help that I was pissed. I was tempted to just up and walk away (and bee her if she tried to stop me), but, eh.. what the hell, it's not like she could really hurt me. Not as bad as I could hurt her anyway.

She seems exasperated. "Taylor, there is no possible way I can prevent me, other me, from shoving you in There. Except for the few times I Woke Up just in time to flub the push and you spun me in there instead. By the time the three of us are pouring soda on you, the entire campaign is running on inertia. I can't stop it. Believe me, I've tried, there are too many people involved."

"So... What are you saying, exactly? You want to stop it but you can't?" Bullshit. I think I'm done here.

"Pretty much. At least without doing something drastic and stupid."

Ah ha. She's afraid of spoiling her image. That's adorable. I gave a snort, maybe I'm not done here just yet. "I figured something drastic and stupid would be your MO."

Sophia scowled at that. "I'm trying to grow as a person here. The usual start times make that somewhat difficult to show."

I tossed that around my head a bit. "That's, fair actually." Eh, the swarm's pretty big now, and it doesn't seem likely I'll need it. Guess I'll just have it disburse? Although…

I thought about it some more. "That doesn't explain why you were trying to be all buddy-buddy with me, this time. I mean, making my life not hell and being best buddies with me don't need to go hand in hand. At all."

Sophia fidgeted a bit at that. "Yesterday I said I wanted to get to know you. I meant it then, I mean it now, I want to get to know you." She tried to stare me down, but fidgeted under my gaze. "Fine, I also wanted to figure out how you think. Well, a you anyway."

"Oh." Ah, a Fucking spy. Get in nice and close, the better to slide the knife. Bitch. Guess I am going to swarm you again. I let the silence hang for a minute or two. Enough time to gather a decent ball of black flies and other filler directly over her head. Fewer bees than I'd like but I guess I can wait for them to catch up. Time to stall. "You wanted to get to know me? To what end?"

Left unsaid: Sophia, give me one good reason why I shouldn't drop this on you right now.

Heh heh, she's spooked. I love puting the fear of Me into people.

"Nothing malicious!" Words almost tripping out of her mouth. "I just wanted to figure out some way of talking to you that didn't involve getting into an all out cape fight or bees!"

Uhm.. "What?"

"You're hard to talk to! Well, hard for me to talk to, anyway. I mean, look at this conversation! And... I wanted to try something different because I'm, uh, kinda sick and tired of getting Bees as soon as I Wake Up, or getting Eaten Alive shortly after. It..it sucks. A lot."

That's a pretty good reason, actually. Assuming she isn't lying. Well, I'll be able to figure that out, I'm pretty sure. Just need her to talk some more… "A lot of the times I get Bee'd I have maybe 2 or 3 minutes to do anything then my body mass in bees start stinging and trying to carry me away. Sometimes I don't even know what happens, I'm dead before I can scream, or a brown recluse follows pain follows black widow and that's always fun…"

She seems pretty distant, I wonder if she's having flash backs? I give her a glance and..wow, she's got the Stare. That's… I'd better just let her work through this. Maybe? Or will she get violent if-

"Of course" she says, breaking me out of my reverie. "nothing compares to the attention of Bonesaw when she's pissed AND motivated to make you suffer." 100% true, that's something I wouldn't wish on anyone. "That said, getting bee'd and eaten are a lo~t more common." She let that simmer with me for a few.

Holy shit, I think I broke her. What the hell am I supposed to do with a broken Sophia? Should I disburse the swarm? I don't see how this could be a trick or a trap, if she wanted to attack me she'd have done it already, especially in her current state of mind. At the same time, it's not like she's sane either... I'll keep it in reserve incase she snaps.

Damn, just how often have I killed her? I know I'd occasionally have my swarm eat her in her bed, How often did I do that? I remember one time she was really confused for a split second before, futilely, trying to save herself. Fuck, I think I did that to her and her family once. I wonder if I let them live after she died? Probably not, there were a few times where I just needed to attack her to vent the last few loops. Jesus, am I feeling bad for Sophia?

Neither of us were touching our *ahem* 'food' now. Apparently the conversation killed her appetite, and I'd kinda lost mine thinking back to the times I'd had my swarm eat her. "This is a bit out of character for you." I say, more to distract myself than anything. She gave a puzzled look at that. I tried to clarify "Don't you normally punch problems til they aren't problems, or something?"

She gave a bark of a laugh. "Well, despite popular belief to the contrary, I can learn from my past mistakes." I gave her a flat look. "Eventually, anyway." Cough. "So, buddy-buddy is out, too awkward. Is there any other way I can convince you not to eat me, or bee me -or hell the school, for that matter- the first day you Wake Up?"

That's.. a good question. Do I trust that she doesn't really want to mess with me anymore? Hell even towards the end of the first run thru we could work together. That said.. my Awakenings are usually awful. not sure I care, buuuut, unstable Loopers are bad for everyone… I'm knowingly getting into a bad situation, so how do I protect myself while still giving her a chance to show she's Awake? Is she trying to play to my sympathies so she can get even with me later? And She really can't stop her unawake self from bullying me, either. Do I want to give her a chance to fake me out? I can be prepared for a physical attack, but giving her a chance to go 'eh, changed my mind do your worst, bitch' will be a more effective attack after this than just about anything except for a sadistic Bonesaw. *shudder*

Eh, what the hell, I suppose she is trying to make an effort. "Do your damnedest to make my life less hell, and... sure, why not. Though you might need to act quick on that front. I've had a few bad centuries before and just went nuts on the city." It's not like I'd ever be able to trust her, but I won't really have to. Make it a rule of sorts. This way if she doesn't want to get ea-i-mean-severely bee'd-then she needs to act in my interests, regardless of trust. Maybe.. "Oh, and make sure my life continues to be not hell if you want to stay unbee'd. I think my new rule of thumb is: torment me and I bee you."

She nodded, after a while she said "Okay, makes sense; I'll think of something to get 'em off you quick. Unless you had something in mind?"

I thought. "Punch the first kid you see picking on me?"

*sigh* "I thought you didn't want me to solve problems by punching?"

"I never said that, I was just surprised you were branching out, as it were." Giving her a shiteating grin.

Sophia rolled her eyes at that. "Well, if nothing else works, I guess I'll use my old standby then."

"That works for me, Though I suppose we can play it by ear or think of something else if this doesn't work."

"Okay. Anyway, thanks for at least considering it. I s'pose I should get used to the idea of doing something that lands me in jail then."

I'd forgotten about that, she's on her third strike "Believe it or not, I'd rather not be picked on or have to attack people to find some measure of peace, AND I don't want you to see me as some kind of final boss or whatever that keeps throwing you in jail. After the Locker should be easy to solve, just get bored and move on. But for-"

And we began to discuss strategies for a bit, and managed to reach a tenuous agreement for the most common awakenings. It wasn't perfect, it would need refining, but it was a start at least.

*Brrrrring*

We each looked at our mostly uneaten trays. "Eh, kinda lost my appetite pretty quick into that conversation. Didn't really get hungry after."

"Same here."

"What are you going to tell Emma?" Sophia asked, standing up.

"Me?"

"You honestly expect me to come up with anything that'll get her to stop pestering you?"

"All this time on your hands and you still can't come up with a good lie." I got a scowl for that. "I'll think of something."

A thought occurred to me "Oh.. if you don't mind my asking, what brought about this branching out from punching of yours?"

Sophia looked like she caught a whiff of something foul. "Uh" she glanced around. "I'll tell you later? This isn't a good place."

I did a sweep too, and she was right. "Sure, see you around, I guess."

After lunch Sophia and I had math together, and Soph decided to sidle up to me as we were taking our seats.

"Hey, Taylor."

"Yeah?"

"You hear that, in addition to everything else they stand against, the E88 also hate calculus?"

"No... Really?"

"Yeah, calculus forces integration."

Math class went less than smoothly after Sophia's unexpected joke. It was all I could do to keep it together. "Ow, my sides… Where'd you learn that one?"

Sophia gathered herself before saying, "I had a really good math Prof once in a near hub world. I never get tired of telling it."

"Excuse me! Would you ladies like to join the rest of the class?" crap, speaking of math teachers…

"Oh, we, ah.." I floundered

"We were just talking about, um calculus!" Sophia… not helping, as I had to reign in my laughing again.

"Yeah" may as well get in on it. "Like, the, uh. Difference between Newton's version and Leibnitz's"

"Right! Like, Newton's was first, but only he could do the entire Taylor Expansion to use it properly, but Leibnitz wasn't as smart-ish, and figured out some formulas are, uh, anti-derivatives, of….others." Sophia kinda lost steam towards the end, and the rest of the class had gone glassy-eyed with the teacher giving us a Look. "We'll uh, we'll be quiet now."

"Good." Sophia and I shared an oops look.

After class I had only one viable story to tell Emma: I'd gotten a job. It still seemed flimsy, to me. I suppose I'd have been embarrassed of needing a job, but I'm sure I'd have told Emma? Eh, honestly that's kind of up in the air, really. Hmm, maybe if the job was embarrassing? Or the reason behind it was embarrassing, now I'm getting somewhere! Dad and I are still struggling, so there's that. I wouldn't want a burger flipping job (well, I don't want a burger flipping job). So… maybe I can work for Parian? I've still got my ability to make cloth, so there's that. Well, it's the best I've got.

Sophia walked up to me in the hall between classes. Which period am I in anyway? Damned, efficient autopilot. "So you have anything?" She asked.

"About 3/4ths an idea with no fall back." I reply. "Tell her that I've got a job working for Parian, and she doesn't want me to tell anyone I work for her, in case some capes try to recruit her or something."

"Oh. That's pretty good… I was just thinking, what if we told her the truth?" I gave her another Spock. "Not the whole truth! They'd throw us in a padded room and throw away the keys! I was thinking tell her the part where we're going to save the world from a giant murderous space whale that wants to eat our children and cupcakes."

I, what? The only part i could latch onto was: "Cupcakes?"

She grinned. "That's about the only worthwhile thing I can think of that we'd actually contribute to the space whale; everything else has already been done." Was she serious? "I mean, have you seen a cape power devoted to cupcakes?" I made something resembling a hawk drowning. "There ya go, our shard, as humanity, would have been cupcakes. For the space whale."

I needed a reboot. "I'm impressed at how good of a straight man you are."

"Thanks, I've been working on it quite awhile. You've never given me a chance to banter… not that I can blame you, honestly. I can hardly stand myself sometimes…" Her eyes had gone wide as she finished that sentence. Hmm.

"Does that have something you being less punchy?"

"It does…but I was hoping to give you a dramatic reveal?" She looked, kinda eager, actually. Eh what the hell, you only get a dramatic reveal once.

"Heh, alright."

"Awesome, I'll see if Emma will let us come over after school, and I can…do my reveal then. Want I should tell her the 'reason' the sleep over is off?" She asked.

"I guess…" No real harm with- wait what's that look, Oh God, what did I just agree to?! "NOT, the space whale one, the other one, the sane one."

"The space whale one is the sane one." Sophia deadpanned. Eh?

"How do you figure that?" I challenge.

"You're saying you aren't going to stop the Golden Git?"

Damnit. *sigh* "You're not wrong.."

After school, we gathered at Emma's house. She was a bit upset that I didn't tell her about the job and that made such a huge deal about working for Parian, but she grudgingly bought the excuse (after I mentioned that me and Dad aren't as well off as her family, anyway). I was a little confused why Sophia wanted to reveal her power set to Emma as well, but I'd filed that under 'Her Problem' anyway. I was kinda curious to see what she'd picked up over the loops, too.

"Alright ladies! To the basement!" Sophia said with a flourish. "It's show and tell time." I shrugged, and Emma looked like a deer in headlights.

"Are… Are you sure?" Emma asked.

"Positive. Besides, I owe Taylor an explanation for my part in the whole, don't tell anyone you work for a cape thing" She replied.

The basement was… interesting. There were several guitars (acoustic and electric), speakers, a drum set and a banjo of all things. "What the hell?" I blurted out. "Where did these come from?" Emma said at the same time.

"Right, so I believe I promised a dramatic reveal." Sophia said, motioning towards the instruments. "Though I believe I should address a few of your concerns before I get into it, Taylor."

I nodded. I've got quite a few questions, right about now, including: 'Where the hell did those instruments come from?! I've been with you since we left school!' but I said nothing.

"First off, yes, Taylor, I am still a psychopath. Time hasn't changed that, and I doubt it ever will."

"Wait, WHAT?!" Emma started. I could only nod with a smirk.

Sophia noticed Emma's blue-screen-of-death look and sighed. "Emma, remember when we first met?"

Emma hunched over at the reminder, and whispered "How could I forget…"

"Right, anyway. The me you saw that night, that is and has always been the "Real" "Me." I'm always that detached, I can't understand why someone feels something, and I am unable to blame myself for anything that goes wrong, even if it is quite clearly my fault."

Emma was starting to look a little less distant. "But that, that doesn't make sense! Ever since we started hanging out… You do know when you've done something wrong, you do get when you've offended or hurt someone, and you do feel bad…"

Sophia was shaking her head by the end. "I've had practice reading people, so I can tell when someone's pissed. I used to use hyper aggression to cover for my lack of understanding, but I've found humor is even more effective. If someone's laughing or confused, that gives me time to sort thru the list I use to keep myself on an even keel, as it were."

Interesting, "But.." I blurt. "you apologized to me, so you must blame yourself for something." Emma gave me a questioning glance, but said nothing.

"The wrong thing, if you'll recall." She retorts. "As for my ability to blame myself for anything well.."

She entered her shadow state, became formless for a second, and then there were two Sophias in front of us. Emma and I both sat bolt upright. Oh god, this is turning into a nightmare!

The Sophias gave each other a once over, and the nearer one spoke "This- " gesturing between herself and…her. "-is not a cloning thing; I've actually divided myself. Uh, each of us has roughly half the power of us when we're whole."

"So… how does this have anything to do with acknowledging when you've messed up?" I ask.

"Oh!" the farther one perks up. "When I/we recombine, whole me gets the memories from both of us."

"So.." Emma trailed off.

"So, let's say-" the nearer one began "- we go out on patrol together and she" indicating the other Sophia "misses a shot with the tranq darts we use. And because she missed, the perp manages to blast me once in the arm before I can take him down. In that situation, I'll blame her for being a bad shot, and she'll blame me for not being fast enough to take control of the situation."

The farther one continued. "When we recombine, I get both sets of memories, and both experiences... The result is inescapable, I done fucked up."

"So, you end up with empirical evidence that you're to blame for something bad happening to you" I say, if only to make sure I understand "…wow… So-"

"I'm able to blame myself because of the scientific method, essentially." The farther one says.

"Hypothesis: I am not at fault, gather contradictory evidence to the hypothesis, therefore the hypothesis is false. Therefore I'm at fault." The nearer one explains.

"So, what's with the instruments, then?" Emma asked. Huh, I'd kinda forgotten about them.

"I'm glad you asked!" Nearer Sophia exclaims. "I decided to make a band with my new found ability" cue the dual facepalms. "because it helps train me to work with me!"

"How does that work?" I moan.

"Well," the nearer one starts. "If I…we, whatever, fuck up a song it's never 'My' fault" giving air quotes. "Except that it is when I recombine." The farther one picked up where the nearer left off. "A wrong note feels wrong, gets the point across to me/us, and it's hella safer than constantly going on patrol with myself." With that, farther Sophia picks up one of the electric guitars and asks "any requests?"

I'm feeling kinda mischievous, "What's the one everyone always requests? Free…bird?" I say, giving her a shiteating grin. Emma gave a smirk of her own adding "Yeah, that's a great song!"

Both Sophias give us a look that could melt steel. "Fucking hate you." The farther one finally says, as the nearer Sophia approaches her. The two recombine for a split seconds and then there are three Sophias in front of me. The one getting behind the drums says "ok, usual rules for a duel, I think? First one to bleed loses."

Bass guitar Sophia answers "Sounds good to me." While the other nods her head.

"Wait what?"

"Never heard the line 'Played it 'til my fingers bled'?" Lead Sophia smirks

My stomach drops, "I get the feeling that I'm going to regret that smartass request I made." An evil grin from all three is my only answer. Then they begin to play… surprisingly well, actually. Equally surprising is Sophia's singing. She's quite good.

Then they played the outro.

And they kept playing the outro.

AAAAAAAnd they Kept PLAYING the OUTRO.

After 30 minutes, Emma and I try to run upstairs but the guitar Sophias simply jump through the floor to follow us, complete with smaller Sophias carrying their amps.

"JESUS! Did you make your own roadies!?" Emma yelled.

The smaller Sophias' response was, "You started this mess, you're gonna see it til we're done if it fucking kills you."

"If I get tinnitus from this I swear to god Sophias" was my reply. I will not swarm three Sophias, I will not swarm thre-five! five Sophias! I will not swarm five Sophias.

The ones on the guitars didn't even spare us a glance as they kept rocking out, occasionally flashing to shadow form. We decided to return to the basement. If nothing else we'd have a place to sit. Eventually Emma had to go to the bathroom, threatening fire and brimstone if any Sophias followed her in.

"Ok, where the hell did you learn all this!?" I shouted, out of necessity, when we were alone. Sort of.

One of the smaller Sophias answered, from behind my left ear scaring the crap out of me. "WELL. I..we.. whatever, replaced Nightmare Moon once! After the loop ended I kept her power set, so I'm much stronger than normal, I can teleport myself, people, and channel weather magic in my shadow form (though only in my shadow form), and obviously divide myself into multiple 'people', again in shadow form! Hell, in that form I can fly thanks to my light weighted-ness and weather magic!"

After I got my heart under control I managed to reply "cool… and you can sneak up on me, which is pretty tough to do!"

"Yup!" Her smaller self excitedly said. "When dividing my Self, the smoke form has almost no substance to it, so there's not much for your bugs to notice."

"Got any other cool tricks?"

"Yup!"

A pause, while we listened to her bigger selves jam the hell out. "Anything you'd care to share?"

"Nope!" Little Sophia giggled, shuffling her feet. She was quite adorable

"Are you trying to get me to squee?"

"Yup!"

I sigh. "So…why do you have 'dueling rules' for playing music?" we still had to shout to be heard which made her inflections kind of weird.

Little Sophia changed gears so fast it gave me whiplash (she still had a kid's voice tho). "Because I need to have clear definitions of winning and losing! If I don't and I'm able to blame someone else for why I wasn't doing as well as I thought I could, or if I fail, I will! More than that, I have to blame someone else if I can, my disorder won't let me do anything else! If that's you or Emma, then so be it, but that might be kinda dangerous; because when I divide myself like this I get different ratios of my personality disorder!" *sigh* "basically it took me a very, very long time to be able to do any of this!" she said, indicating the Sophias playing.

"It used to be, I would almost Instantly try to Fight Myself! Then, when I reCombined I'd remember both Sides of the Fight! It Was…Not Fun! Also found out that Any Damage one of us Gets Comes with us when we Recombine, to an Extent! So when I'd piss myself off, I'd get into a fight with me, get myself hurt, which would piss me off more and… yeah. So, instead of me being well, me, I came up with rules to follow! That way when I divide, every Sophia knows the rules, why the rules are there, and agrees to play by them! It keeps me from being as much of a massive bitch, and frankly, I've had a lot more fun since I started doing things by the rules, so I want to keep doing things this way!"

"I see.." I say absently as I try to absorb all that.

"That said, fuck you very much for asking for Freebird, and enjoy the jam session!"

The Sophias finally stopped playing an hour and a half after they started. Everyone involved was still partially deaf the next day, and I will never be able to listen to anything Skynyrd ever again.

Well, maybe just for the next century.

8.13 (BurnNote)

It began, like most things where Jack was concerned, with murder. And so Reilly became Bonesaw, who saw the world much clearer. There was beauty in all things, though occasionally it took a bit of work to dig them out. There were some rough times, but, like with most things where Jack was concerned, it could be solved by murder.

The world went on; there were, since Jack was concerned, a lot of murders and murderers, and if she was a bit lonely, then surely that was because she hadn't found the right way to murder yet.

It also began, like some things where Jack is concerned, before a murder. In this case, a particular preachy parahuman proscribed her perfectly pretty personage. She was rather surprised how much it hurt to be told that no one would ever be her friend. Murder had helped, like it always did where Jack was concerned, but her pride was still injured. She'd show that silly mouse.

She decided to make a friend. Her first try was rather successful, and Jack even praised her for it, which was rather rare, since Jack had high standards where murder was concerned. But she always felt she could have done more, if only because it only took one murder, and more murders were always better, where Jack was concerned.

It was born, like most things where Bonesaw is concerned and Jack close by, shortly after a series of murders. It was a pony, because all little girls wanted ponies, and it was pink, because she didn't have any fur on hand and had worked with the available materials. It tended to rip open and spill organs when she rode it, but that just made it kinda like a pinata, which where fun.

Fun, her new friend had told her, was important. It was essential for Friendship, and since Bonesaw made her friend for that, she had to know. She'd also asked Jack, and he was rather sceptical, but after a demonstration he was happy and approved, like always when murder was concerned.

Her friend taught her a lot of things about friendship. Like Generosity, which meant you had to share body parts, but got delicious cupcakes or pies. She really liked the pinkie pie, even if it was a chore to get all those fingers. Her favorite virtue was Murder. It was just like normal murder, except you did it with friends. This was clearly the reason Jack always surrounded himself with people who would inevitably die.

It ended, like all her friends, with murder. Except for once, she wasn't happy, though Jack certainly didn't mind, since he never did where murder was concerned. Most likely, this was because she didn't do the murdering. Jack told her to just stop moping, but Bonesaw found she just couldn't. This was the first time that happened. Jack was never wrong where murder was concerned, and murder was always concerned where Jack was involved.

That meant she was back to her most dreaded problem: How to murder properly to solve the problem. It seemed to come so easily to Jack, but Bonesaw found it much harder, mostly because it was the only thing that couldn't be solved with murder. It was her darkest hour, and Jack was increasingly unhelpful.

In the end, friendship came to her rescue when she remembered one thing she'd learned from it, but never dared to try: It was fun to murder with friends, but the most fun thing was to murder friends.

She did. It was kinda hard, since her friends didn't understand friendship as well as she did, but she was a smart and methodical girl and succeeded after some rough spots. Jack seemed proud and rather happy, which was just natural, since murder was concerned, even if it was his own.

Bonesaw became Reilly, who swore to share all she'd learned about friendship with the world.

And that's how Equestria was made.

8.14 (NemiTheNen)

I'm not an idiot, especially working with tinker shards like I can. I know that Scion can change me, hurt me, and it will carry over to the next loop.

He could disfigure my mind, my shards, and I would not heal. I would not reset. All it would take would be for him to foresee that I would never do what he wants.

Unless I would, from madness, loneliness, or boredom. I've done stupid shit before, joined the Slaughterhouse, the Blasphemies, the Endbringers. I could go that way. Especially if humanity was all gone.

But, I don't want to be like him, I don't want to think about it. I also don't want to be maimed.

Maybe Crawler's Shard could let me heal even if the reset doesn't. But who knows what will happen to me because of the healing?

I need...I need more time. And I know exactly how to get it.

Right now I have all my shards bundled together to hide, I just look like a very mature shard from a distance. Eventually the trick won't work, but I'm already working on another plan.

But right now? I stand outside the school, alone in the crowed, the mad girl carefully avoided, and unfold.

I'm fairly certain I'm glowing a little. I'm also fairly certain that I'm doing the equivalent of flashing a bit of leg on the highway to get a ride.

It takes him a few minutes to get here, and I have to say I'm disappointed. But the reactions never get old.

Now, all I have to do is to communicate to the big idiot exactly which shard I want. Hell, maybe this loop I'll pick his brain in general, I'm getting better at parsing and communicating with him.

But I need that Shard. I need to be able to reset.

The next loop I emerge from the Locker all in gray.

8.15 (Mr Tebbs)

Pinkie Pie Awoke as a human. Ohhh, I like being human! I get fingers again! Pinkie also Awoke fighting. Wait, what? I hate fighting, ugh. Well, looks like I'm replacing this Faerie Queen person. After Pinkie got one last good hit in on...Grey Boy, seriously? Pinkie asks. "Hey! You! Wouldn't you rather have a party than a fight?"

Grey Boy responds "Nah. I'd rather make you suffer, bitch." As soon as he finished, he caught Pinkie Pie in his time bubble. He slowly limped over to her. "Well, looks like you won't get to party anymore, sorry about that.." He reached into his effect, grabbing her hand while holding a knife in the other.

"Sorry about this." Pinkie said as she sucked his out power -and life force. Then ate it.

I hate killing.. Oh wait! I can stop time now! As soon as she has the thought, a time loop bubble surrounds Grey Boy, saving his life but leaving him to nearly die in perpetuity. A shame I have to leave him like this... most of my useful gear is locked away. She thought while pulling out a cupcake. "Well, one crisis at a time, I guess, Though I'd still-" She turns to the immobile Grey Boy. "Hey, do you know where the biggest grumpy grumpersons are? I want to cheer someone up and maybe get a cape that can help you."

"Go to...Hell."

"Nahh, I'll open up The Eye of Parties before that happens. Hm..." She took a bite of her cupcake and tossed another one to Grey Boy. No elements active, no response from my pings... either the anchor is going stealth or isn't Awake yet. How about my element of Laughter then? WOAH there's a HUGE sad frumpy McAngrypants just flying around all over the place…well, I'll need the Eye of Parties at least to cheer him up. That'll have to wait until I can unlock the rest of my gear. Now how about something … doable. "OOH! OOH! I found some nastie saddies over there!" she points in some direction. "I'll show them exactly how to party, then we'll be friends, and maybe they'll be able to help me help you!" Besides If my loop memories are any indication, this world needs a global Pinkie Party, and I'm just the Premiere Party Pony to make it happen!

-Many parties later

Jack sneezed. Uh-oh. He thought. Someone's pursuing us... Someone powerful.

"Hi! Do you like parties?" A voice, female, asked hanging upside down in front of Jack's face.

Jack regained his composure quickly. A teleportation power it seems. "Somewhat, though I prefer to put on a show."

"OOH, what kind of show?" The pink girl asked, hopping down and bouncing on her heals.

*FLASH* "One of death, and hopelessness, to show the people what they really are. Nothing but cowering flesh or fated to die futilely." One more misguided fool taken care of.

"That doesn't sound anything like a party, or a show.." the pink thing said next to his right ear.

GAH! I fucking cut her to ribbons! he looked from the pink thing next to him to where he was aiming a moment ago, and saw dust settling. Jack tried to elbow her in the side in preparation for another attack, and hit nothing but air.

"Sheeesh, you'd think you've never seen someone inexplicably appear next to you before."

Where is she now?

"Hi! ...Do you like ponies?"

Jack looked around and saw the pink thing by Bonesaw. Wait, ponies?

Bonesaw giggled, "I love ponies! Why?"

"Hee hee.. you could say that... I have one" the pink thing responded.

"You do?!" the pink thing just nodded.

Jack slashed at her neck, but instead of blood the pink thing flashed and became...a pony. The two stared at the apparent impossibility that was now nuzzling Bonesaw. "SO CU~TE!" She squealed, proving that she was a human girl after all.

"Aww, aren't you the nicest little girl?" the pink thing cooed.

It dodged another slash attempt from Jack, inexplicably appearing behind a rock. How can I be missing?! I. Don't. Miss! "Where's the rest of the nine?" he said absently.

"OHH! Ohh! I know the answer! Um.. most of them weren't very happy having powers, or were making people miserable by having powers, so I took them after I beat them up!"

"You, you took their powers?

"YUP, had to put them in stasis before they died though.."

"You killed..umm..." The hell were their names again?

"What about sis Siberian?" Bonesaw asked, with some concern in her voice.

"Which one is...Oh, Him! I found him a few days ago. He was so sad, so I threw him a party to cheer him up-"

"Her" Jack corrected, after failing to cut the pink abomination. Again.

"Silly! Siberian is obviously an impenetrable manifestation taking the form of someone's daughter within a fairly small projection radius!" That's not obvious at all, and WHY CAN'T I CUT HER?! Jack screamed internally.

"So I found a guy who looks like her and snuck up on him while no one was looking and threw him a party!" the pink pony thing continued to bounce. Making Jack's attacks continue to miss. "During the party he told me what happened to his daughter so we had a small wake for her then I used my new time powers to brew some booze six times at once to make it to 220 proof then we each had a few glasses and I don't remember what happened after that for some reason but then he let me take his power after I made his headache go away and I put him in stasis so I can have little Scalpel here fix him!" She gasped for air after her long winded explanation, re-inflating her mane.

Jack didn't even bother trying to slice the pink thing this time. "Wow." The Slaughterhouse 9 are down to two, effortlessly.

"Silly Cat Scratch! The slaughterhouse nine are down to Zero members!"

Both Jack and Bonesaw tried to attack the pink thing when she said that, with both ending up face first in the dirt. That wasn't a teleport, did she just... and then... NOPE, stopping that train of thought right there, that way lies madness. Actually, did she just respond-

"We three!" she indicated around herself "Are the Laughterhouse N now!"

"Um.. who are you, anyway." Bonesaw asked as she picked herself up from the ground.

The pink thing immediatly went bright red. "Uh-um, didn't I introduce myself?"

"Nope."

"Oh.. well, call me Pinkie Pie!"

*Thonk*

-Days later

"I'm not going to fix any more people if you keep calling me Scalpel" 'Scalpel' pouted. "I'm Bonesaw!"

"Well, I can't call you bonesaw; 'cause you don't even have a bonesaw!" Pinkie retorted. Then sighed. "Fiiiiine, what do you want your name to be?"

"Um... Sanguine?" She suggested while fixing another ex-S9 member.

Pinkie muttered something about Bethesda suing someone. "Eh..not very party like considering your costume? How about Sanguine Scalpel? OOH, ooh! SUPER Sanguine Scalpel!" Pinkie Exclaimed.

How is that better? Jack thought.

That got a giggle. "Ok, S3 for short?"

"Ehhhh, Not as bad as S2 I suppose." Pinkie said, then mumbled something about 'Instrumentality.'

Jack cursed that Pinkie kept dodging his blades.

"Your name is still CAT Scratch!" Pinkie declared pointing at Jack. "NOW" turning to the group of newly non-capes "who of you newly ex-S9 members wants to have a Party?"

-Many parties later

"Are you making bombs?" Cat Scratch asked, incredulous walking into Pinkie's temporary workshop. "I knew it, I knew you'd see that-"

"Nope!" Pinkie replied, cheerful as ever.

"It's not a bomb?"

"Nope! It's my latest version of the Party Petard!" She showed him with a flourish.

"It looks like the most cheerful clay pot with a fuse I've ever seen." He deadpanned.

Pinkie giggled. "Observe!" she lit it and threw it in the middle of the room they were in. It exploded in a perfect place setting, leaving a tablecloth, cake, dishes and plastic cutlery.

Cat Scratch was at a loss. "Did- did you just..demilitarize weapons?"

"NOPE! I just Party-fied em. You want to cut the cake Cat Scratch?"

"I'd rather cut you. Into tiny little-"

"Cat Scratch" Pinkie said, suddenly serious. "Do you want to hear about my ideas for the next round of cupcakes for-"

"NO! DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN NO, NOT AGAIN!" screamed Jack -er- Cat, scrambling to get away from her.

Ahh, Pinkie thought. Glad I had a chance to weaponize my Pinkie Babble in the leaf village that one time; it's a lot nicer than hurting people. He's a tough cookie, though; took a full 2 minutes to crack. Still, I suppose I'll let him choose the next party place for threatening him...

"I always know exactly where a party is needed, but I've got to admit, Cat, this place was a good call." Pinkie said "This mean old' asylum needed some serious cheering up."

"I'm a bit surprised you caught the roof on fire." he blinked. "Oh, is that why you always choose where we go?"

"Yupperoonie! And well...I did have a slight malfunction with my Party Canon Mk2, but it was Mimi and Labyrinth's idea honestly." Pinkie answered, not bouncing for once on account of said two women stroking her mane. Jack noticed they were singing "We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn. Burn motherfucker. Burn." over and over.

"Besides! I already got everypony -oooh..." Pinkie melted for a moment under their grooming "erhm. I already got everyone out."

After a moment, Pinkie jumped back to her feet, startling her groomers. "OH! Thanks to Mimi, I don't need to use my off-screen teleport as much; I can just use her fire-port! And thanks to Labyrinth, I can now make a Perfect Party Place anywhere!"

Jack blinked. God..damnit. *flash* God DAMN it! missed again!

-Many parties later

"I think we should go to Madison this time!" Pinkie shouted.

"Um." the pimply faced teenaged boy behind the counter looked completely lost.

"She'll have a Happy Meal and a few apple pies." Super Sanguine Scalpel offered.

"I still can't believe we're in Madison, friggen, Wisconsin. In the middle of winter!" one of the LN complained. "There's, like, nothing here!"

"Exactly! Which is why we're here: to cheer people up!" Pinkie replied.

After several minutes of setting up the next party (with S3 setting up her triage for 'grumpy capes that didn't like their powers') the air raid sirens began sounding.

Cat Scratch put 2 and 2 together fastest shouting "You brought us here for AN ENDBRINGER FIGHT!?"

"Of course not, silly! I brought you here for a search-and-rescue party then a 'we survived an Endbringer' party afterwards!" Pinkie Pie said trotting towards the high rises, shouting over her shoulder "I'm going to go cheer up an Endbringer and see if it won't stop being a big meany-meany pants. If I can, we'll have an even bigger 'WE STOPPED AN ENDBRINGER' party!"

"As soon as I figure out which Endbringer it is" she muttered once she was out of earshot.

Pinkie looked over the city from her perch on a skyscraper, as other buildings began teleporting in and falling to various states of ruin around her. She felt her eyes watering, all those buildings, all those people. I hate losing friends.. even if I haven't met them yet... Ah there she is, the Pinkie finally caught a view of the 15 foot tall alabaster monstrosity; it was flying after several capes on her many, many asymmetrical wings. Pinkie focused on her element. Oh. I can't cheer her up... she's a sort-of-golem, well, there goes that idea... Oh! There's something. It's focusing on... ah, it's a TK. Oh maple, it's a precog! She thought with a smile. Excellent! Just need to get it's attention and this should be a cinch! "HEY! You! Simmy!"

Larch and brambles! It's too focused on those flying capes! Ok Pinkie, just focus on the 'Pinkie Sense', just like I've been doing with Jack Slash all these years. Alexandria sent the beast careening off course buying the capes a chance to bolt. Having lost its quary, the Simurgh began running from Alexandria, bringing it closer to Pinkie. Wait for it, wait for it, waaaait for it. Now! "HEY, WHITE SOOTY!" Pinkie yelled for all she was worth. The Simurgh took notice and came in close. heh heh~ Gotcha!

Alexandria was giving chase to the Simurgh when it swooped down to attack some pink cape on top of a building. Wait, that's a pink horse.. whatever. She shouted a warning to the fool but the Simurgh was already towering over the luckless cape.

Darn, it's got wide angle TK, but isn't very psychic. She mentally shrugged. but it is still precognitive, so I STILL WIN! Pinkie thought to herself as she rather quickly shredded the Endbringers mind.

"F.T.L. thoughts F.T.W. Baby!" Pinkie crowed, doing the happy hooves dance as the Simurgh fell apart in front of her, turning its core into a cupcake. Which Pinkie promptly ate. Blech! Cajun rubbed black forest ham and beef gravy cupcake..That's weird even for Me.

A dumbfounded Alexandria landed next to the wreckage of the Simurgh. "I, buh, wha...this is- I don't.. how?" she finally manged to ask.

Pinkie started sproinging. "OOH, ooh! I know! See when I was a filly I discovered an equation for a four dimensional receiver array and-" Pinkie stopped, remembering an important detail of this story. "Right. I forgot, my friend Twilight's head literally exploded when I tried to explain it to her. Um..." Pinkie paused to gather her thoughts. "I think Twilight would say something like: Theory abstract, my thoughts travel faster than light, so any psychic trying to read my mind will have theirs scrambled by the thought speed difference, while any precog trying to counter my actions will have their mind scrambled at my seeming ability to do two things at once, so I used that to "convince" Simmy here it was a great idea to turn itself into a cupcake. Which I ate."

Alexandria turned to the quickly deteriorating remains of the Simurgh, trying to come to terms with what she was seeing and what she'd just heard. She flinched a little when Pinkie started licking her face.

Pinkie suddenly gasped, going pink to blue to black to translucent back to pink.

"What the hell?" Alexandria muttered.

"IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!" Pinkie Pie shouted. "You! The Protectorate, Dr. Manton, Doctor Mother and the Case 53s! You're all going from world to world kidnapping people who are about to die and testing formulas on them and-" Alexandria, already on slippery mental footing, did the only thing she could think of: attack the pink thing.

Pinkie Sense going crazy, similarly to when Jack tries to kill me. Alexandria will go for the head, I duck low, take knee to the barrel (turning organs to mush), use Imovable Projection to mortally wound Alexandria, catch her torso with rear legs to spin myself around so I will be facing her back, use Time power to heal myself oh point 5 seconds after contact (mostly still airborne), use Faerie power to take her power, use Time power to put de-caped and deceased-ish Alexandria in sort-of-stasis, use off-screen teleport to get Riley here and back, have Riley fix Alexandria. Finally, use newly acquired Stasis power to find survivors and recently deceased and bring Riley to fix them as well using fire-portation. After that, plan and execute massive 'WE STOPPED AN ENDBRINGER' party using newly installed Multiple Launch Party System on the hill, and a usual 'I'M SORRY FOR KILLING YOU AND TAKING YOUR POWER but hey at least you're alive again and things are going to be okay, I PROMISE' party for when I take someone's cape power.

As it was thought, so it was done. There was a minor hiccup when the barrage of party rockets scared the crap out of everyone before they detonated in one of the largest parties the world had ever seen. Cat Scratch denies vehemently that he screamed like a little girl when they were incoming.

Many parties after the 'Simugh Insanity'

"I AM CRAWLER! FIGHT ME!" Crawler bellowed, charging Pinkie Pie.

"Hi Crawler, Why?" Pinkie asked, while Crawler flailed against Pinkie's Siberian power.

"Because I want to fight you!"

"Why?"

"Because I will kill everyone else here if you do not!"

"Why?"

"Because I want to fight you!"

"Why?"

-what felt like an eternity later. Jack, frustrated with both his inability to cut either Pinkie Pie or Crawler and the fruitless 'arguement' between the two, shouted "OH for god's sake, Pinkie! Crawler here get's stronger the more injuries he gets and is something of a masochist, so he goes around getting into cape fights."

"Oh! Well, why didn't you say so silly?" Pinkie dropped the Siberian power for a moment. YES! An Opening!

*Flash*

"Bullshit!" Jack shouts, "I saw that hit you, you pink abomination! You should be fucking dead!"

"Ah-hem!" With a sigh, Jack turns around to face...nothing. Confused, he looks around only to spot Pinkie Pie behind Crawler. "First of all" she says once Jack spots her. "my name is Pinkie Pie. Second, that was rude. Third, Mr. Crawler, do you enjoy getting hurt?"

"YES!" Crawler shouted.

"Really!?" Pinkie Pie looked excited at that revelation. "WELL then, let's throw down!"

Jack actually felt a little sick to his stomach. Sure Crawler hardly looked human when he showed up, but he was at least humanoid. Now, however...

*shudder*

"You cheated whelp!" Crawler shouted from..somewhere inside his decidedly spherical body.

"Did not! I just made it easier for you to feel pain! And with all that bone mass underneath your skin, you'll be able to take a beating-"

"He looks like an over-sized soccerball!" Cat Scratch shouted. He'd stopped trying to kill the pink thing...Pinkie Pie long before the fight was over.

"Exactly! He's got sensitive nerves on his skin and he's harder than quartz underneath! Now we can use him when we have Cape Kick Ball tournaments at the parties!"

-Many parties later

Cat Scratch stared at the 10 foot tall neon pink metal monstrosity Pinkie and some other guy were working on. "Honestly, I'm afraid to ask, after that MLRS halftrack you somehow kept hidden from everyone."

Pinkie just giggled.

Cat walked towards her, then stopped in his tracks. "Is that a bow on it's -uh- face?"

"Yup. It's the latest edition to my PartArmory! You like it? huh huh huh?" Pinkie asked, bouncing.

"Yeahhh." Cat drawlled. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but, what does it do?"

"We~ll" Pinkie said as she suddenly appeared behind him. Honestly he didn't even flinch at her antics anymore. "Leet here had to help me with this one, actually. This baby is a fully autonomous, party spewing, masterpiece. The passive sensors detect ambient misery, and the AI directs it to find best place to throw a party without any external guidance, whatsoever. The main cannon can deliver a full on Pinkie Party through several feet of concrete several times a minute, though the alignment array needs to be stable -thus not moving- to do so, otherwise it might damage the concrete. It's secondary weapon can deliver a Party Petard's payload to a sad-ie sadderson several times a second even while moving, and the main sensor array can map out and deliver a 'we just stopped another Endbringer' level party barrage after a brief scan. I also had Lung proof the armor -oh he's with us now- and it took him a 15 minute build up to dent it. So, can just let it loose on the world without worrying about it getting destroyed! I call it the Sectopartayoid!"

-A few parties later

Taylor Awoke, sort of. As was usual for her, she didn't so much awaken as become aware of her surroundings.

And like usual, she, for lack of a better term, 'sensed' Scion notice her, and make a bee-line straight for her.

Well, here we go again, I guess.

~Meanwhile~

In the middle of another party Pinkie Pie stopped moving. Literally.

"Pinkie?" S3/Riley asked the hovering pony.

"It looks like Zion's making a move." Pinkie lowered herself to the ground, lost in thought. Super Sanguine Scalpel gave her a worried look. "That might work.." Pinkie muttered

After a second Pinkie snapped out of her reverie and flashed S3 a grin. "Oh, don't worry about me, go back to the party! I just need to take care of a few things." Pinkie reassured her little friend.

Well, tried to anyway, except she turned from a worried S3 to a terrified Riley. "B-b-but! You n-never leave parties!" she stammered, wide eyed.

Pinkie's eyes lit up in realization. "OH, it's..well I need to make preparations for the ULTIMATE Party. I thought I'd be able to get more done and send him his invitation later, but he's acting strange, so I need to get the preparations done sooner than later... I'll be back after an indeterminate amount of time."

"Wait, What?! I'm...I'm so confused Pinkie."

"But I'm always confusing..." Pinkie gave S3/Riley confused look. "Anyway, I need to get The Eye set up, then get his attention. Then... then comes the Ultimate Party. Sadly there won't be many I can invite to that one, but once The Eye of Parties is set up, I'll be able to play with you and every other parahuman in there with my Avatars!" she gave Riley a hug. "Now go have fun! This shouldn't take too long."

Pinkie wounded and stole the powers of Contessa, Doorman, and the Clairvoiant in less than a second and put the three as well as Dr. Mother in stasis less than a second after that.

"WHAT IS THE MEAN-ING OF THIS?!" Dr. Mother screamed in her time bubble.

"Zion's making a move towards unknown ends and I need these three powers and the ones from your Case 53s to get his attention, not to mention the power boost necessary to attain my Warp Goddess form." Pinkie replied matter-o-factly using Panacea's power to heal the people she hurt in the room. Foliage, it's not enough. I guess only Riley can get people 'working' after I take their powers. Should I drop them off to her, or bring her here? Xylem, neither option's a good one, but I need to get the Ultimate Party underway or all these people are lost... Sigh, sorry Riley. Pinkie thought as she opened a door to her.

Two quick fire-ports and one confused Riley later they were back in Cauldron's lair. "Sorry Riley, I thought I could handle this part on my own, but I need you to get these people better, and...well there's going to be a lot of them." Pinkie looked at the floor dejected.

"I'm even more lost than before..." She said. Pinkie withdrew a bit more, her poofy mane straightening out a bit. "but that's what friends are for right?"

Pinkie beamed and glomped Riley, her mane once more cotton candy like, before saying "Thank you!" As she began to move towards the greater complex her mane completely straightened as she turned to Dr Mother with one blood red eye. "Oh! Attempting to hold Riley hostage after those three get up is a really really bad idea." Her eyes returned to normal and she made her hair poofy once she was out of sight.

Dozens of Case 53s later, most of whom were glad to be rid of their powers and back to normal, Pinkie was finally able to access her subspace pocket. I think it's the power nullification and the power to lie to powers that let me get at it. She put on her Element of Laughter and ascended -from Alicorn straight through to Chaos Goddess of Parties and Merry Making- then found her Pink Lantern ring. Love this thing... She thought, slipping it on, giving herself a pink glow. Well, gotta say bye to Riley real quick. Then...It's SHOW TIME.

Taylor was once again staring at Scion. Oh god, the idiot's managed to make puppy eyes in to the weirdest/creepiest thing ever.

Suddenly, there was an anthro-pony peaking behind Scion. "Hi!" it -she going by voice- said.

"Um.. Hi?" Taylor replied hesitantly. Well, this is new. She then noticed Scion charging an attack in response to the newcomer. "NO! STOP! BAD!" Taylor screamed at Scion.

The golden git looked very confused, but stopped charging the attack.

"My name's Pinkie Pie! And, I must say I've never seen anyone like you before." Pinkie indicated Taylor.

"I'm Taylor, and...well, it's a long story."

"Liiiike super dooper looper long?"

Taylor's eyes lit at 'looper' "Yes, yes it is. And um... I mean people have called me an Anchor of support but... I'm frankly not so sure about that these days."

"I see... Well, I was going to just invite Zion here to the Ultimate party, but... I think you'd like it there, and dare I say...you need it too?"

"I'm not sure what the ultimate party is, but eh, it sounds fun and interesting, and judging by the look in your eye maybe a little terrifying, but...what the hell. I'm in."

[CONFUSION] Scion said, causing Pinkie's mane to be blown back.

"Wow." said the pony after clearing her ears and getting her mane back in order. "Tone it down a little big guy. Jeez."

"That's just how he talks."

"Ah, well...it'll take me a bit to compile my response, then."

After a few seconds, tho, Scion started looking impatient and irritated.

[PATIENCE] Pinkie told him, causing Scions hair to be blown back too.

After a tense few seconds, Pinkie spoke again [PEERLESS ENDLESS PARTY]

Scion seemed to mull it over for a split second, then [AGREEMENT]

"Great! Gimmie one second..." Pinkie pulled out a slip of paper. Stuck out her tongue in concentration then she began slicing the paper in a blur of motion until… suddenly there were two slips of paper, which she handed to Taylor and Scion.

"How'd you do that?" Taylor asked. She could see that both invitations were identical, and no powers that she could see were involved.

"Hehe, I can take the axiom of choice now!"

Taylor thought a minute then chuckled. "Kind of an advanced joke, don't you think?"

"Eh, I does what I dos, besides, I'm sure there are a few readers who'll get it."

"Readers?"

Pinkie waved her off then declared, "OK, let's get this started!"

Suddenly things went tesseract.

Edit: redacted

The gathered capes in the Eye of Parties were rather confused, but the atmosphere managed to put them at ease somewhat.

Well, except for Jack who was still fuming. "It's not fair."

"Of course not, I make the rules here." the avatar replied.

"Well, what do we do now then?"

"Whatever you want, though I do have some ideas..." She spun around with a flourish as a battlefield appeared behind a glass wall while nearby a bar came into being. "Ta-da!"

"What is this?" Lung demanded. "What has happened to my power? What have you done Witch!?" he shouted, pointing at the avatar. Which promptly ignored him

"GROUND RULES EVERYBODY!" the avatar shouted. "POWERS ARE DISABLED IN THE BAR, ANY INJURIES YOU GET IN THE BAR DO NOT TRANSFER TO THE BATTLEFIELD AND VICE VERSA." more and more capes were starting to pay attention. "NO MORE THAN FOUR TO A BATTLEFIELD. Yes, there are multiple battlefields. If you die in the bar you will have to wait five minutes before you can come back in; your killer will be kicked out of the bar and will be unable to enter any more battles for the rest of the night." the avatar then pointed to a large blackboard. "THERE'S THE SIGNUP SHEET, HAVE FUN!"

Pinkie managed to find Taylor in a quiet corner, looking contemplative while simultaneously looking at the Sight before her.

"Hiya!" Pinkie said. "What's gotcha down?"

"Hey, Pinkie...It's. Well.. this is fun, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, or lament that at some point things are gonna go back to the way they were."

"Oh?"

"It's silly, but, I want to be Taylor again, and that Golden Bozo over there is going to keep making that impossible." She waved towards the Sight, but Pinkie never took her eyes off Taylor.

"Actually... I think... Any faerie -err shard- that comes either here or The Eye of Parties is getting 'purified' for given definitions of the word."

Taylor's head snapped to Pinkie.

"I'm not sure exactly what is going to happen after the loop ends, but the shards should be focused more on fun, or have fun as their ideal instead of conflict" Pinkie made a face at the last word.

"Wow, so..wow."

"If shards are programs, after this they'll have all the viruses, malware, porn etcetera removed." Taylor glomped Pinkie at that. Pinkie just smiled.

Taylor separated after a few minutes (she thinks anyway) and breathed. "I can't wait to-" then trailed off.

Pinke frowned. "What is it?"

Taylor sighed "Nothing." Pinkie gave Taylor a look. "Ok, fine, it's just that. I mean, don't get me wrong, that is fantastic news this has been an amazing century so far, but..." Taylor trailed off at the end.

"Buuuuut?"

*sigh* "I can't help thinking about my dad, I left without saying anything, and he never knew what happened to me, and the last he saw me- Hell last I saw him-"

"Taylor." Pinkie interupted. Once Taylor looked at the premier party pony, she continued "What do you notice about this place?"

"Umm... I mean the whole 4-D thing's pretty trippy, those other...Others I guess I'd call them are nice, but..."

"Time travels differently here." Pinky stated.

"What."

"Sorry, I'd have told you much sooner, but I thought you'd have caught on based on what you said when I made the Axiom of Choice comment."

"What."

"After we spend an eternity here, maybe two days will have passed on Earth Bet."

...

"It's sort of like how you can keep halving the distance between your hands, indefinitely, but you can still clap your hands… Are you mad at me?" Pinkie asked finally, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Yes... a bit. and relieved, and embarrassed and hopeful and... God... I feel like.. I... Like my very long life flashed before my eyes."

Pinkie chuckled. "Sorry about that."

"It's.. well, I guess all is forgiven." Taylor felt a planet sized weight fall off her shoulders. I might be able to see my dad again. God it's been so long. But I'm sorta stuck here... Hell, when in Rome "So... this is your party. You presumably know what's fun to do here."

Pinkie shakes her head chuckling, catching a glimpse of the Sight which stopped her cold. "Has...wow, I left him here after the introductions back when we first came to the party... Has he been there the entire time?"

Taylor glances back to the Sight and nods. "Pretty much. He's...kinda got a one track mind."

"Explains why none of the Others wanted to talk to him though." Pinkie thought for a minute. "I was going to say we should go play a game, but this is really entertaining."

"I mean, I'm not surprised Scion didn't know which end of a mallet to hold, but it's something else to see it."

There was Scion attempting to play whack-a-dead planet and failing to hit anything while holding the mallet by its head.

"He's been playing for several years straight, and -OH LARCH! His score is still zero!" Pinkie laughed til she cried.

8.16 (NemiTheNen)

Taylor had a little ritual now every time she woke up, and had a moment to herself.

She wrote a letter to Ziz.

Scion didn't bother looking into the future very much. Simurgh always did, and Taylor always threw ripples about. Confusing her vision of the future, of what must be with a surreal and jarring jump.

She was fairly certain that Eidolon bastard daughter was the reason why Scion kept on flirting with her. Happy Scion means Humanity lives.

So Taylor wrote Ziz letters to get her to calm down and let her play.

This time though...Well, she couldn't get the time power to do what she wanted, she still didn't understand it yet-it was probably in someone elses' shard, but she didn't know where it was, if Scion or Eden even scattered it.

"Dear Ziz,

I know your vision just flipped out a while ago. Calm down.

If you help me I'll be Scion's girlfriend so he won't kill off humanity.

Anyways, I got a few weird powers that I need help figuring out. Come pick me and Tattletale up soon, okay?

No Love,

Queen Administrator"

8.17 (Mr Tebbs)

Taylor Awoke in a bathroom stall. Damnit, I hate this st-. Her thoughts were interrupted by several loud *whoosh* sounds followed by the door of the stall being ripped off and thrown against the wall, revealing a rather shocked Sophia.

"Woops! That wasn't supposed to happen." She said.

"Hey Sophia, thanks for that." I stopped to take stock of what I was seeing. "Um.. is there any particular reason you look like a naughty school girl with pig tails?"

"Well, I'm still kind of pissed at Jack for making me lose that bet. And, well, I just got back from a zombie Loop." she replied.

"Ok..."

Sophia then pulled out a chainsaw with a 10 foot decorated blade. "Are those...hearts?" I ask.

"Yep!"

"So.."

"I'm gonna cut off Jacks head, mount it to a Futurama style thing and go fuck up some Nilbog"

That got a laugh out of me.

"You wanna come with?" She asked.

I don't exactly have the figure for it, but I suppose Lollipop Chainsaw could be a fun change of pace... Eh, what the hell. "Sure, why not?"