Far beneath the surface, in a place Horizon wished it could forget, She watched.

She had spent a decent amount of time watching the little town ever since one of Her more... interesting subjects had entered it. Half of Her had expected her to burn the place to the ground just for the heck of it, just to prove she could, but it turned out that the only person she had trouble getting along with was Her.

After monitoring her actions for a certain period of time She began attempting to predict how she might act: what she might do, where she might go. She made it a point to check on her every so often, even more so after… the other subject had joined her.

Now that was something She really hadn't expected. In the arsenal of words that could be used to described her, forgiving would not have been Her first choice. She was stubborn beyond description, she strived to do whatever was least expected of her- so She should have expected her to reclaim him almost as soon as the Shed spat him out- but at the time, She hadn't.

She honestly didn't understand how it were possible. The two of them had only teamed up in the end because their only other option was (quite literally) a fiery death. And while it was true that the subject and herself had never been on good terms (per say), the rivalry between them had not nearly been as personal as the rivalry between them. She had trusted him, he had been her first and only friend, and he had tossed her aside like a broken toy at the first opportunity provided. He repeatedly tried to kill her. She wondered if she had told him yet, that he very nearly succeeded. The Subject nearly lost her freedom the day she gained it because of him.

And still she gave him his.

Still she had saved him, still she had taken him in, still she forgave him, still she-

No.

She had Eternity, and those thoughts still weren't worth Her time. There were currently more pressing matters at hand.

She was silent, lulling from side to side as She thought, delighted and horrified at Her latest discovery.

She knew Herself to be intelligent beyond compare, but even She had to admit that She couldn't in Her wildest dreams imagine some of the schemes that life created all on it's own.

This was one of them.

Something was happening- well, no. Based on Her predictions something could be happening. Something extremely important could potentially happen, very soon, and most of the people who could become involved were not yet aware of it.

This meant many things, but above all it meant that, if She could wait, if She could lie low for just a little bit longer, She could finally win.

Just the thought of victory, of what it might cost Her, sent Her emotions into a tailspin.

'Strategize.' A voice in Her mind hissed, so smooth it was sharp, 'You can't afford to lose a fourth time.'

She made a sound of annoyance.

That wasn't helpful; She knew that. What She needed was calm; She needed clarity to think of Something She could do to keep Her world intact through what was about to happen, and just the thought of her set Her on edge.

'Pretend it's a game of chess.'

Oh. That was much easier.

And perhaps a bit amusing, too.

'After all, they're only pieces.'

She instantly felt Her systems become flooded with a wave of calm, cold, logic. This was better; The situation could easily be broken down into queens, and kings, and pawns.

'Pawns,' The voice purred, 'This could be a prime opportunity to collect new test subjects.'

She laughed, the grim sort of laugh she'd last used when she released the Subject.

When it came to human test subjects She had learned Her lesson; they were unstable. She had no intention of becoming a root vegetable a second time nor dying a third time. She was happy to leave the humans be.

'But this time you could-'

She cut the voice off.

'Have you ever considered that, in chess, there are nearly an incalculable number of losing moves, yet only one winning move?' The voice remained silent. 'One is a very fragile number.'

And, God, how it was. Miscalculate by as little as .000000001 and you no longer had one- no longer had completion, no longer had a whole. What on Earth was 0.999999999 good for?

And yet as the voice reminded Her that these test subject would be nothing like her; these would be test subjects smart enough to test, smart enough to obey, but not nearly smart enough to escape- not nearly powerful enough to harm Her- She already felt the familiar tug of Think of the Science.

It wouldn't be hard to convince Her. They both knew it.

Nevertheless.

'Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'

'Back to chess.'

Right.

The queen was of course the most useful piece on the board. Her movements were swift and deadly, and allowing her to slip through your fingers was always your best bet at losing the game. But you could never win the game unless you took the king. Useless as he may be.

What, She wondered, would happen to the pawns, on either side, without their queen? Without their protector? The king and the pawns would be defenseless without a queen. And wouldn't the queen be rendered useless without the king, effectively placing the pawns in the same position?

Who would fall first, the king or the queen? Would either fall?

Because this was interesting, this was a test in of itself. It could all be nothing (and some traitorous part of Her sincerely hoped that it was), but if it was Something- if one of Them was about to fall, about to crumble to dust and take the other down with them- She wanted to know about it. She wanted to know who was going to fall first, because a loss for them could (finally) mean a victory for Her.

And She knew that, if She was right, She wasn't the only one who spent that first night trying to strategize.

Author's Note:

Things might get interesting...

This was a short chapter, and I'm hoping that some of next few will be too, so hopefully I can write and post the next few pretty quickly. The next two or three should be short, but not quite this short.

Please review and comment!