Chapter Thirty: The Most Powerful Man in the World
March 19, 2011
David wasn't a stranger to pain. Over the course of his life, and particularly his career as a hero, he'd taken his fair share of hits and injuries, and had fought through them when necessary.
Pain didn't begin to describe the sensation he was feeling. It was like an electric shock, contracting muscles before he registered discomfort, but leaving the traces of agony behind in its wake. His mind lurched sideways, like he'd missed a stair, and for a moment David wasn't holding a single power.
His elbow struck the floor first, while he scrambled to try to grasp at the thinker and precog powers he had been maintaining since they had arrived in Brockton Bay. For the first time in his life, the grasping worked, and the powers slotted back into place.
"I just did," he heard from a long way off, and his thinker power Interpret Other People told him that it was Contract. His funny bone was sending lancing pain through his arm and shoulder, overriding protests from the bruises forming on his right hip, knee, ribs, and the throbbing in his skull where his head had struck the floor.
The arcing, electric pain stopped, and Eidolon felt his body still, and Contact whispered, "Now get out."
Loathing, Interpret Other People supplied. Self-Loathing. Resignation. Fear. Worry.
He cut off the tide of information and scrambled back to his feet. As his head cleared the table, he saw that Contract was seated once again, staring down into her lap. Then she looked up, tears streaming down her face.
Feeling trapped. Willing to lash out. Losing self-control.
His third power, Perfect Recall, took that moment to make itself known, and recited back to him Contract's earlier words. "Not just physical murder, of which I am capable, but a soul-level annihilation of anyone or everyone within my radius."
His first power, Interpret Other People, helpfully supplied the answer to the question he was afraid to ask: Within radius.
Interpret Other People was a power he'd named before he really understood all that it could do. He suspected it was an off-shoot or close relation of another thinker and precognitive power that was now exhausted and useless to him. Primarily, it provided insight into the emotions of the people around him at the time, letting him read intonation, body language, and actions with perfect clarity. Occasionally, it also gave him other explanations, mostly pre- or post-cognitive, that he didn't ask for. This answer was one such piece of information.
"Leave us the hell alone," Contract hissed, and Eidolon twitched his fingers in the manner which meant 'retreat.' Immediately, Alexandria stood up, and Legend followed her lead a half a second later. Without any further words, the Triumvirate retreated to the elevator, which opened even as they approached.
Armsmaster controlling building systems, Interpret Other People whispered. Eidolon debated dropping the power, because that was another piece of information he hadn't tried to suss out and he didn't want to be distracted, but he decided to hold onto it for now. He might need it to help handle Legend's reaction, and he didn't want to risk getting a useless power in return. Except… maybe that wouldn't be a problem anymore.
One thing at a time. Eidolon thought, glad to get into the elevator and hear the doors close behind them. First, he needed to try to sense if there was any immediate signs of danger. Unfortunately, the power Danger Sense was extremely limited. It would give a hint towards the next potential danger he would face, but the farther out the danger was, or the less likely it was to occur, the more obscure the hint would be.
In this case, it gave him another prompt from Perfect Recall: "Can I trust him to use this new power to dismantle the Endbringers, and not to create another ten just for kicks?"
The reminder of the Endbringers made David want to hurl. What he'd done… even unknowingly, accidentally… he forcefully locked it away, again, to deal with when he could get drunk and sick and after he figured out what he was going to do about it.
Eidolon wretched his thoughts back on track, cursing the non-specificity of Danger Sense. It provided clues to possible sources of danger, but not clear answers. Did the prompt from Perfect Recall mean that he was in danger from the Endbringers? In danger of accidentally making more? Was he in danger from the contract in some way?
That last felt like it might be the most correct, so he used Perfect Recall to run through the rest of the questions Contract had asked just before she applied the contract, after which she had said, "I just did." They were the only clue he had to what might be entailed in the deal. At the time, Interpret Other People had said she was ranting, honestly upset, but also thinking about something else at the same time, sort of multi-tasking. So she had most likely been ranting and constructing the deal on the fly.
Contract had been operating under the same deal as the rest of them, forced to speak the truth or else refuse to answer. So presumably, her questions all had to be true, or she couldn't have said that she "just did," in self-answer to them. Or maybe that was only meant to answer one of the questions. But she had also specified that they couldn't use the truth to purposefully deceive each other. It was a mess.
On the other hand, she had straight out said that she used to hate Eidolon. What might happen if he didn't dismantle the Endbringers?
No, that was the wrong question. Neither he nor Contract had any wish for the Endbringers to continue. So how could he even destroy them? How had he created them, for that matter?
He could feel his three power slots, as always. At the moment, they were filled by powers he had nicknamed Perfect Recall, Danger Sense, and Interpret Other People. Tentatively, he released Interpret Other People.
Nothing filled the slot.
Eidolon took a deep breath and reached for the power Interpret Other People with metaphorical hands he had never felt before. Immediately, it came back, though weaker as a power always was when it was first chosen. He let it go again, and called for another power he'd nicknamed Screw with Gravity.
A thousand lights ignited in a sense he'd never felt before, and after a moment, one light was brighter than the others. He reached for it with a mental idea of a hand, and felt the power Screw with Gravity slot into place. He released the power immediately, and called for the power Endbringers.
Darkness answered him.
Then the elevator door opened, and he remembered where he was. One side effect of Danger Sense was an accelerated thought process, meant to increase relative reaction time to any perceived danger. It was useful in combat, but it also lent itself to blocking out the world if he wasn't careful.
Eidolon followed Alexandria out onto the roof, moving on autopilot, and traded Perfect Recall for Screw with Gravity while he queried his power again.
The name Screw with Gravity had shown a lot of sparks, not just the one he thought of by that nickname. A quick grasping of a sample of those sparks showed that they all did relate to gravity in some way, though not all of them obvious. Several were marginally effective flight powers, with no ability to affect the gravity of any other body. Two were density-manipulation powers, and one seemed to be affecting the attractions between atoms.
So, the control he had over his powers didn't necessarily correspond with how he thought of them, and the name Endbringers wasn't sufficient to identify them to his power control.
Manifest Creatures brought up thousands of lights, but none of the brightest ones were what he was looking for. The Endbringers might be buried somewhere in that name, but there wasn't a good way to sort through the shifting stars to find out.
Manipulative Precognition was likewise unhelpful.
Enemy Constructs had less than Manifest Creatures, but still hundreds of possibilities.
Create Worldwide Threat and Conflict, however, gave just twenty answers. The first one he touched didn't fill his slot. Instead, it gave him the sound of the roaring ocean and a scream of rage. His pulse quickened. That could be Leviathan.
He dropped that one and touched the one next to it. This time he felt the crushing pressure of being far under water and for a moment, even though he was flying, he could swear the ground was crumbling under his feet.
Eidolon dropped this power in shock, like releasing a hot pan, and realized that this, too, could easily be Leviathan. None of the sparks were any brighter than the others, or came any closer, or gave any other indication that they had been used. Cautiously, Eidolon extended a single mental finger to the star that was next-closest to the two he'd already tried.
This time, the power felt like it might actually be his, be filling a slot, rather than an outside force. He could extrude a water-version of himself. He could manipulate water. He could manipulate the skies. He could feel the currents of the ocean brushing over his back while he waited, patiently, for another chance to vent his rage and rain down destruction upon—
—Eidolon yanked back his whole self, pulling inward, and nearly lost the hold on Screw with Gravity and Danger Sense that he was still maintaining. That was definitely Leviathan. Looking at the light, compared to the two others, he could see that it was a little more gold than the others, a little warmer, perhaps. There were four other lights that matched the same description.
Behemoth. Leviathan. Simurgh. And two more, unaccounted for. But if there were two new Endbringers, then the accelerated schedule made a little more sense. Five creations of worldwide threat and conflict, manifested by his own powers.
For a single moment, David wanted to just run from it all. Drop his powers, all his powers, and shut it all out. He could do that now; for the first time in nearly as long as he could remember, he didn't have to have three voices screaming for his attention, crying to be used, whispering options and solutions.
The moment passed quickly. He was a hero, first and foremost. He'd done things he wasn't proud of, things that had been necessary and evil. But he did them because they were the only option, the hard choice, the best hope. And that's what he had to do now.
What was his best hope?
He wanted to lash out, destroy the Endbringers immediately, but he knew it was an emotional reaction. There might be some reason to keep them, though he couldn't see any. Much easier to find where reasons to destroy them, starting with the possibility that Contract had built a fail-safe into her deal.
He ran over Contract's rant of questions again, but Eidolon didn't find any more answers in it this time than he had before. It was true that if Contract could alter the very fabric of his powers, she could put kill switches or other hidden clauses into the deal too. But would she?
She had been genuinely distraught as she talked about her capacity for murder, both physical and metaphysical. But it was the same distraught resolve which Eidolon found in himself, whenever he had to consider all that he and Cauldron were doing to try to save the world. For the right purpose, she would use those tools. But did this qualify?
Even if it didn't, what was his best move? The Endbringers were shortening Cauldron's timeframe, killing too many capes and devastating countries. They were forcing the population to constrict and every attack cost the world a weapon, a power, a group, or a place that they couldn't afford to lose.
In an abstract way, he could admit that stopping the Endbringers – freezing them, vanishing them, killing them, dissolving them – was not without consequences. The eyes of the world were on the Endbringers. The Protectorate, with Cauldron's hidden help, had kept the calm after Behemoth was killed. They'd used her silence to portray Contract as recovering; they'd made it clear that the attack had cost her; and they'd played up some of the doubts that people had about the veracity of his demise.
Dealing with the other two, even assuming that the new two could be handled before they were even seen, would set the world aflame.
The argument wasn't enough to convince him. Equally present was the opposite side of this absurd dilemma. No Endbringers would allow Cauldron more time to prepare for the end of the world. It would certainly mean more capes would be alive when the time came. Perhaps they would be less willing to fight, not being as accustomed routinely uniting under the Endbringer truces, but once the danger of the enemy was demonstrated, surely they would fall back to old habits, and create the truce once again?
Most of all, above and through every thought, was the fact that Eidolon wanted them gone. He couldn't bear to be the cause of so much death, not for another moment, not without astonishingly good reason. More immediately, he knew he wouldn't be able to face Legend if he didn't at least try to stop them.
Eidolon dropped back into the new sense that came with his power upgrade, and stared at the twenty bright lights. They were individual agents, each pre-designed with certain powers and certain fighting methods. He concentrated on the five yellower lights and they drifted closer to him, but he didn't try to touch them again.
Leviathan had nearly overwhelmed David, first in his powers and then in his senses and even his mindset. If he brushed against the Simurgh, could she control him? It wasn't a risk worth taking. He wouldn't be able to control them directly.
So how to deal with them, if not by control? How would he even go about vanquishing them, as he wished to?
The obvious answer was to try to turn them a little bluer. Even as the idea occurred to him, four of the five lights shifted to match their counterparts. The fifth spark stayed stubbornly yellow, and when he reached out in frustration to understand why, he met a barrier.
This was Behemoth, locked away behind Contract's power, which she hadn't released yet.
He reached out a little stronger, trying to see if he could turn it blue anyway. A blue light wrapped around the barrier, waiting for it to drop, but was unable to penetrate. Experimentally, Eidolon dropped the query for the Endbringers, waited a few seconds, and called it up again. The blue light still waited, wrapped around the Behemoth spark.
Encouraged, Eidolon dropped the query again, and called up Perfect Recall. Then he switched back to looking at the Endbringer sparks, and found the blue shield still steady, ready when and if Contract released Behemoth.
He sighed, and then dropped the view entirely, just flying for a moment with Screw with Gravity, Danger Sense, and a blank space for company. It was quiet, refreshing.
Then Eidolon reached for Interpret Other People, and paid attention to his teammates again. Legend was flying on the other side of Alexandria, partially transformed into a light beam, but the thinker power still allowed Eidolon to understand his teammate.
At this stage of flight, Legend was thinking slowly, but he was still thinking and feeling emotions. Mostly, he was feeling betrayed. He was confused, furious, curious, heartbroken, and partially in denial. All of the emotions that were part and parcel with betrayal. He was going to give Eidolon and Alexandria a chance to explain themselves, but they would only have one chance.
At that moment, Legend broke off and headed for the ground. In this part of the state, there was nothing but woods and uninhabited camping areas for a couple miles in each direction. Eidolon probably could have read his reasoning even without help.
Legend wanted answers now, not at Cauldron, and from the two of them rather than from the Doctor Mother. It was possible that he was trying to avoid Contessa, or rather, the 'murderous precog' that Contract had accused them of having, but Eidolon knew his teammate better than that. Legend was making an emotional decision to get answers immediately, and it just so happened to have tactical advantages.
Legend passed in front of the other two, unable to see their faces, and Alexandria and Eidolon shared a glance as they followed him down. The truth? she asked him by tipping her eyebrow.
Eidolon nodded. He dropped Danger Sense and asked instead for Directed Vision Precognition. He got several hundred responses, but only had to try three before he found one that would do what he was looking for: the ability to predict what would happen in Brockton Bay, a few hours in advance.
He wanted to focus entirely on the conversation ahead, but the reality was that they'd just left world-altering information in the hands of teenagers. He didn't think they'd be idiots about it, and Contessa could probably handle it if they were going to, but he didn't like to rely on Contessa too heavily. Something else might be more important at any given moment, so he would keep an eye on Brockton Bay at least until and unless it caused issues with Legend.
He couldn't see Contract clearly, but he could see Miss Militia and Director Piggot, so they should have some warning if the Wards broke the Endbringer truce and tried to use their new knowledge against the Triumvirate.
As they descended, Eidolon adjusted to a slower thought process, and momentarily dropped Interpret Other People in order to choose a defensive power. He ended up with a force field power that re-directed energy, and would probably protect him and Alexandria just in case Legend snapped. It would at least give him time to drop the precognition and find teleportation or some other method of retreat.
He refused to consider that he might need to harm his teammate. He'd flee Legend long before he'd hurt him, and at least at the moment Legend would let him go.
As soon as they landed, Eidolon dropped Screw with Gravity in favor of Interpret Other People. Alexandria touched down a moment later, facing Legend as Eidolon was, and then there was a moment of silence.
"Destroy the Endbringers," Legend commanded, "Now."
"It's done," Eidolon returned calmly. "Or rather, I've done my best. If it didn't work, then we need more resources and time than are available in these woods."
"If you want me to go anywhere with you, explain," Legend snapped out in the voice he used on his adversaries, and not on his teammates.
Eidolon carefully didn't glance at Alexandria. He didn't want to indicate to Legend that the two of them were coordinating their answer.
"The world is in danger," Eidolon said, mindful of the fact that he was still under the truth-compulsion contract, but also knowing that Scion might be listening. "Not just from the Endbringers, as we told you. But from another enemy. That enemy might be listening now."
Legend's lip pulled up and back, distain, and Eidolon hurried on. "The contract is still in effect. We can't lie. Try it." Eidolon himself tried to say, 'my name is Suzie' but found his mouth was simply left open. He shut it.
Legend opened his mouth, then shut it with a snap of his own. "Who is the enemy?"
"He might be listening." Eidolon repeated slowly, trying to impart the importance of this fact. Legend scoffed, but in frustration not disbelief.
"We were trying to protect you," Alexandria said, getting to the heart of the matter. "The decisions we have had to make are… they're impossible. They're ugly decisions, and we didn't want you to have to bear that burden." Reluctantly, perhaps even forced by the contract they were still under, she added, "We didn't think you would be able to bear it."
"Necessary evils?" Legend sneered, but there wasa hint of belief in his eyes.
"Yes," Eidolon answered immediately, fervently, and he heard Alexandria answering at the same time, in the same tone.
Belief, Interpret Other People supplied as Legend's eyebrows rose. Belief that you believe what you're telling him, it clarified a moment later. Anger.
"Then you admit that they are evil?" he shot back, struggling with the idea in his own mind. Eidolon paused, letting Legend turn over everything he knew before as well as everything he had just learned. He didn't want to push Legend with too much information too fast. If at all possible, he still wanted to be a Triumvirate when this was all over.
Eidolon knew that Legend had had his doubts at various times. When he'd discovered that Cauldron sold power to villains for the cash to operate, they'd had a pretty ugly shouting match. When he'd uncovered that they were still recruiting heroes from among terminal pediatric patients, he'd chosen to stew on the information for weeks instead of confronting them. When he'd learned that Cauldron required favors, even from their heroic clients, he'd argued until they pointed out that two of those favors had actually saved his life, and one had prevented a kidnapping of his son.
Eidolon was pretty sure that Legend had suspected the existence of a powerful precog at that time, though they'd claimed that the information came from the Protectorate think tank and Legend hadn't forced the question then.
The question was not whether Legend was going to require answers now. It was how much would be left of their friendship and teamwork when the answers were given.
"Tell me everything," Legend insisted, as Eidolon had known he would. Having accepted smaller evils before, and discovering the sort of thing they were covering, Legend could do no less than confront himself with the full details of what he had overlooked.
Whether Legend accepted their reasoning or not, Eidolon knew that his teammate would hold himself responsible for the evils he had unknowingly allowed. He would hold them responsible too, of course, but he would lay just as much guilt upon himself.
With that in mind, Eidolon made his tone as gentle as possible and said, "As you wish. We will tell you what we can here, but then we will need to go to another place, where we are less likely to be overheard, to tell you the rest."
"If you wish to leave when we are done, we won't hold you," Alexandria offered, reading the same reluctance that Eidolon could see clearly.
Legend paused, then squared his shoulders and nodded sharply. "So be it."
As Alexandria began to explain, Eidolon's precog power offered up a vision, and he looked it over. Vista, Miss Militia, and Kid Win were talking to Glenn, working on the final version of a press release about the disappearance of the Endbringers. The story was remarkably close to the true reading of events, though very kind to him. With a curl of shame, he realized that they were even giving him a part in the defeat, rather than the blame he deserved.
He chose not to mention this to his teammates, and dropped the precognition, asking for another thinker power to better relate to Legend instead. The Triumvirate had enough to worry about, saving their friendship, their team, and the world. The Brockton Bay team could handle the Endbringer fallout for now.
Walking Legend through the full recounting of Cauldron's activities was exhausting. Alexandria did most of the talking, probably because she could sense that Eidolon wasn't up for it.
It wasn't that he regretted taking the vial, not exactly anyway. He had made the best decision he could, with the information he had. Every decision had been the only option he really saw. He couldn't sit in a chair and do nothing with his life. He couldn't stand by and watch Scion burn the world. He couldn't ignore Doctor Mother and Contessa, and their foreknowledge, knowing it might hasten the burning of the world, or worsen it when it came.
He couldn't even argue that Cauldron had been wrong, not really. As much as he was personally sickened by what he had done, what his powers had done, the fact was that the vial had worked. It had produced a power, at least three powers and maybe as many as twenty, that had exchanged blows with Scion and come back for another hit. And another. And another. They'd never hurt Scion, but they hadn't been killed by him either.
And now, thanks to Contract, those powers were safely locked away, ready for the final day. Without Cauldron, Eidolon would not exist. For that matter, Contract herself might not exist either.
As Alexandria tried to make Legend's understand that Contessa had extreme foreknowledge, and every alternative he was suggesting had already been tried or was happening simultaneously elsewhere, Eidolon reflected on the puzzle that was Contract's trigger.
Obviously, she hadn't triggered from her vial, as they wouldn't have proceeded to torture her if she had. Presumably, she hadn't triggered from the torture either, as she said that she used the distraction of another cape and not her own powers to escape. Vials did fail, sometimes, but they had no evidence to suggest that a cape could trigger later, naturally, after a vial had failed.
He'd have to ask Doctor Mother about it later, after Legend was satiated. It did seem that Alexandria was slowly making progress. Despite her more brusk tone, Legend was responding to her better than to Eidolon.
Perhaps Legend didn't trust Eidolon not to use a Master power, or perhaps it was something worse. Eidolon had purposefully cut off Interpret Other People before he was given the answer; he didn't want to think about the fact that he might have already lost his friend, who had been the closest thing to family he had. Instead, he let Alexandria talk, for now, and split his attention elsewhere, taking advantage of the accelerated thinking.
Contract as a whole was puzzling, of course. She was one spot that Contessa had trouble predicting. Simple paths, with simple goals, usually worked, but if Contessa tried to add too many caveats, lengthening the path, there was a good chance that the predictions would suddenly fail to appear. For a few goals, there simply was no path. Among these? Kill Contract.
It wasn't that they'd been considering the alternative seriously. They'd simply been gathering information, and the result was startling. Contessa had slowly stripped away the additional contingencies she routinely added, so that the path went from "Kill Contract, keeping Cauldron's secrets, staying alive with an escape back to Doctor Mother available, etc," all the way to just "Kill Contract," and yet a path never appeared. Contessa couldn't kill Contract, and couldn't tell anyone else what to do to succeed either.
The Doctor Mother had quickly insisted that this didn't mean that Contract couldn't be killed. It could just mean that her death was somehow shielded. This encouraged Eidolon, in some sick way, but not by much.
"Are you trying to tell me there's nothing I can do?" Legend ground out, gritting his teeth and gesturing to the papers on the desk in front of him, which held summaries of what Cauldron had been able to discover due to their tests.
They'd convinced Legend to relocate to Cauldron's alternate dimension when it became obvious that he wouldn't accept their explanations without knowing exactly who the enemy was, and fortunately neither Doctor Mother or Contessa had showed up yet.
Frustration. Interpret Other People supplied. When no further details were offered, Eidolon pushed a little until the power yielded up an explanation. Alexandria is too matter of fact. Not enough genuine sympathy.
Eidolon tried to use the power to predict if it would be better or worse for him to speak, but no insight appeared. He decided to rejoin the conversation. He would understand Legend's struggle better than Alexandria.
"You're already doing it," Eidolon said, forcing himself to pay attention to his longtime teammate and friend and only him.
When it was obvious that Legend wasn't going to let loose a physical attack, Eidolon had traded his defensive force fields for Danger Sense, to take advantage of the accelerated thinking, which was now working against him. When he'd done so, he'd noticed the truly staggering number of precognition powers available to him. Something to explore later.
Eidolon leaned forward, knowing from Interpret Other People that he'd honestly surprisedLegend. "You're saving lives, providing a safe and constructive team for natural triggers, fighting S-class threats, and maintaining order."
Eidolon swallowed, trying to find the best way to express himself, but not relying too heavily on his powers. Legend knew him, and he'd know if what he said was too far out of character. "Look, we're not trying to screw up the world. We are trying to save it. Everything from crime on the streets all the way up to the endgame."
"The Endbringers…" Legend started to rally, but Alexandria cut him off.
"The Endbringers are irrelevant. If we do nothing, everyone will die. Everyone on this earth, on every connected earth, on earths we don't even know exist. Scion will kill them all. The only way, the absolutely only way we have a chance, is if we seize it. We're not taking risks. We're creating chances. And yes, we're carving them out of human flesh and we're playing with powers we don't understand. What we do understand is that the alternative is certain death."
Legend shook his head, but didn't speak. Surrender. Alexandria didn't look smug, and Eidolon didn't feel victorious. He didn't need a thinker power to tell him that Legend was surrendering out of exhaustion, confusion, and heartbreak. Maybe in a few days, he'd be able to understand and accept what they were saying. For now, he was simply overwhelmed.
Importantly, though, he wasn't going to expose Cauldron. He'd acknowledged almost from the beginning that it would be disastrous for the world to discover them. It would pull the carpet out from under every hero team that Cauldron was sponsoring; it would hurt innocent people in the crossfire; it would probably draw Scion's attention, if not his wrath; and worst of all it would put incredible power into the hands of politicians who didn't understand it, respect it, or fear it and who wouldn't use it to save the world, but to serve their short-term needs.
That part of the discussion had been easy compared to what followed. Alexandria had started the explanation of what Cauldron was doing by first showing Legend the results. The things they'd discovered, the things they could do, the powers they had waiting in reserve. After that, she hadn't needed to show him the methods by which these things had been discovered. He wasn't a thinker, but he was smart enough to see where the conversation was headed.
Still, he insisted that Alexandria and Eidolon spell it all out, every last crime, torturing himself and them in some sort of sick penance.
Eidolon got up from his seat next to Alexandria, walked around the table, and squatted on his heals next to Legend. He didn't try to touch his teammate, just rested beside him instead, as he spoke softly.
"I know this is hard to accept. Alexandria even said that it was an impossible decision. And at times, it has felt impossible. We've had the advantage and burden that we saw this all unfold slowly. We were part of those decisions, and we know that there really was no other option. Not if we want to live."
Eidolon queried Interpret Other People, and the power whispered back, not suicidal, not violent, not rash, not motivated to lash out, not inclined to share his shame.
It wasn't a sure thing, but it was probably safe enough to send Legend home. Whether he came back or not, well, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.
"Go home," he nearly whispered, and now he did reach out and put a hand on Legend's shoulder, unable to resist offering some physical comfort to his long-time friend and brother-in-arms. "Hold your son. Think about his future. Kiss Arthur."
Alexandria matched his tone as she added, "We'll be here when you're ready to talk."
Legend shuddered slightly, in grief, and whispered back, "How do you do it? How do you live with yourselves?"
Eidolon answered immediately, knowing that Alexandria was too practical, too hard, to be able to answer this in a way that Legend would both accept and believe. "We have to do something. Someday, when this is over, we'll have the luxury of morality and judgment. And on that day, we'll deal with the consequences of what we've done. But those things are luxuries. First, we have to make that day possible."
Eidolon held Legend's gaze, neither looking at Alexandria nor letting Legend glance at her either. He knew that she didn't agree. She was a utilitarian in the most clichéd sense of the stereotype: doing the most good, for the most people, and damn social constructs that were only holding them back and wouldn't save anyone's life. She didn't think Cauldron was doing wrong in the slightest, she saw no grey in trying to save the world, and she acknowledged no argument to the contrary.
Eidolon wasn't quite so cold, though sometimes he thought it would be easier if he was. It was impossible for him to look into the faces of their victims, particularly the unwilling ones, and not call what they were doing "wrong." It would be more wrong to do nothing, to let the world burn, but that didn't change the fact that experimenting on innocent people was morally wrong.
Eidolon wasn't sure where Legend would end up; if this knowledge would break him or if he'd come out stronger. He suspected the latter, but there was no way to be sure, which was why they'd never told him before.
Finally, Legend nodded and broke eye contact, glancing down at his hands. Then he stood up slowly, moving like an old man, and whispered, "Door to my home." The air changed, Legend stepped forward, and then Eidolon and Alexandria were alone.
For a long moment, they just stood there, looking at the place where Legend had been.
"Shall we?" Alexandria said as she roused herself, moving toward the office door, already focusing on the next important meeting: discussing the next steps with the rest of Cauldron's top tier.
Compartmentalizing. Afraid of losing her teammate. Shutting down doubts. Shutting down self-doubts.
Eidolon pulled his hood back up out of habit, and followed Alexandria out of the room. As he closed the door behind himself, he glanced back just once, and caught sight of the papers strewn over the surface of the desk.
His heart twinged, but he didn't hesitate in the slightest. There would be time for regret, for grief, if and when they out-lived Scion.