Fragment/3
The sound of the baby continued to make her watch.
It was ridiculous being made as babysitters with the threat to humanity being so close as it is. Yet at the same time, this was part of the agreement that they had with their colleague, and as impractical as it would be, Legend was the only person that had any contact with the rogue parahuman that forewarned them of this current tragedy.
Parahuman in this case meant to be a general term, given that they had no actual idea as to where to place the young woman into what existing knowledge they had. Especially, since in this case whatever threat had arrived and had taken Alexandria off the list was absent in the eyes of their passengers both accounted for and those that were not accounted for.
Then again, they had little to know about the Enemy's species at all, and what info they gathered was still crumbs in the literal sea that is the cosmos. Even their whole scheme, their whole plan rested on the laurels of a dead entity's powers being wielded by one human being. Powers that had limitations but were the only literal path that was seen across an ocean of impossible and far-fetched ideas they had debated over for decades.
It was the crutch that they had refined and tried to master as the years went by.
Preparation after preparation.
Experimentation after experimentation…
And finally, countless decisions that to many would construe panic, disbelief, and horror.
All for the saving grace that meant saving humanity not just on Earth Bet, but for all the worlds.
"Shhhh…" the father of the child said as he silently prepared to feed the baby again much to the little boy's delight.
It was an existential threat to end all existential threats. One that bargained no such moralities or viewpoints for the sole purpose of allowing even a small chance of victory to be made clear.
And even then…
With what was happening on Earth Bet and nearly all of the Passengers that the Enemy had as well as their own, things started to come into light again that put that cold-hard logic into question.
No, not on morals, perspectives, or ideologies.
Those are better left for naïve people who were no better than the villains that accosted them…
But questions based on alternatives.
Or in this case, what they could have done better to make sure that the chances of humanity surviving were not near zero as they often were in the first place.
The woman who was known simply as Doctor Mother hummed to those thoughts as she began walking away.
How long did they have left?
The first contact was already horrible on their part. The subject in question, the girl Taylor Hebert had a ridiculous range of abilities not even counting that of the Pseudo-singularity that was threatening to destroy not just their own plans, but of the Enemy's as well. The girl's anomaly would render the Enemy into action like a predator being forced to protect its hunting grounds from a rival or a new similarly powerful species of another genus. Even if the girl is beaten or killed in the process, it would possibly cause the Enemy to finally decide that their world is not worth it anymore and start the process of their elimination.
Doctor Mother was even skeptical about these thoughts too, since the girl so far had rendered everything related to the Enemy without issue including one of the Triumvirate. While true that they had never faced the Endbringers yet, nor the Enemy's avatar, nor even Eidolon or the rest of the stronger Passenger-wielding parahumans, the rate of the singularity increasing like an enlarging Black Hole proved all theories and pre-conceptions moot.
Because according to Contessa, NumberMan, and all of their contacted sources that were experts on the fields related to the anomaly of the Singularity, it just defied all knowledge and understanding of why it existed in the first place.
At the very least the Passengers, in their horribly advanced and nearly reality-warping-like abilities had mathematical bases that often times still attuned to the laws of the universe…
And while the Enemy themselves as well as that of the corpse that they had in their midst, procured things that defied said logic, it still kept to the foundations of the established universe.
The Singularity, in this case, had none of that and the threat of its enlarging size meant that like a Black Hole, it meant Earth Bet was going to be non-existent with the rate of its growth.
What proved to be troublesome was the varying and shockingly high number of abilities both observed and unobserved of the girl without even taking the Singularity into question. The fact that they had a powerful aura of effect that rendered individuals within it exposed to a horrible degree of negative emotions proved to be a detriment that caused Alexandria to break and fall under the girl's influence.
Worse, the power to call forth arthropod-based lifeforms on a scale that appeared to be planetary had stopped any notion or debate on how to properly handle such a thing and those were the only main suggested powers that were observed or seen from the girl…
Disbarring any smaller minor ones or even any hidden ones that were out of sight.
It was a horrifying situation that they were now placed in and the only person that had any inkling of saying that it would happen was a young girl that Legend saw in his dreams.
Said young girl who had Legend disappearing from all means of communication or detection from their eyes.
There were doubts of course, many of them given the nature of how late this supposed second conversation took place, but like before what choice did, they ultimately have?
What choice was there with the many hard existential decisions being placed into their laps?
Even if the entire situation was reversed and if this was Contessa being the one communicated to, then things would never have changed.
They had no other path to go to.
No alternative.
No other risky debated probability that would possibly give them another edge.
Or was there?
Doctor Mother finally arrived at the main room where the Cauldron membership regularly met. It was largely empty given that Contessa was also absent.
The Numberman continued to press hard on his work to provide clarity or any sort of help but with the clock ticking the way it was, she was starting to have doubts with their whole organization.
Especially since even after decades of hard work, all of their efforts were now wasted and useless.
It was like a terrible ironic joke being thrown at their faces by the will of the universe.
She finally sat on her chair as she looked over the information they had and the clear decision of putting all secrecy down the drain as in a few minutes with or without Legend, they would need to inform all relevant parties of the current state of Earth Bet.
Contessa had the keys to Dragon and the AI even after being briefly informed of their organization had put all of their frustrations at bay in order for cooperation to work. Nearly all of their connections were informed of this new change…
Some needed to be transported into key locations without the need to cash in their favors given the reality of the situation and while it was all helpful, Doctor Mother could not help but think if it was going to matter at all at the end.
Especially since they had no way to know if victory was assured.
The paths Contessa possessed had forced them to believe in absolute certainty, but this? They were simply far too blind to be of any relevance to the fate of humanity.
They were not even privy to the Birdcage anymore of all places.
Nor their contacts in other countries as even with Tinkertech, most of the mundane components not made by Tinkers were beginning to fail on Earth Bet. What little remained of the global network was patched by one single AI that was holding it all together even with their help.
It was frustrating.
"What do we do with the father?" a new voice suddenly broke the silence as Doctor Mother saw Eidolon taking his hood and mask off after the Door closed behind him. He started walking towards the table and sat on his chair as they both stared at each other.
"He has no use to us. The girl does not seem to remember her and we are not even sure if it's the girl at all, possibly it's just a skin being worn by something else." She remarked.
Eidolon or David in this case frowned thoughtfully. "There has to be a way to stop her. I can go and-
"No. I'm warning you now and even before Alexandria left to stay your hand. We don't know anything about this new enemy. We don't know what she'll do to someone like you." She emphasized, not just in a manner that would seem callous, but hints of worry were seeping into her voice.
"And what should I do?" he asked with conviction and so much emotion.
"You are one of our last contingencies David. If it means that we have to put the lives of our allies on the line to make sure you can do something at the very end, then so be it."
"You always say that. No, imply that. Every single one of you. But what is the point of holding me back? Putting me here, sitting and doing nothing as everything around us gets destroyed?" he said as he sat up from his chair. The emotions on his face started to accumulate as he stared deeply into her eyes.
She did not give him an answer given that she had no idea as well as he slowly sat back into the chair.
"I feel useless. Even with all my power… I feel useless." He then puts both hands on the sides of his head and frustratingly sighs. "It's like I don't matter at all… that I can't do anything to save everyone despite everything that I can do."
"You are not useless… David. You are probably the most important next to Contessa in this very room." She said hoping to calm him down, but her nearly emotionless demeanor served to rile up the man.
"Then why is it… that with nearly everything I do, it just comes off as inconsequential?"
Doctor Mother was rendered silent at those words.
"I'm here… sitting in this room doing jack shit and I can't help but feel that if I go out there and try to do something, I'll be as dead as Rebecca was when she tried to fix this. I'm useless. I'm worth nothing compared to the Enemy… compared to nearly every threat that's got us running and hiding."
He then paused and tilted his downwards to the table. "It's like I was never meant to be a hero in the first place. It's like… I was never meant to be anything at all at the end."
Doctor Mother watched as the man wallowed in his depression. Unable to say anything that would prove useful or helpful to at least take him out of that line of thinking.
A second later the man shook his head and looked at her. "Do we have any word on Keith?"
"None, as of the current moment, but the meeting will happen with or without him, and as painful as it is to say this, we need you back in good shape. Whatever happens in the meeting, they will have no choice but to trust you or Legend to manage a way to fix all of this."
"And if we don't?"
"Then… perhaps we would have to all die knowing that our hardships were unearned." She said with all the realistic and honest thoughts she could muster as David's frown worsened.
"Can you be honest with me about something?" David asked as his expression turned neutral and thoughtful. He inched closer as he placed both elbows on the table as he leaned. "Do you think… we could have done things better?"
Doctor Mother blinked at him.
Better was a subjective word. Then again, she did not know how to answer it objectively.
How could they have done things better?
But before they could elaborate on the conversation further, they turned their heads to the sound of Contessa who had just arrived in the room with haste.
The woman's usually calm and stoic disposition now looking troubled and exhausted but otherwise focused looked at the both of them and spoke.
"Legend and all necessary parties have arrived… he awaits us with news."
-49:36
AN: I wonder how many setups that I hinted at here will be discovered? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Originally this whole fragment had Danny as the POV but due to me changing and shifting a few things to make the David Chapter as special as it could possibly be, I had to ditch that idea (while interesting on its own front) to better setup the small arc (kinda) for David in his last hurrah while also providing a bit of humanization and second-thinking for Doctor Mother.
The Meeting chapter is going to be very hard to write about and it's daunting just looking at the notes given the ideas I have in it as well as the possible presentation that's why I think I need to delay it a bit longer in terms of release for next week. Hopefully it will not be too long of a wait and I hope its worth it once it's finished.
I do have a snippet that I would like to share in a few days that only needs polishing at this point so stay tuned for that.
With that said, I do hope this little chapter was appreciated.