This was absurd.

Thoughts whirled in my head. How did this fit into the Worm multiverse? Was the Earth Bet on the other side of the portal just a branch, like Aleph and this Bet were? Did the other Bet have its own multiverse, with its own Aleph and everything, identical to but distinct from what this Bet had? Was…

"Is there another Scion on the other Earth Bet?" Fionnuala asked, taking a slightly shuddering breath. "If you're permitted to share that information, of course."

"There is. The two Scions have been staring at each other, motionless in midair above that side's Utah, since a little after the portal was opened."

"Ah." Well, at least they weren't tearing up the place fighting each other or whatever. Small favors, I guess.

Part of me realized something before the rest of me did, and Morven suddenly spoke up. "What is Dragon's status?"

I felt Armsmaster's armor shift minutely as he stiffened, while Piggot tilted her head. "I don't believe you're cleared to be told that sort of thing, even with the NDA's you just signed. You understand, I hope. Why do you ask?"

"Well…" Morven was silent for a few moments more as I considered my options. I didn't want to reveal Dragon's status as an AI, as she was one of the most heroic people I knew of in this world and outing her would endanger her, in addition to just being a dick move. But if I didn't say anything… "If there is a second Dragon on this other Earth Bet, she and this Bet's Dragon must never come into contact. If they do, they'll be compelled to kill one another." She paused a moment. "Or either Saint, or both of them, could be dicks and off Dragon. He can do it, just like that." She snapped her fingers to punctuate the statement.

Armsmaster went very still, and despite the visor covering his eyes I could feel his gaze all but boring into Fionnuala. "Elaborate," he said sharply, cutting off whatever Piggot was about to say.

"There's a lot about the situation that I don't want to just blab about – and she can't hear about any of this, it wouldn't end well – but in essence, Saint thinks Dragon poses too much of a threat to the world to leave her be, despite her being one of the most noble heroes I know of. And he's got a severe case of Main Character Syndrome exacerbating everything. It got to the point where he went to Teacher for additional power, so he's also seeking to break Teacher out of the Birdcage." Both Piggot and Armsmaster opened their mouths to interject, and Fionnuala held up a hand to stop them. "Yes, you'll need independent confirmation, rather than merely trusting what I say. I honestly encourage doing so for everything I bring up. The perspective this knowledge comes from is not by any means omniscient, and there are certain to be important details I will know nothing of."

Morven chimed in, "We are by no means infallible, either."

"Quite. Now, there remain a number of other topics to cover. For one, Panacea is in serious need of psychological help due to increasingly severe burnout from healing, among other issues…"

.o.o.o.

We spent quite a while, with me expositing about details I remembered that would, hopefully, be of use in saving lives and whatnot. Stuff like how the Siberian was a projection, and that her controller, William Manton, did not benefit from her transferable invincibility; or how Jack Slash, he of the deliberately silly name he'd spent many years turning terrifying, had a Thinker aspect to his power that fed information gleaned from nearby parahumans to his subconscious, which contributed to his horrific longevity. That sort of thing, as well as tidbits like how Crawler had been killed by telling him outright that tinkertech bombs would be dropped on him if he stayed where he was, which he did, eagerly.

If I could screw over the Nine without getting anywhere near them, I'd compromise my desire for relative obscurity.

I did not make any mention of how Jack had originally set the apocalypse into motion, mostly because with recent events being what they were, it didn't seem particularly relevant anymore. I also chose not to speak about anything Cauldron-related, because doing so would just screw over whomever I spilled those beans to, and would probably land me in particularly hot water in the process, regardless of however my precog immunity worked. I did not at all like how Cauldron worked, what with the whole "groping blindly for a miracle that'll prevent the destruction of all Earths, using that apocalypse as a blank check for any action, no matter how utterly immoral" thing, but I was just two girls. There was nothing I could do against them, realistically speaking. Better to survive while doing what little I could to make the world better.

I avoided speaking about Taylor and the Undersiders much at all, admittedly because I was biased towards them and didn't want to fuck them over if I could help it.

The more I spoke, the more I realized just how little I knew about Earth Bet's secrets. There was just so much I simply did not know, or wasn't wholly certain of; Worm only showed a few small slices of the world, for reasons that made for engaging storytelling, but it sharply limited what I could reveal. Sure, I could mention that the reason Indonesia had a cyborg super soldier infestation was that there was a portal there connecting to another Earth with advanced cybernetics technology, but that was literally all I knew on the subject. It was entirely possible that the PRT as a whole knew everything I could tell them on the subject and more. And the fact that I'd never mustered up the spoons to get very far into Ward certainly wasn't helping. But there was nothing I could do about that, I had zero access to either story here on Bet. Best to dump what little information I had and let the PRT handle it from there. I'd done all I could.

We spoke more on my desire to leave Brockton Bay, and of arranging for the samples altered by Morven to be moved elsewhere. Fionnuala floated the idea of going to New York, while Armsmaster noted that Boston would be a good place for both me and the samples to go, what with Director Armstrong's well-known interest in powers-related research. That made sense to me, but I had some concerns about being in the same city as the Butcher and the Teeth. Armsmaster said that the Teeth had, apparently, become very quiet in the past few days, which was concerning in and of itself, but that the Boston PRT would, naturally, ensure my safety. Part of me was a bit leery of the fact that things were only going so incredibly smoothly because I had a useful power, but I didn't give voice to those thoughts. Boston it was, for the near future, at least.

The entire exhausting conversation felt far longer than it actually was, and at the end of it all I just wanted to leave and curl up in bed with myself for a few hours. After receiving my temporary identification paperwork I left, changed back into civilian clothes, and made use of the bus schedules I'd memorized and good old-fashioned walking to return to the Cardosos' house. I greeted Paz when I got there, but I begged off conversation to head up to the guest bedroom and make good on my intentions.

.o.o.o.

I didn't actually nap, since that would've involved falling asleep, and I'd never been able to truly nap as far as I could remember. It probably had something to do with the various medications I took for ADHD, which, since I did not have access to it on Bet, I'd compensated for via a special bouquet of glands in each of my bodies. They'd been surprisingly easy to make, for which I thanked my shards. I received no response, not that I expected any. Regardless, half an hour of laying down with my eyes closed left me feeling markedly refreshed. Feeling my selves cuddling with each other was especially nice.

With dozens of thin, rounded-tipped spines of enamel emerging from the palms of their right hands, Tabitha and Acacia took turns brushing each other's hair. With my curly hair, bedhead was no joke, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Despite the trouble keeping it long caused me, my hair had always been my favorite part of myself, even after the hormones doing their best gave me a much more feminine form. Those copper curls were just so lovely.

The teeth of that impromptu brush running over her scalp elicited a happy sigh from Acacia, and she relaxed back against Tabitha's front. Tabitha smiled, and continued to brush well after the last tangle had been worked out. And after that indulgence, by wordless agreement the two traded places, so Acacia could take her turn pampering Tabitha.

At the end of it all, when the last tooth had been reabsorbed into its hand, Acacia put Tabitha's hair in a long, but simple, braid that ended a little above the small of her back. She fastened it with a knot of bone, shaped on a whim to look like a little nautilus shell. Acacia's hair was left loose, and ended higher on her back despite being the same length as Tabitha's, due to the curls.

While they were doing that, I was busy doing maintenance. A lot of it was just minor busy work, stuff like tweaking muscle groups and whatnot that I could've put off for quite a bit longer without consequence, but I felt like doing it, and the power had yet to lose its shine. I also did a few ever-so-slightly more important tasks, such as relaxing my emotional caps. And when I ran out of things that needed doing, I did a bit of bone reshaping here and there. It wasn't anything that'd improve my bodies any, just, well, the equivalent of doodling in the margins. Little bits of art that only I would see. Or, well, feel, since I didn't feel like bringing any of it to the surface.

My selves got dressed. Acacia donned a dress in a subdued floral print and some thigh-high socks that transitioned from dark blue at the toes to light green at the hem, where they were kept from slipping down by some tiny keratin hooks emerging from her thighs. Tabitha had on a lavender t-shirt and some skinny jeans she'd gotten into swiftly by compressing her legs to what were basically sticks, then reverting them to how they'd been once the jeans were on.

A scent had been wafting through the house when I got here, cooking meat and peppers of some kind. I found my selves drawn to the kitchen, but on the way I found Paz in the living room, sitting on the couch and reading a book. She looked up at the sounds of my footsteps and smiled, though unless I missed my mark there was a trace of uncertainty or something behind it. I wasn't anywhere near the best at reading expressions (not to mention I simply did not understand the various turns of phrase attributing emotion to a "glint in someone's eye" or the like), so this probably would've been painfully obvious to someone more neurotypical. But regardless…

"Hi," she said, genuine warmth in her tone. Her eyes flickered over Tabitha and Acacia. "Those look good on you two."

"Thanks," Tabitha replied, and I didn't even have to fake the slight blush in Acacia's cheeks.

"You had a good nap, I hope?"

"Not really a nap, but it was restful nonetheless."

"That's good. So, was there something you needed?" She stuck a scrap of paper in her book to mark her place, then set it aside.

"Not something we need, really," Tabitha said, leaning against the back of an armchair. She lifted her heel off the floor and let her foot twist back and forth against the floorboards in a lazy fidgeting motion.

"We wanted to know if there was anything we could do to help out around the house," Acacia chimed in. "Is that a late lunch I smell? Do you have anything you'd like us to lend a hand with for it?"

"Oh, no, I told you, Acacia, you don't need to do chores to earn your keep here," Paz said, leaning forward a hair.

"Mm. I want to, though."

Paz sighed and shook her head. "Regardless, there's nothing to help with cooking just yet. That's dinner, actually. I tossed a roast and some banana peppers in the slow cooker. Jacob let me know he'll be home a little late, so I don't need to start on the sides for a few hours." She paused for a moment, then another. "And, of course, I can…" She trailed off, eyes settling on Acacia. "We can whip up some lunch if you're hungry."

"I wouldn't mind a quick lunch," Tabitha said, only to flinch a bit as Acacia lightly drove an elbow into her ribs.

Paz smiled at that. "We can make sandwiches. And, well…" She looked a bit nervous, but also hopeful, if I was reading things right. "I'm done with work for today, finished up early. Would you two, maybe, like to watch a movie with me while we eat?"

Not what I was expecting, but… "Sure," Acacia replied with a smile.