[Alexandria[15th Feb]
"You have got to be fucking kidding me. You mean to say that Contessa can't path this new Thinker? This isn't the time for jokes, Doctor Mother." Dav- no, Eidolon, he is Eidolon here, shouted in anger. His face below the mask isn't visible but Alexandria's cold reading ability helped her know that her longtime friend was absolutely livid.
She had just come to this meeting after reading the PHO post that was the bane of her existence for the last 2 days.
The post, which was treated like a normal shitpost(since when did shitposts become normal? Time flies, doesn't it?), quickly became something that would shit over hundreds of carefully made plans. Somehow, a Thinker(only retards would believe the Hivemind BS) managed to get undeniable proof that Alexandria was Rebecca Costa-Brown.
Even more surprisingly,they were able to relay that information to the world without Contessa knocking on their door. In barely two days, years of planning went to waste. More than a few politicians were out for her blood. That was what she expected if she ever got exposed. The unexpected thing was the public support. She expected the public to shun her the moment the truth(one of them anyway) came out.
Instead, most people were defending her. There were hundreds of people who came up in News Interviews giving their account of how she saved them. She didn't know why but this appreciation stung. She felt uncomfortable thinking about this(guilt ate her as she knew she wasn't worthy of this gratitude).
"No, David. I am not joking. Contessa is unable to do anything regarding this. Instead, this rogue Thinker has managed to create enough Chaos for 87 of her paths to stop functioning.
"Nearly 542 of them have become incredibly situational which means that they depend on the Thinker's future actions. This is bad, incredibly bad. And that's why we need you to somehow save this PR disaster. The public support was unexpected but welcome.
"It just means that Rebecca's ruse is incredibly convincing. Legend's attempts to save Rebecca's identity were disastrous. You are the only one in the Triumvirate not involved in the scandal. We need you to handle this so that the PRT isn't in shambles. We don't want such a useful pawn being threatened. Use your Thinker Powers if need be. The situation is serious." The woman clad in white coldly stated the facts and ordered Eidolon to help salvage PRT's image.
Alexandria couldn't help but feel a sting when Cauldron's leader pinpointed the fact that all the good deeds, all the heroism Rebecca was famous for, was a ruse- a ruse to hide the fact that she was a monster. She had long since accepted that fact. But somehow it still hurt that she had to destroy the lives of so many innocents for a chance at salvation. The praise that was heaped upon her wasn't something she was worthy of.
Despite the Public Support, the PRT was in shambles. People weren't sure who to trust and who not to. Her unmasking led to a complete sweep of PRT to cut the corruption. In fact, her unmasking was just the spark needed to light the bomb that was currently exploding.
She, as the Chief Director, was the one keeping the sweep from happening. There were way too many moles and corrupt officers in PRT. If that happens, a significant amount of their forces will be cut off. There were other problems as well.
Despite all that, the emotion she felt wasn't annoyance or anger. Instead, she felt relief- unbridled relief at the fact that at least one of her masks was pulled out. Over the last few years, she had put so many masks on her that she herself barely knew who Rebecca Costa-Brown was. So she was glad, oh so glad, that at least one of those masks was gone.
"Tch Fine. Rebecca, you owe me for this. Hm. One of my Thinker powers is saying that the possibility of this Thinker having gained powers from one of Balminder's vials is more than 90%. The vials are from Eden's corpse after all. Great. Another threat for us to deal with and this one's a chaotic one. Fucking Balminder. Why did the asshole betray us anyway?" Eidolon grumbled. Everyone knew that Balminder was a friend of his. His betrayal stung the most to Eido- David.
Barry(Hero)'s death changed things in ways that shouldn't have. If Jack Slash and Siberian weren't considered important enough, she would have ripped them apart like they did to her love.
David closed his heart off. He became a gloryhound and became a standoffish asshole- not that she had any moral high ground. Balminder was one of the few David considered friends. It grated on her that she knew why he left and understood his reasons. After all, not everyone could shake off their humanity for the sake of survival. Not everyone was ready to become monsters.
"Hmm. My calculations say the same thing." Numberman lazily droned out. It took a while but she could tolerate the former S9 member nowadays. It may have something to do with the fact that he wasn't personally involved in her love's death.
"So our priority is to capture The Dealer. Even if we can't get to this rogue Thinker by our usual methods, it would be a lot easier to get to them through him. Numberman, track down The Dealer. Alexandria, you can go back to the Protectorate. You have a public interview in half an hour.
"Appeal to the public by playing the 'I wanted to save everyone' card. Contessa is trying hard to stabilize her paths right now so she isn't going to be assisting any of you. Dismissed." The cold dismissal was typical behaviour of the white clad human.
As she sat up to leave, she once again wondered whether she was doing the right thing. Because once upon a time, the naive girl named Rebecca did want to save everyone and she failed. She failed hard.
[Taylor Hebert[15th Feb]
She was thrilled to find that two of the bitches three weren't present in school. Madison, the mousy little demon was still there but without Emma and Sophia to instigate events, she didn't do anything. Though the fact that she was somehow happily muttering something about 'Glorious PanPan smut' one moment and was depressed about 'Sophia's secrets' was beyond disturbing. She didn't want to know what went on in the demon's mind.
The classes went like normal which meant that she was teased by her female classmates like usual but there wasn't the usual heat. There was something missing.
The school ended quickly and she was glad it did. School without the Bitch trio wasn't half bad if one ignored the hordes of Neo-nazi and Yakuza wannabes. Still, there was an undercurrent of tension in the school and she didn't know why.
The muttering teenagers did tell her it had something to do with the ward Shadow Stalker but she wasn't sure what. Her social circle or lack thereof, did nothing to help her gain information.
Fortunately, she wasn't a normal human. She had superpowers, albeit an incredibly lame one. Who the hell thought that giving her bug control was a good thing? She just had the worst luck. Sometimes, she felt like the protagonist of one of those tragedies Mom used to read. It was like she spun some cosmic lottery and the result was shitty luck. Seriously, fuck her luck.
She sighed. She shouldn't think like that. So what if her luck was one of the worst there was? There were worse fates out there. You could get captured by S9, be in the vicinity of an Endbringer battle or you could have the attention of some gang. If she put it like that, she was luckier than a majority of the world's population.
Where was she? Oh right. She commandeered her bugs for a while before she decided to eavesdrop in a conversation where Shadow Stalker was mentioned.
"...Sophia is Shadow Stalker? That PHO page is fucking scary. Alexandria being the PRT's Chief Director…"
She didn't hear much of what was said as she stumbled, her breath caught in her throat. Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker. Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker. Suddenly, it all made sense. Why there was no action against the Bitch Trio, why they were allowed to roam free and do anything they wanted. Fuck.
She ran back to her home barely reigning in her tears. Bit by bit her belief in heroes started shattering. By the time she reached home, her cheeks were stained in tears and her belief in heroes was non-existent.
She darkly chuckled as she saw the note explaining that her dad(if he could even be called so) would be late. Of course, there was no one for the stupid ignorant Taylor. This was what the Universe wanted, didn't it? Anger simmered in her as nails dug into the palm of her hands, drawing blood.
Taylor went to her room and plopped to the bed, exhaustion taking the place of the anger and sadness that seemed to overwhelm her. She felt numb. She didn't want to deal with this bullshit anymore.
'Mom, where are you? I need you' That was her last thought before sleep overwhelmed her.
A/N: Before any of you say that Alexandria wouldn't behave like this, this is a fanfic. I am taking creative liberty with some characters. That doesn't mean that I'll turn Jack into someone redeemable or Taylor into a Nazi. But this does mean that I'll be modifying some characters according to my need.