[Alexandria[28th February]
"Ok, is everyone ready?" Doctor Mother asked out of courtesy. We all nodded to show our support. To be completely honest, she could see her fellow conspirators' haggard state. Contessa had black bags under her eyes. She was reasonably sure that the others had similar conditions but their masks hid that.
Knowing him, David would never allow anyone to know of any perceived weakness. That's why it made sense for the bullshit cape to not show any signs of sleep deprivation when she knew that he was suffering from it. God knew that she was practically working on fumes.
As soon as she was allowed back to the field, she went back to her work with a determination that even she didn't know was possible. Unfortunately or fortunately, the workload was immense. Surprisingly, it wasn't her cape identity that challenged her but her new job as the Assistant Chief Director.
The paperwork was fucking intense. Well, that's what happens when the world changes so much in such a short time. Rebecca supposed she had 'Prophet' to thank for this.
"Very well. Let's commence this meeting. The first topic of this evening is the Brockton Bay experiment." Rebecca scowled as this topic was brought up.
"It is practically a failure by this point. Any attempts to salvage the experiment will not be made. It is clear that the Prophet lives or at the very least cares for that city. Therefore, no one would be allowed to run interference to continue the experiment." Her scowl deepened.
While she has always regretted her actions, it doesn't mean that Rebecca wasn't ready to do everything to ensure humanity's survival. She would do anything to save humanity from the parasitic false God named Scion.
The Brockton Bay experiment was an essential part of their plan to understand Parahuman feudalism. If…when Scion is put to his death, Parahuman feudalism was going to be the way forward. She remembered being the one most vocal about this. She truly regretted sacrificing an entire city to the metaphorical and literal wolves. But she considered the survival of humanity to be far above the population of a city.
Therefore, she felt rage at the thought of having ignored years of a dying city's plea for help and then the experiment yielding zero fucking results. Just because she was ready to sacrifice lives for the greater good didn't mean that she was okay with such sacrifices being entirely wasted. It felt too much like spitting on the graves of all those unfortunate souls- actually, that may be preferable to what was happening.
"Any objections?" The Doctor eyed everyone carefully before locking her gaze on Rebecca.
"Yes, Alexandria. You want to say something?"
"Nothing of any importance, Doctor Mother. No, wait. I do have something to tell you all." Thank god she remembered this- not that this was anything forgettable.
Doctor Mother quirked an eyebrow as if to say 'Carry on.'
"Well…I received a personal message from Prophet."
"The fuck?" It was Dav- Eidolon who snapped out of the shock the fastest.
"My response exactly." She explained to her fellow Triumvirate member, hiding her smirk. There were few things in the world that could rattle David let alone agitate him this much. While their relationship wasn't the same as the old days, they were still friends - and friends had every right to tease each other.
"Why did-"
"What did Prophet say in their message? Any demands, information or just some sort of cryptic prank?" Doctor Mother calmly cut into the conversation before David could start his tirade.
"A demand for an undiluted -as pure as we could provide- Thinker rating Cauldron vial in exchange for a single piece of information that would be vital against Scion. They also said that this would be released on PHO as it has been, till now. But they would guarantee that this would be something that we would be extremely eager to learn about." Even the calm facade of Doctor Mother -the cold hearted pragmatic bitch- cracked at the announcement.
Yeah, that was her reaction as well. She checked the message 17 times to make sure that she read everything right and that it wasn't a prank by some asshole Tinker/Thinker.
"We can't be sure that they would keep their word. Besides, even if they did keep their word, what's to say that the information wouldn't reveal our secrets to the world as well?" Numberman asked all the important questions- she knew there was a reason she didn't kill the former S9 member just out of spite.
"Answering your questions, Numberman. Firstly, we can never be sure that Thinker supplied information is actually right and not some bullshit the Thinker cooked up to divert us. That doesn't mean that we stop trusting every Thinker analysis that hasn't been attained through interrogation.
"Secondly, the personal message and Prophet's response to Contessa on PHO is proof enough that they know a lot about Cauldron. If they wanted to, they could have exposed us anytime. From the psychology analysis, I think that we can all agree that Prophet considers this world a playground. Perhaps, it would be more apt to say that they perceive the world as a TV show or a movie."
"True" "Yeah" rang out the confirmatory voices of Eidolon and Numberman.
"They have their favourite characters like Panacea and characters they dislike, like Coil. Therefore it would be safe to say that playing a game of intrigue with us is not their style.
"If they wanted to, they would have revealed us to the world by now. Besides, it is just a Cauldron Vial. We all know that we have sacrificed much more for much less. This is a big chance, guys." Rebecca hoped that she did a good job to convince them because she knew that this was a big opportunity.
"Very well. Everyone who is willing to give Prophet an undiluted Cauldron vial, please raise your hand up." Doctor Mother's face has morphed into her usual calm countenance by now. Still, she could read microexpressions with her Thinker powers and she knew that the Doctor was pretty overwhelmed by this info.
Everyone's hands went up. She sighed thankfully for that. She was getting sick of sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people just to get a chance at salvation. A Cauldron vial was a small price to pay for that.
"That reminds me- what happened in your investigation, Numberman? Going by the lack of information on Prophet, I presume the lead was false."
"Exactly as you say. I managed to track Balminder down a few days back. He readily gave me the list of all his clients when he realised that Prophet might actually be connected to this. I went to each of them but from what I found, none have any chance to be Prophet." He finished with a grimace. The former villain prided himself on his efficiency rate and being stumped like this was not something he liked.
A tense silence held in the room until David broke it.
"That reminds me- congrats, Alexi. Siberian and Jack Slash are dead. Barry was avenged. Yeah, we lost an asset but the bastards were dealt with." David chuckled morbidly. While he didn't advocate for Siberian's death like she did(his pragmatism winning over at last), he did feel like celebrating the death of his friend's murderers.
"At least, Bonesaw was secured. None of us saw the group imploding so easily. This was a severe miscalculation. We should..."
While the meeting continued on, discussing about the new Bomb Tinker and what not- It was very hard to keep the smirk off her face. Contessa was running ragged due to all her paths malfunctioning and she, as Alexandria and the Chief Director, was responsible for the information gathering section of Cauldron. Suppressing the information of Jack's assailant was child's play for her. She just hoped that the powerful Thinker helped them.
A/N: This chapter was fucking with me all the way. Therefore, apologies in advance if it's not upto the snuff. I would like to remind you that Alexi is not a saint. She regrets her actions but she is a monster at the end of the day- a monster who regrets but a monster all the same.
Voting for the MAJOR announcement open. Anything short of revealing the true nature of Scion or how to kill him is fine.