Duplicity 10.1
"What the hell was that all about?"
Taylor flopped down into the nest of blankets that was the mattress on the floor of her Workshop.
Her mind was still spinning in countless different directions, trying to plan and counter-plan until she circled right back around to where she began.
"I think I just… made a backroom deal with Armsmaster to take over the city," Taylor said faintly, staring up at the ceiling.
"WHAT?" Amy exclaimed, sitting up sharply.
"That was… he came to my dad's work, unmasked. Requested a meeting. Basically asked that I avoid directly attacking the PRT while I either kill or assimilate all the other villains in the city. In exchange, he'll do his best to keep the PRT off my back, won't arrest my dad, won't tell anyone I murdered Shadow Stalker, and will generally support me where and when he can until the city reaches a fake stalemate with him and the Protectorate on one side and the Hunt on the other," Taylor rambled. "Oh, and apparently he did some tests on my sword and thinks I might be able to make weapons that can kill Endbringers."
Amy just stared at her blankly.
"We're talking about the same Armsmaster," Amy clarified slowly. "With the beard he uses a customized Tinkertech razor to trim and the fake smile he practices in the mirror?"
"That's the one. Wants to play the Tom to my Jerry while I murder the competition and absorb their powers," Taylor said. "He also wants access to my blood vials, but that and the super-weapon aren't technically part of the deal. He's just hoping I'll decide to get him a nice Christmas present as a 'thank you' for handing me the city's underworld on a blue and silver platter."
It sounded absurd, even to her, and she was insane. Probably.
Amy groaned and tipped back over so she was tucked under Taylor's arm, with her head buried somewhere in the blankets and Taylor's collarbone. Her girlfriend was still processing everything that happened with Dean and the subsequent revelations, which had been rudely interrupted by Armsmaster going off script.
Dean was off having that hot chocolate with Victoria, blissfully unaware of his traumatic start to the afternoon. Taylor would have to drag him back in and question him more another time, but for now, Amy needed her.
She was still extremely curious about Cauldron, though. An organization that could provide superpowers for a price seemed… too good to be true.
And, however the hell they did it, Taylor desperately wanted to tinker with it.
Maybe she wouldn't tell Amy about the surreptitious interrogation, though. The whole chain of events had hit Amy hard, and Taylor didn't want to put any more pressure on those fractures.
Part of her was still just happy that Amy hadn't run away screaming yet. Her girlfriend had finally seen just how monstrous Taylor could be, and she was still here.
"We fucked up, didn't we?" Amy's voice was muffled by her shirt.
Taylor didn't need to ask what she meant.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think we did," Taylor murmured quietly.
"We Mastered Dean so he wouldn't tell Armsmaster… the same Armsmaster who already knows, kind of, and is also helping us, kind of," Amy said.
"I mean, Dean could have told other people, too, like Victoria or the Director, and Armsmaster doesn't know about you or Anne, but… yeah," Taylor sighed. "Still, we can't exactly undo it now. I doubt he'd feel very charitable towards us at the moment."
"I know," Amy said. "And I don't regret it, really, he's still a piece of shit, but… I don't know."
Taylor ran her fingertips over Amy's scalp through her tangled hair.
It was quiet, for a while.
"I don't want to do that again," Amy whispered. "Not unless we absolutely have to."
Taylor nodded against the top of her girlfriend's head.
"Okay."
She decided not to mention the six other blades that were already soaking in the spinal fluid gathered from the remains of the Empire capes.
Just in case they absolutely had to.
…
Amy's hair looked even frizzier than usual with all the static electricity crackling around the room. Taylor was working on hooking up the Tonitrus sphere to her crudely wired together electrical grid.
"Congratulations," Amy said dryly. "You're officially a true mad scientist, now that you have a giant, stereotypical, electro-shock-inator."
"And you made fun of me for calling it a Tonitrus sphere. That's objectively better than electro-shock-inator," Taylor grinned.
"Fuck you, too."
Amy chewed her lip while she stared blankly into the white-blue lightning.
"I don't want to go to the hospital tonight," Amy said suddenly.
Taylor shrugged.
"So don't," she said. "Hospitals all over the world function without miracle parahuman healers.
"They might call Aunt Sarah or Carol to see where I am," Amy said.
"So tell them you're off doing dumb teenager shit, like… buying all the pool noodles from Walmart and stuffing them in people's mailboxes or something," Taylor shrugged. "Or you could just tell them you're with me."
"Is Anne… ready?" Amy asked awkwardly. "Carol's a fucking bitch, but she's not stupid, and she has a lot of connections."
"As ready as possible. I actually have to review all those documents," Taylor mused. "You want to come help me try to decipher the legal-eeze? Victor knew how to forge basic documents, but that doesn't automatically make him an expert. Plus, you need to know all the fake details to sell the story."
"How did you get everything set up, anyway?" Amy asked as they walked back towards the main Workshop.
"Tattletale," Taylor replied. "When Rachel left the Undersiders, I traded Tattletale a favor in exchange for the documents. I know she works for Coil, but she seems like she's playing her own games. It will be interesting to see how long she can resist the temptation to send me after her boss in order to move up the chain. I'm not entirely sure what her power is, but I think it revolves around gathering information and using other people to do her dirty work."
"Tattletale," Amy said distastefully. "So… what? You're just going to let her use you, then?"
"I like to think that we're using each other," Taylor replied. "Armsmaster called it a 'mutually beneficial relationship'. I can't easily hack government systems even with Victor's skills, and she can't do what I do."
"No one can do what you do," Amy pointed out.
"Sure, I guess, I…" Taylor trailed off as she stared at the prepared, concentrated vial of Othala's blood.
Her train of thought screeched around an unexpected corner and her mind shot off in a different direction.
Armsmaster wanted access to a weapon that could kill Endbringers, but he didn't know that it wasn't a weapon at all. It was the power she had picked up from Crusader.
What had Amy said? When she first told her about her ability to copy powers?
"You can copy other capes' abilities permanently, and you didn't even think that you might have willing donations?"
What if she did that in reverse? Not getting blood from willing parahumans to absorb for herself, but giving her vials to willing allies…
"My father purchased my parahuman abilities from an organization known as Cauldron."
Did Cauldron just have… someone like her?
"Taylor? You okay?" Amy stopped and looked back at her over the lab table.
"I'm so fucking stupid," Taylor breathed.
"I'm not arguing, but why, specifically?" Amy raised an eyebrow.
Her girlfriend could be such a bitch sometimes, but Taylor loved it.
She could share her vials with her Hunt, and empower them all. They wouldn't be limited to revolving around a single powerhouse the way the ABB or the Teeth were.
It complemented her plan with Armsmaster almost scarily well. She could turn her Hunt into something truly formidable, an army of parahumans like her.
That was… daunting, to say the least.
Taylor decided to move slowly. She needed to trust her hunters, otherwise the whole scheme would fall apart at the seams.
And there wasn't anyone she trusted more than…
"Amy… do you want another power?" Taylor said dazedly, taking Othala's vial off the stand.
"What?" Amy demanded sharply.
Taylor blinked and refocused, pushing the ongoing spiral into the back of her mind.
"Like you said, no one can do what I do, for now," Taylor said. "But… my regular blood vials work just fine on other people, and in theory, my parahuman concoctions should, too. Amy… I can give people powers."
They just stared at each other for a long moment while the blood continued to drip in the background.
"Holy shit," Amy said finally. "Why didn't we think of that sooner?"
"I don't know," Taylor replied.
"Could you make a parahuman vial out of your own blood?" Amy asked.
Taylor's spiral stumbled and fell on its metaphorical face.
"I… don't know…" Taylor whispered.
Even if she could, it obviously wouldn't do anything for her, but…
"I don't know if I should do that," Taylor said slowly. Maybe one of her was already enough.
"Oh, I'm not saying you should. There's a reason I'm not letting you steal my blood," Amy said. "But, like… the fact that you do all of this externally, with your Tinker equipment… it's nothing like any kind of Trump ability anyone else has, except maybe Bonesaw. And she's… well, Bonesaw."
"Yeah. Yeah, that's… okay, I'll have to think about that. In the meantime, do you want to shoot up with some magic Nazi juice? Othala's power centered around empowering others, so you'd probably get something similar," Taylor said.
"What if I want laser beams or something actually cool?" Amy said sarcastically.
"I mean, I've only got her, and Hookwolf, and…" Taylor frowned. She felt like she was forgetting something.
"You forgot about Alabaster again, didn't you?" Amy sighed. "He's been in the Labyrinth for what… four days?"
"I'm sure he's fine. He's immortal, right?" Taylor shrugged sheepishly.
Had it really only been four days? It felt like a lot longer.
"I'll drag him in here at some point," Taylor continued. "In the meantime, do you want Othala's power, or do you want to wait for a cooler one? Or both? Or neither?"
Amy looked conflicted as she stared at the deceptively tiny blood vial that held so much potential.
"Let me think about it. My power is already a lot, and I didn't even want it in the first place. Taking more seems like… tempting fate," Amy said slowly.
"Like we've never tempted fate before," Taylor grinned.
"That doesn't make it better," Amy rolled her eyes. "Come on, if I'm going to have to explain Anne Callahan to Carol, I need to know who I'm dating."
Taylor put aside Othala's vial and grabbed the thick envelope she got from Lisa, sitting down across from Amy at an unused lab table.
The first few documents were easily recognizable. Passport, driver's license, social security number, birth certificate. The photos were edited and recolored so it wasn't immediately obvious that they were the same photo, even to Taylor's enhanced senses and Victor's knowledge of forgeries.
The rest of the papers were less straightforward. There was a lot that went into being a real person, apparently.
"Huh, your birthday is in August," Amy said idly. "And you're eighteen. Does that mean you're robbing the cradle, here?"
"You're, like, a year and a half older than me," Taylor said as she skimmed the next page. "It's not my fault you're just short. Also, I apparently have a bank account with a whole five hundred dollars in it. Tattletale must have been feeling generous."
Amy raised her eyebrows at the current document in her hand.
"You also have an apartment? I guess you need to have a real address for everything to work correctly. I wonder if you have to pay rent and shit."
Damn. Taylor hadn't really thought about everything that went into making a real person out of thin air. She'd kinda been picturing a fake driver's license and some government documents, but this was… extensive. She even had utility bills dating back months. And a credit score. Wild.
Still, between this and Armsmaster's support, it seemed possible that she could actually keep Anne separate, for a while anyway. It would only be risky if someone who knew Anne, like Victoria, ever ran into Hunter in person. And even then, they wouldn't be able to prove it.
"Hey, it looks like you're an orphan, too," Amy said. "Gotta have a tragic backstory, obviously."
"Right, since our real lives just aren't tragic enough as it is," Taylor said. She meant it as a joke, but it came out… not really a joke.
"Yeah," Amy said quietly.
Taylor didn't know what to say to that. They hadn't really talked about the Victoria thing, aside from Taylor's reassurances.
It was obviously important to Amy, since it was her life, but it didn't seem as… objectively awful as she made it sound, from the outside. But Taylor wasn't the one living with being in love with her best friend who didn't feel the same way, so…
She studiously shoved away the image of Emma's face and the extra star that still stubbornly shone in the lantern light.
Amy's phone buzzed and they both froze, looking at the incoming call.
Amy took a deep breath and picked up the phone.
"Hey, Aunt Sarah. What's up?" She did a good job of sounding nonchalant.
With her upgraded senses, Taylor could easily hear the other side of the conversation.
"Hi! I got an email from Armsmaster requesting a follow-up about the test at the PHQ yesterday, since it got interrupted. Are you at the hospital, yet?"
Armsmaster was moving quickly. He must have remembered the blood vial tests after their conversation earlier. It would be easier for him to work with her concoctions if they were deemed officially safe by the PRT.
Amy bit her lip.
"No, I'm not going tonight," she said.
"Oh, gotcha. Are you at home? It doesn't have to be tonight, of course, if you don't want to."
"No… um…" Amy looked at Taylor and her expression hardened. "I'm at my girlfriend's house, actually."
"Oh. Well, that's lovely to hear, Amy. I know it's not my place to pry, but… does your mother know about… that?"
"No… not yet," Amy winced.
"I sort of figured I would have heard already if she did. That might be something you should consider talking to her about, though, before she hears about it from someone else. That someone else won't be me, obviously, but secrets like that never stay hidden forever."
"Yeah, I know," Amy sighed. Taylor was pretty sure she wasn't just thinking about the 'Anne' secret. "Tell Armsmaster… I guess tell him I can meet tomorrow, whatever's convenient. I can make another trip to the PHQ or the PRT headquarters. It's not like I have anything better to do."
Taylor grinned when Amy deadpanned the last line. The best sarcasm was sarcasm that barely sounded like sarcasm at all.
"Okay, I'll let you and Carol know. Did Hunter's healing solution work?"
Amy caught her eye with a mischievous look.
"Yeah, it worked perfectly. You never know; they might not even need me to heal anymore, if everyone can get their hands on those blood vials," Amy said.
"Wow. It's unfortunate that she's a villain, with all that potential. Seems like a waste."
"You know, I said the same thing," Amy gave Taylor a look.
Taylor just rolled her eyes. As if Amy hadn't jumped in headfirst after her.
"Right. Anyway, I have to run, but… think about what I said. I know your mother can be… difficult, but she does care about you."
Amy's expression went blank and Taylor reached out to touch the back of her clenched first gently.
Her girlfriend's expression softened and her eyes drifted out of focus for a split second before she blinked.
"Right. Thanks, talk to you later," Amy said, then hung up without waiting for a response.
Taylor stood and walked around the lab table without losing contact with Amy's skin.
Amy took a deep breath and started typing.
Taylor couldn't help but look over her shoulder at the text message she was writing. Taylor wasn't exactly familiar with the phone's messaging app, but she could guess why it said Carol at the top of the screen.
A: Not going to the hospital tonight. Going to my girlfriend's apt. I'll be home at 9.
Amy hit send and then turned her phone off.
Taylor ran her fingers through Amy's messy mop of curls and stayed silent while her girlfriend's shivering slowly subsided.
"Do you want me to come with you, when you go home?" Taylor asked.
"No," Amy whispered. "No, I need to do this myself. I'm allowed to be fucking happy without Carol fucking everything up. And I'm not even doing anything wrong, this time. I'm just… dating someone. Like a normal fucking teenager. If she doesn't like it, she can eat a bag of doorknobs."
Taylor snorted involuntarily. Amy's insults were always… interesting.
Amy looked up at her and something in her eyes crystalized, icy edges replacing the normally conflicted chocolate.
"Give me that damn vial."
Taylor smiled.
"Sure thing, Doc," Taylor said.
…
They found yet another new testing room, since the previous one had been converted into the generator room. It wasn't like Taylor was going to be running low on quicksilver any time soon, not with the hundreds of unpowered Nazi corpses still hanging around.
The remains of a ruined waiting room were mostly empty, just the broken parts of a few remaining chairs and a reception desk against one wall.
Taylor perched on the desk while Amy stood in the center of the room, looking down at the loaded quick injector.
"So I just… stab myself?" Amy said uncertainly.
"Yeah. It's like an epi-pen. Just slam it into your thigh, or anywhere, really, and the quick injector will do its thing. I injected Victor's into my chest because I was feeling extra dramatic that day, but it doesn't really matter where," Taylor said.
"Right," Amy said faintly. "Um… does it feel… weird, or hurt, or anything?"
"Oh yeah. Super weird. I've never done acid or mushrooms, but it's gotta be similar. It doesn't last long, though," Taylor said casually.
"That's not exactly reassuring," Amy grumbled, still turning the injector over in her hands.
"It's a bullshit Tinker concoction made from the blood of my enemies. Nothing about this is reassuring," Taylor reminded her.
"Right," Amy said again.
Taylor thought about reminding her that she didn't have to do this if she didn't want to, but she held her tongue. Amy had to figure her own shit out.
The resolve eventually returned to her eyes and Amy slammed the injector down into her leg.
It was strange, watching this happen from an outside perspective. Usually Taylor was the one having her mind expanded, hearing strange voices and concepts she didn't really understand.
Amy's eyes flew wide and she stared up at the ceiling with an unseeing, haunted expression. Her hair fell back from her face as the starlight of the beyond shone down on her just as it also gleamed from inside her eyes.
Taylor was happy that Amy had chosen to take this vial. She doubted that her girlfriend would appreciate the violent fervor of a bestial power. The vials that opened her mind to the heavens were more gentle, even if they were profoundly unsettling in their own way.
Taylor could just barely hear the music of the choir, on the edge of her mind. Like a dream she had forgotten.
Maybe in this case, it wasn't her dream at all.
The moonlight disappeared as quickly as it arrived, and Amy stumbled forward to catch herself against the edge of the desk.
That always seemed like it took longer when Taylor's mind was the one being stretched into spaghetti.
"Holy fuck," Amy gasped.
Taylor wasn't sure whether to reach out to comfort her or not. She hadn't exactly been on this side of the table before.
"See? Super weird, right?" Taylor said as lightly as she could, given the circumstances.
"Yeah. What the hell…" Amy blinked several times and then straightened, stretching her arms and her back with a series of satisfying pops. It definitely wasn't the time, but Taylor still enjoyed the view.
"Did you hear the voices, too?" Taylor asked curiously. She didn't always remember everything she heard, in the strange fugue state inflicted by the otherworldly vials. The words floated in and out of her mind like smoke.
"Yeah," Amy said faintly. "Something about 'inhuman utterings' and 'etching eyes into the mind'? Fucked up stuff. Is this what it's like for you all the time?"
"I mean, not always, but yeah, kinda," Taylor shrugged. "Like I said, being sane is boring."
"You're not wrong," Amy muttered.
"I usually get a somewhat instinctive understanding of my new abilities after the stars and the music fades," Taylor said. "Do you have anything like that?"
"Yeah… yeah, I can see them…" Amy said, her eyes looking past Taylor at something she couldn't see. That was… unsettling. "The Runes. The utterings of something… other. I can carve them into the bodies and minds of people, to protect them. Improve them."
Taylor's eyes widened. She had only seen her Hunter's Mark, at first, but she always had a vague suspicion that there were others. And now Amy could do what she had done, apparently.
"Do you see this mark?" Taylor asked eagerly, pulling back her hair. If she could make sure Amy couldn't die, that would be amazing.
"I don't… yes, but also no. I can't… really get a grip on it. Like the knowledge keeps slipping away, between my fingers," Amy stumbled through the explanation. "I don't know why I can't really see it, even though I can. Are new powers always this confusing?"
Taylor chuckled darkly at the memory of having her body wrung out like a sponge after creating the lantern.
"Yeah, pretty much. That's awesome, though! What do the runes do?" Taylor asked, hopping down and pulling Amy against her now that the worst of the unknowable trip had passed.
Amy settled comfortably against her side.
"A shit-ton of things. Some are super weird, but some are pretty straightforward. I can make you stronger, faster, more durable. It's different from the body alterations. More… arcane? I guess?" Amy shrugged into her chest.
"Can you carve them into yourself?" Taylor said curiously as they began the trek back to the main Workshop.
"I… yeah, yeah I can, actually," Amy said in surprise. "I don't know why I expected not to be able to, but yeah."
"Well, I know it's not laser beams, but that's certainly something," Taylor said.
They arrived back at the candlelit space. Now that she had the Tonitrus sphere up and running, she really needed to replace the candles. She liked the ambiance, though. Maybe she would make sure to get electric lights that matched. The Workshop just wouldn't be the same if she started installing fluorescent lighting.
Taylor's eyes fell on one of her many racks of tools, on her scalpel. The same one her father bought from a craft store, back when she first started this bloodstained rollercoaster ride. It was one of the few things that survived the night of the exploding house.
"Now, I know you're specifically playing hooky from your role as a healer…" Taylor grinned at Amy and snagged the blade off the wall. "But, how do you feel about doing some operations anyway, Doc?"
Amy just stared at her, but Taylor could tell she was tempted despite the disapproving frown.
"Fine," Amy said finally. "But you're going first. This whole thing is your idea, so you get to be the guinea pig while I figure this shit out."
"Bring it on," Taylor's grin widened and she went to grab some regular blood vials out of her stash.
She was so excited.
…
Amy bit her lip and did her best to avoid getting distracted.
It was hard, though.
Taylor tossed her usual button-down dress shirt and vest to the side and sat down on the stool in front of her, shoulders and upper back exposed in her tank top.
"Right. What do you think? Just down my spine, or do they have to go specific places? This one had to go here, or it wouldn't have worked correctly. Something about metaphorical significance, or something," Taylor rambled. She sounded entirely too jazzed about being carved up like a turkey.
Amy couldn't help but be excited, too, though. Maybe they were both insane.
"It doesn't matter where, so spine is fine, if you want," Amy said. Her voice sounded a fair bit calmer than she felt.
It had been a wild day, and she was well aware that her judgement was probably all kinds of fucked. The nonstop craziness from Mastering Dean, the everything about Victoria, the whole thing with Armsmaster, Sarah, Carol, having her mind temporarily turned to soup while being injected with liquid stardust… it was obviously getting to her.
And now, she was getting ready to carve some magic runes into her girlfriend's back.
Totally normal after-school activities.
"Whenever you're ready, then," Taylor said, pulling her hair out of the way.
Amy stared down at the exposed skin between her shoulder blades.
She could feel her strange new power welling within her as she raised the silver scalpel. The otherworldly insight flowed through her mind, down her arm, and into the tool that would inscribe the words of the beyond.
The rune itself seemed almost superimposed over Taylor's skin, just waiting to become real.
"We'll start with something simple," Amy said softly. She wasn't even sure why she was narrating.
Great volumes of water serve as a bulwark guarding sleep, and an augur of the eldritch Truth.
Amy lowered the blade and began to carve with deep, confident strokes. A single long, horizontal slash, with perpendicular lines falling down from it like droplets of clear water. Despite the fact that Taylor's skin should be almost indestructible from her augmentations, the knife's edge cut it easily under the influence of her new power. The rune was carved not just into the flesh, but into the mind and Self.
Taylor hissed and blood dripped down her spine.
"A rune to protect against harm," Amy intoned. Her voice sounded strange, even to her own ears.
She finished the rune with three vertical slashes through the end of the weeping line. A horizon, waiting for the sun to rise.
"Lake."
Ethereal, eldritch blue-white light briefly flashed behind the symbol, searing through the blood that leaked from the cuts.
Taylor's muscles tensed and Amy saw her clench her jaw, but then it was over and the rune returned to pale skin and ruby droplets.
"Okay, you can heal it, now," Amy said. At least her voice sounded like her own, again.
Taylor casually injected a blood vial and Amy watched in mild fascination as the open wound became a scar.
Amy felt like she should be tired, or something, but… similar to the feeling after finally using her own power, she felt invigorated.
Also, she wasn't going to lie and say the rune didn't look kind of hot on Taylor's back.
She hadn't really thought about Taylor's scars like that before, but knowing that they had a purpose, held real power…
Maybe she was just going insane, after all.
"Do you want to do another one?" Amy asked, giving into the temptation to lean down and kiss the exposed skin on the side of Taylor's neck.
It was satisfying to watch the fireworks go off in her brain.
"Fuck yes," Taylor said. "As long as you want to keep going."
Amy checked the clock on her phone. It was only 7:00.
"I could do this all night," Amy grinned behind her girlfriend's back.
Taylor glanced over her shoulder and met Amy's eyes with a smile of her own, tinged with an edge of something dark.
Amy lifted her scalpel and let her power flow again, another rune dancing before her mind's eye as she prepared to improve Taylor in yet another new and interesting way.
…
It turned out that the Workshop didn't actually have a mirror.
Amy ran her hand down Taylor's spine as her girlfriend tried to look over her shoulder to admire her handiwork.
The new line of runes now stretched from the back of Taylor's neck to her waist, and included all of the straightforward symbols that Amy could pull from the fog at this point.
The original Lake rune at the top, to protect her from physical damage.
Under it were several variations of a similar symbol, additions to the standard protections. Runes to make her skin fireproof, insulate her body against electric shocks, and shield her from energy attacks and other arcane effects.
Then, the symbol that her power called the Deep Sea, to safeguard her from more esoteric attacks. Under it, too, were variations of the same basic rune, designed to ward off Master and Stranger effects, poison and anything that would directly alter her body from within.
And finally, Clockwise and Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis. Twisted, curved crosses that made Taylor's already inhuman body stronger and extended her stamina.
"Wow. It feels weird, but damn that's so fucking cool," Taylor grinned down at her as she stretched. "Are you going to try one on yourself?"
Amy bit her lip.
It felt… worse, to carve into her own skin. Like she was breaking some sort of rule, or something. Plus, Taylor already had scars and her mark was branded into her fucking forehead. Putting runes down her back didn't feel like a big deal. Adding a permanent scar to her own skin felt like a big step, even if it really wasn't, in the grand scheme of things. Not after everything else she'd done.
But she definitely could add runes to her own body. Her power would function just the same for her as it did for anyone else. It would be a bit silly not to.
"I'll do it later. I'd need a mirror, and I don't want to put it anywhere that my family might notice it," Amy said.
She ignored the smirk Taylor shot in her direction.
Lecherous little shit.
Not that Amy was any better, but she elected not to think about that right now.
It was getting close to 9:00, anyway, and she had to face the music.
"I don't want to go," Amy sighed.
Taylor turned and wrapped her in a tight hug. Amy was briefly distracted by her cheek being pressed against the bare skin of Taylor's chest in her tank top, and the stars that exploded behind her eyes in her biosenses.
Taylor was as luminous as ever, even if the runes didn't necessarily interact with Amy's biokinesis. Still, she could see the new additions outlined in scar tissue.
Amy knew that there were more runes available, just hiding in the fog at the edge of her mind. She could see why Taylor was so eager to imbibe more parahuman blood vials. It was irritating, being aware that the knowledge existed while being unable to access it.
"You know you can always stay if you want," Taylor said.
"No, no," Amy grumbled. "The whole reason we Mastered Dean and got Anne all set up was so that we could pretend to be a normal fucking couple for a while before everything inevitably goes to shit. Unfortunately, that means talking to Carol."
"Do you want me to open a door in the wall wherever your 'talk' is? Just in case?" Taylor asked.
That was tempting, but…
Amy didn't want Taylor there when she talked to her adoptive mother. Mainly because she wasn't sure that Taylor would be able to resist the urge to kill her.
It would kind of defeat the purpose of everything they'd done if Taylor popped out of the wall and shot Carol in their living room.
Not that it wasn't very enjoyable to imagine.
"No, I'll make sure Vicky is there to defuse the tension if Carol really goes off the deep end, but it should be fine. I'm not even bringing up any of the really fucked up shit, just… dating someone. Such a wild thing to do," Amy rolled her eyes.
"Okay," Taylor said as they prepared to take another walk. "But if she kills you, I'm going to be pissed at you forever. Just a heads up."
"If she kills me, you have my full permission to hunt her," Amy couldn't help but grin. "See how she likes feeling scared to go home."
Taylor's eyes looked darker than normal in the dim light of the lantern as they left the Workshop proper.
"If she even tries," Taylor said softly. "It won't matter whether I have your permission or not. You aren't allowed to leave, either."
Amy swallowed reflexively, but she couldn't quite manage to feel anything other than warm contentment. Taylor matched her well, for better and worse.
Together, they set off towards her perfectly normal house, so she could explain to her perfectly normal family that she had a perfectly normal girlfriend.
What could possibly go wrong?
…
A: I'm home, can you come down and make sure Carol doesn't murder me? I told her about Anne and skipped my shift at the hospital.
V: Oh shit! I mean, nice, but also, yeah, will do. One sec
A: Cool, thanks
Amy sighed and opened the front door to her adoptive family's house.
It hadn't ever really felt like her house. Even less so now that she had somewhere else to go.
She already knew that Carol was waiting in the living room to ambush her. Taylor had given her a bottle of blue elixir, and wow was that a strange feeling. Not quite on par with having her brain warped into the stratosphere, but still weird. It wasn't helped by the fact that she easily walked up the stairs, through the living room, and out the front door without Carol noticing. That by itself was a surreal experience.
It was extremely tempting to just head straight upstairs to her room, but it was better to get this conversation over with now before Carol completely lost her shit. Amy didn't actually want her to kick her out, although it wouldn't be the end of the world. Her 'real life' would still continue, and no one would know she was actually living with Hunter.
That might not be a bad option, on second thought. Maybe Carol would actually kick her out, and then Vicky and everyone else would blame her adoptive mother instead of her.
"Amy, come in here," Carol's voice echoed down the hall.
Would it kill you to say please?
Amy walked into the living room and stared at her adoptive mother. Vicky stood hesitantly at the bottom of the stairs. Mark was absent, as usual.
Carol looked as put-together as ever, even if Amy knew she was just a bundled up knot of neuroses pretending to be a stable person.
"You skipped your hospital shift," Carol said flatly.
"Yes," Amy answered. It was tough to care, compared to everything else she had done today.
"You have a girlfriend," Carol continued.
"Yep."
"You went to her apartment?"
"Mmmmhmmmm," Amy hummed in affirmative. Honestly, Carol was a bit predictable.
Carol pursed her lips and met her eyes for a long moment. Amy didn't flinch, for once.
"You can't just ignore your previous commitments. Our reputation depends on consistency," Carol said finally.
That was… not the worst thing she could have brought up.
"I spend a lot more hours at the damn hospital than any normal kid would spend at a job, and no one else can do what I do. They can be happy for the time I want to give them. It's all volunteering, anyway," Amy said.
"Language. If you want to decrease your hospital hours, we can have that discussion later. For now, there will be no more skipping hospital shifts, understood?" Carol said coldly.
Carol may have been acting more reasonable than Amy's worst nightmares, but she was done being a fucking doormat. She fucking mind controlled a Ward and spent the afternoon carving eldritch runes into her mass-murdering girlfriend's back. She could do whatever the fuck she wanted.
"No. I'll go to the hospital when I want, and they'll thank me for it. I'm done being everyone's fucking healing machine," Amy hissed.
"I don't know who you think you're talking to, Amy Dallon, but-"
"I'm well aware, Carol-"
"I won't tolerate this disrespectful attitude from you in my own house-" Carol yelled.
"Huh, well, it never felt like my house in the first place, so I guess that makes a lot of fucking sense," Amy spat acidly. "I can leave anytime you want, Carol, just say the word. I know how much you wish I was gone."
The room went silent at that.
"Ames-" Victoria started, but Amy held up a hand and glared at the woman that could have been a mother to her, but chose not to.
Do it, Carol. Tell me to leave, like you've always wanted.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, Carol seemed to realize that things would start to come apart at the seams if she kicked out her underage adopted miracle healer.
"Nobody is leaving, but this behavior is unacceptable. Has this… girl… been filling your head with these ideas?" Carol snapped.
Amy almost laughed.
Carol had no fucking idea.
Amy could still hear the slow, steady heartbeat of the Labyrinth echoing up from the basement.
"No, but having someone who actually gives a fuck about me definitely makes it easier to call you on your bullshit," Amy shot back. "It's not like you're ever going to actually love me, so why should I bother trying?"
"Amy, that's not-" Vicky tried to cut in again.
"Really?" Amy turned her stare on her sister. Vicky could be so aware sometimes, but she missed the obvious on more than one occasion. "What do you think, Carol? Can you honestly say you love me as much as your actual daughter?"
"Amy, this is ridiculous. I won't be accosted-" Carol growled.
"Yeah, I thought so," Amy said at the same time that Vicky yelled "Mom!"
"Enough!" Carol yelled, and Amy saw the briefest flicker of plasma between her fingers.
Come on, bitch. Do it. I'll fucking melt you into a living pile of garbage and make you stay that way until someone finally decides to put you out of your fucking misery, you narcissistic sack of-
For better or worse, Carol managed to bring her anger under control again.
Damn.
"We'll talk about your girlfriend and what that means for our public image later," Carol said coldly. "I suppose your hospital time can be renegotiated. I'm done with this conversation. Go upstairs, both of you."
Amy resisted the urge to flip her off as she turned on her heel and followed Vicky up the stairs.
They made it to the upstairs hall before Vicky spun around and hugged her tightly. Amy jumped in surprise and barely stopped her power from automatically flowing into her sister's body at the touch. She was getting far too used to Taylor's blasé attitude about impromptu modifications.
"I'm so sorry, Ames, I knew she was fucked up, but I didn't think…" Vicky whispered.
"Yeah, it's been… tough. For a while. I always knew she didn't actually care about me, but I didn't really realize how messed up that was until recently," Amy replied into Victoria's t-shirt. "Still, it could have gone worse. Despite her bullshit, I basically got what I wanted."
"That doesn't give her the right to treat you like that, though," Vicky said. "This is your house, too."
Amy bit her lip and blinked back tears. It had been a really long day.
"It only feels like that when I'm with you," she said honestly. "The rest of the time… Anne's place already feels more like home than here."
"Oh, Amy…" Vicky trailed off and hugged her tighter.
For the first time in… a long time, hugging Vicky didn't feel like getting ripped apart by a rusty saw. The annoying and unwelcome twisting in her gut wasn't gone, but it was… manageable.
Maybe some part of her had finally accepted that Vicky wouldn't ever love her back, and maybe that was okay.
Of course, now, she was also feeling a lingering echo of guilt over what she and Taylor had done to Dean.
Because her life couldn't ever be easy.
Obviously.
…
