Institute 9.1
It wasn't strictly necessary to hold Amy's hand while they walked through the Labyrinth anymore, but that didn't stop Taylor from doing it anyway.
It was a bit late to worry about any insecurities when it came to her girlfriend, between the body adjustments and the mass murder.
Which reminded her…
"So, what new changes did you decide to spontaneously implement this time?" Taylor asked as they walked.
She had reattached her prosthesis as soon as they made it back into the Labyrinth, for convenience if nothing else. The wheelchair worked as civilian cover, but it was a bit of a pain.
"Don't remind me," Amy groaned. "I don't know why the fuck I did that. Something about how your cells change when you shoot up with magic Nazi blood just pulls my power to the surface. I didn't even mean to!"
"I feel like I should resent the 'magic Nazi Blood' comment," Taylor muttered. "Sophia wasn't a Nazi, and the fact that I'm limiting myself to mostly Empire assholes is a good thing."
Victoria was covering for them again while she and Dean went to go do… whatever she and Dean usually did while Amy and Taylor ran away to the Workshop. They couldn't stay out too late, since it was technically a school night for Amy, but at least it gave them a few hours of solitude.
It was still bizarre that Amy went to school.
"It doesn't change the fact that you have to be at least, like, five percent Nazi now," Amy snarked. "You should diversify your diet."
"Are you volunteering, then?" Taylor grinned down at her. "I could definitely go for some crimes-against-nature biokinesis powers."
"Absolutely fucking not," Amy snapped. "You're already entirely too terrifying for your own good. Your lack of common sense combined with my power would end up with the PRT nuking the state within the month."
"You're no fun," Taylor said. Still, she brought Amy's hand up to her lips and kissed the back of her hand to make sure her words didn't sting.
"Oh, fuck you," Amy said, but she was smiling.
They arrived at the Workshop and Taylor re-lit the candles. She couldn't help but watch Amy wandering between the lab tables, her fingers running lightly over the delicate instruments.
"You made a new gun?" Amy asked when she got to Taylor's most recent project.
"Yeah. A blunderbuss, kinda like a shotgun. It's for Rachel. I figured it was a bit stupid not to make weapons for her, too," Taylor replied.
Amy's expression twisted, but Taylor couldn't quite make sense of it.
"I don't… I don't know if I want her to know about… me, or not," Amy said suddenly.
Taylor understood that. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell anyone about Amy, either. It was different with Victoria and Dean, that was just her cover identity. It wasn't the same. This was… real. For both of them.
Right now, no one but them knew that Panacea and Hunter were connected at all. Other people had pieces of the puzzle, but no one had the full picture.
Taylor walked over and pulled Amy against her gently, enjoying the feeling of her body relaxing automatically into her.
"I know," Taylor said quietly. "I like the feeling that we're… hidden, when we're alone. Like the rest of the world doesn't matter."
Amy nodded against her chest.
Taylor considered her words carefully, her thin fingers tracing intricate patterns on Amy's back.
"I don't think that will change, if we tell anyone. It won't make this any less real," Taylor said.
"I don't know what's real, anymore," Amy whispered into her sweater.
Taylor reached up and ran one hand over Amy's wild curls while she waited for her girlfriend to elaborate.
"I used to think of our… conversations… as an escape, from my real life. My life is so… I don't fucking know, not boring, but… gray. The same shit, the healing, the responsibility, somehow never being enough but also sitting on a pedestal, with no end in sight," Amy rambled.
Amy leaned back and looked up at her, chocolate eyes as conflicted as ever.
"And then… you show up, and everything with you is… different," Amy said softly. "For some reason, I don't worry about the people I could be healing, when I'm with you. The pressure, the bullshit, it all fades into the background. And I… I don't know if I actually want to go back, anymore."
Taylor chewed on her lip thoughtfully.
"You know you can stay here forever, if you want, right?" Taylor said. "Whatever you want."
"I know," Amy said in a broken whisper, burying her face back into Taylor's sweater and avoiding her gaze. "I know, and it's fucking terrifying, okay? I don't know which is my real life anymore, or if it even fucking matters."
It was quiet, aside from the constant drips, for a while.
Amy eventually sighed and leaned back again, reaching up to thread her fingers into Taylor's hair. She seemed to like doing that, and Taylor definitely wasn't complaining.
"The last couple days have been…" Amy trailed off. "I've felt more alive, in the last two days, than I have in… well, years. And that's the scary part, because, if I really had to choose, between being alive, forever, and being trapped in the endless cycle of gray bullshit…"
Taylor's heart hammered in her chest, against the cage of steel that Amy created.
"...I know that I'd choose you," Amy whispered, and she pulled herself up to close the gap between them.
Her kiss felt different, this time, even as Taylor lost herself in the sensation. Less manic, less desperate. Like magma moving slowly under the bedrock, rather than wildfire.
Taylor tried her best to return the favor, letting her own feelings flow through the searing touch. Tried to describe without words that Amy was the brightest star in her empty, bloodstained sky. That she would happily let Amy be her everything, if Amy let her.
Maybe she understood, because Amy pulled even harder on her hair to weld their bodies to one another as their lips moved together. Taylor worked on focusing despite the fire and the stars, wrapping her arms around Amy's waist and carefully crushing her against her in turn.
Amy squeaked in surprise when Taylor lifted her easily and set her on the lab table next to them. The involuntary noise was cute as fuck, and Taylor smiled into Amy's lips as she recovered to continue the kiss from the easier angle.
They finally broke apart and gasped for air, although Taylor didn't let her girlfriend pull too far away. She rested her feverish forehead against Amy's and opened her eyes, drinking in Amy's flushed face and swollen lips.
Together, their breathing eventually calmed, and Amy opened her eyes to meet Taylor's awed gaze.
It took Taylor a moment to find the right words. Or any words at all. She wasn't exactly at her most coherent, right this second.
"We don't… we don't have to burn it all down, just yet," Taylor said softly. She reached up to run her fingertips over Amy's freckled cheek. "I'll have Anne's papers ready soon, and we can keep things… balanced, for as long as possible, if that's what you want. Anything you want, Amy."
Amy fell into her eyes for a long moment before she nodded.
"Okay."
Sometimes, one word was more than enough.
…
"Have you given any more thought to our plumbing issues," Taylor said, looking up from her glass instruments.
She was working on a new mundane blood concoction that would help to restore her vitality, stamina, whatever energy it was that her more powerful abilities burned. The work was slow, but having Amy available to track the changes in the blood with her biosenses was helpful.
"Yeah, my power kind of won't shut up about it, actually," Amy grimaced. "I'll need a lot of biomass, though. I can't just make shit from nothing. I either need living material to work with, or resources I can turn into living material. That would probably take longer, though."
Taylor hummed thoughtfully.
"I mean, we have the Labyrinth at our disposal. We could open a door somewhere in the middle of nowhere and steal all the trees. Trees would work, right?" Taylor said.
"I haven't really experimented, because of the whole healing thing, but yeah, probably," Amy shrugged.
Her girlfriend was wrapped in one of her blankets again, sitting on a stool across from where Taylor worked.
"That actually works out nicely, anyway. I was thinking that we should find somewhere for the dogs to run, away from people. We can kill two birds with one stone," Taylor mused. "I already opened a door to a water distribution facility and put together a makeshift valve, so it's just a matter of hooking everything up."
"Oh, that reminds me," Amy said suddenly. "I'm going to the PHQ to consult on the safety of your blood vials tomorrow, at like 3:00, if you wanted to take the opportunity to haunt the shit out of them."
Taylor laughed and leaned back from the workbench.
"I can definitely do that. Do you think you should tell them the blood vials are safe?" Taylor said.
"I mean, we're apparently throwing caution to the wind, right?" Amy replied. "We might as well do what we can to get the PRT on board. When they inevitably find out that both of their miracle healers have gone off the deep end, then they might be less likely to jump straight to the scorched earth tactics."
Taylor nodded and didn't argue with the 'off the deep end' bit. Whatever it was they were doing, it certainly wasn't sane.
Putting down her tools, Taylor stood and stretched, popping her indestructible spine.
"It sounds like we need to have a chat with Rachel, then. I'll need her to go for a run out into the wilderness to find a good spot. Do you want to tag along, or stay here?" Taylor asked.
Amy frowned and tapped her fingers on the desk for a long moment.
"I guess I'll come. If she's part of your Hunt, or whatever, I guess she deserves to know who else is wandering around in your Labyrinth. Speaking of which, did you ever do anything about Alabaster?" Amy asked.
Fuck, I forgot about Alabaster.
"No… um… I actually don't know where he's run off to. I mean, he has to be in there somewhere. I'll find him later," Taylor said sheepishly.
"Taylor," Amy groaned. "I don't want to set up this plumbing thing just to have it sabotaged by the rogue Nazi you never got around to dealing with."
"I don't think it works like that," Taylor said, although she wasn't entirely sure. "In theory, anyone wandering the Labyrinth who hasn't taken communion will be stuck in the infinite, repeating sections, whereas the parts we set up doors and pipes in would be kind of… separate? He shouldn't be able to find them."
"In theory," Amy rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Yeah, I'll go snag him tonight, or something," Taylor said. "In the meantime, are you ready to go have a chat with Rachel?"
"Not in the slightest," Amy deadpanned. "But yeah, let's go."
Taylor grabbed the axe and the blunderbuss before reaching out to take Amy's hand. She took a moment to enjoy the automatic softening of Amy's expression as she looked at her with her power, and then they left the warm candlelight of the Workshop and headed into the Labyrinth once again.
…
It shouldn't be nearly as stressful as it was, but Amy found herself locking her hand in a vice grip around Taylor's as they walked.
For all the various crimes and murders that she committed, Taylor didn't feel like a real villain. She might be dangerous and deadly to anyone else, but she never felt that way to Amy.
Hellhound, Bitch, whatever her name was… that was a different story.
"Rachel, are you free to talk?" Taylor called ahead of them as they walked into the desolate emergency room.
Well, as desolate as any place could be when it was filled with dogs.
Amy forced herself not to flinch back when the pack trotted over to say hello. It wasn't that she was afraid of dogs, but they certainly weren't allowed in Carol's house. It just wasn't something she was used to.
"Yeah. Just finished bringin' in water and washin' up. You got any…" a woman walked around the edge of one of the alcoves and stopped dead.
Hellhound looked exactly like Amy expected her to. Tall, with short, choppy hair and muscled arms that strained at her wet tank top. Her scars vaguely reminded Amy of Taylor, crisscrossing her chest and forearms.
Her face twisted and her eyes pinned Amy in place, teeth bared in an unconscious snarl.
Amy quashed the part of her that could see how Rachel would be a much better match for Taylor. This was the type of villain who could keep up with the Hunter.
"...the fuck are you?" Hellhound growled.
Amy also pushed away the pathetic parts of her that wanted to hide behind Taylor. She wasn't just the fucking healer anymore, and she wouldn't let anyone push her around. If Hellhound tried to fuck with her, Amy would melt her fucking brain.
Taylor would forgive her.
"Amy," she said coldly.
Hellhound looked between her and Taylor and back.
"Huh," Hellhound said. After another long look at Amy, she refocused on Taylor. "You trust her?"
Taylor squeezed Amy's hand and her black eyes flicked over to her for a split second before returning to Hellhound.
"Yeah. She could've killed me or turned me over to the PRT a hundred times by now, but she hasn't. She's taken communion," Taylor said. "She's one of us."
Amy's stomach twisted, and for the life of her she couldn't tell what combination of emotions churned in her gut. The good and the bad wrapped around each other until she didn't know which was which.
Hellhound nodded.
"Good enough for me. Don't fuck with the dogs," Hellhound directed at her.
Amy didn't know what to say, so she just nodded.
"Actually, while we're here, I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look at Angelica," Taylor said quietly to Amy. "I'd never ask you to heal anyone, but… y'know, dogs. If there was ever an innocent client…"
Amy raised her eyebrows.
It was absurd, but it made sense, in a weird sort of way. Taylor wouldn't let her heal her, but she was fine with her healing dogs.
And, for whatever reason, healing dogs didn't feel bad to Amy, either. It wasn't like they were even capable of deserving it, or asking for it, or expecting it. It felt like doing something actually good.
"Sure, I can do that," she said. "Which one is she?"
Taylor held up a finger and turned.
"Rachel," Taylor called. "Amy's power let's her fix people. Do you want her to fix Angelica?"
Hellhound walked over and stared down at her.
Amy decided that she didn't like being this short. Hanging out with people like Hunter and Hellhound was going to give her a complex.
"What's your power?" Hellhound demanded.
In for a penny…
"I'm a bio-kinetic. I can manipulate and change anything alive," Amy said. She tried to keep it straightforward, following Taylor's lead when it came to dealing with the dangerous villain.
Amy knew, objectively, that Taylor was the most dangerous of any of them, but she didn't feel dangerous in the same way Hellhound did.
"How do I know you won't fuck her up, if I let you mess with her?" Hellhound spat.
Amy was about to reply when Taylor squeezed her hand and reached out to lay a palm on Hellhound's collarbone.
"She's already used her power on me, multiple times. I wouldn't offer anything that I didn't test on myself," Taylor said lowly. "I take care of what's mine."
Hellhound seemed to untense under Taylor's touch, and Amy had to fight down another surge of irrational jealousy.
Taylor was hers.
"Fine," Hellhound said, although there was a fair bit less venom in her tone now. She led the way over to a terrier with a missing eye.
Amy knelt down in front of her and glanced up at Hellhound, just in case.
The rough woman stared at her for a long moment, then nodded.
Amy reached out and touched Angelica, her power extending into her to fix what was broken.
It was strangely familiar, and yet alien at the same time. Healing was an old habit, but there was something…
She could feel the faint echoes of Taylor's blood concoctions within the beast, and the thought made her smile. Taylor's influence was unavoidable.
It even made healing less of a chore.
It was child's play to fix the eye and the ear, along with any other underlying damage from the previous abuse.
Amy pulled back when the damage was repaired.
Hellhound knelt down and began checking Angelica while Amy stood and glanced over at Taylor.
Taylor smiled and reached for her hand again, and Amy let the endless galaxy wash over her. It was… soothing.
"Thanks," Hellhound said gruffly, and Amy jumped slightly. She hadn't meant to get lost.
Amy didn't reply. She still didn't really know how to talk to the other villain.
"I've got another idea, if you've got a sec," Taylor directed towards Hellhound. "We need material for the pipes and other projects, and I figured the dogs could also use some space to roam. Want to head west tonight and see if you can find somewhere nice and out of the way in the hills, and we can open another door?"
"Yeah, that works," Hellhound said. "What kinda material you looking for?"
"Anything alive. Trees, thick forest. Biomass," Taylor said. Without seeming to think about it, she pulled Amy against her and wrapped an arm around her waist. Despite the awkwardness, Amy couldn't bring herself to complain, and she settled comfortably against Taylor's side. She could feel the familiar warmth, even through Taylor's coat.
Hellhound didn't bat an eye.
"Gotcha. You want me to go now?" She asked.
"Yes, please. We only have Amy until 9:00, and I'd like to get the water flowing tonight," Taylor said. "I also brought your new gear."
Taylor pulled the axe and the blunderbuss out and handed them over, along with a belt and two leather loops to act as a holster.
"Also, you definitely don't have to wear it if you don't want to, but…" Taylor took another bundle out of her bag.
It was a coat, a dull gray duster. Less dramatic than Taylor's signature long coat, but similar.
Hellhound held it up and her rough features softened.
She buckled the weapons into place and threw the coat over her shoulders.
"I like it," Hellhound said gruffly. "Thanks, Boss."
Amy didn't quite know what to make of that, but Taylor smiled.
"My pleasure," Taylor said.
Hellhound whistled and one of the dogs came trotting over. A rottweiler, if Amy was remembering her breeds right.
"I'll call when I find something," Hellhound said. She turned abruptly and stalked away, her beast in step and her new coat flaring behind her.
Amy stared after her for a long moment, trying to make sense of her twisted feelings. Finally, Taylor tugged gently on her hand and they made their way back towards the Workshop.
"She's definitely… something," Amy commented, unsure of what else to say.
"Rachel has a unique way of looking at things," Taylor said quietly. "It's different, but I like it. She's straightforward in ways that most people aren't."
"She seems to like you," Amy said, pushing down the jealousy yet again. It was honestly pathetic. She should be better than dissolving into a jealous mess just because her girlfriend's villainous lieutenant was a hard-ass.
"She trusts me, and I get the feeling that's not an easy thing, for Rachel," Taylor said. "Don't worry if she's a bit suspicious of you. I've fought and killed with her, for her, and you haven't, yet. It will take time to build any trust that isn't just an extension of being mine."
Amy's chest tightened at the casual declaration. Taylor didn't even seem to notice.
The candlelight of the Workshop greeted them as Taylor pushed through the double doors.
"How long do you think we have?" Amy asked, stopping to pull Taylor against her by her coat lapels. She reached up and took off her girlfriend's hat, meeting her raised eyebrow with a mischievous smile as she tossed it onto a workbench.
Now that she had this freedom, this outlet for the repressed everything that had been stuck, compressed, caged inside her for so, so long, it was like she could never get enough.
Plus, it was easier to focus on Taylor than her other problems. Or her jealousy. Or Victoria.
All of the above.
Luckily, it didn't seem like Taylor was complaining.
"A while, Rachel will probably want to go pretty far out of town…" Taylor grinned down at her, black eyes sparking with the chemical fireworks Amy could feel in her brain. "And I did go to quite a bit of trouble to steal that mattress…"
Excitement and electricity burned under Amy's skin and she dragged Taylor towards the back of the Workshop, laughing while Taylor struggled to unlock her prosthesis as she followed. It was easier than ever to ignore the hanging bodies and the bloodstained rune on the wall.
It may not be perfect, whatever this was, between them, but…
Amy let herself fall backwards and laughed louder as she bounced. Taylor had stolen a pretty damn nice mattress, definitely better than whatever Carol picked out for her at home. Plus, the blankets smelled like Taylor. Smoke and iron and blood.
Whatever this was, it was enough. For now, and maybe forever.
Taylor toppled down next to her with the same unnatural grace she always displayed, even when running around on one leg. Amy rolled over and suddenly her girlfriend's lips were on hers, hungry and demanding and desperate compared to the slow burn from earlier.
It was more than enough.
Taylor's midnight curls fell around her face like a black curtain, blocking out the rest of the world as she fell into the burning pools of liquid obsidian.
It was everything.
…
Amy hopped up on a rock next to the waterfall and looked out over the winter wonderland below her, endless pine trees covered in a thick layer of snow.
It was cold, but Taylor let her borrow her coat. Amy elected to ignore the fact that it went almost to her ankles.
"I could definitely get used to this. Where the hell are we?" She asked.
"Somewhere in the White Mountains, as far as I can tell. Good job, Rachel," Taylor said. "I didn't expect you to go this far north."
"Figured we didn't want any people around," Hellhound grunted.
Maybe it wasn't fair to think of her as Hellhound, but she hadn't given Amy permission to call her Rachel, so it was better safe than sorry. Although, Taylor did say that she preferred Bitch.
It was kind of fitting.
Taylor wandered over and took her hand casually. Naturally.
Amy could definitely get used to that.
"Alright, you ready to grow us some pipes, Ms. Walking Apocalypse?" Taylor said.
Amy glared at her, but she couldn't really put any heat behind it. Only Taylor would be so blasé about the very real possibility of global extinction events.
"Yeah, I guess. Vicky's going to be wondering where I am, soon," Amy sighed.
They still had an hour, technically, but sometimes Carol got antsy and changed the rules.
Amy rubbed her hands together and walked over to the nearest tree.
She had already broken so many of her rules. What did it really matter if she broke the rest? She was already a villain, even if no one but Taylor (and now Bitch) knew it yet.
And, outside of the impossible and magical world where Vicky fell in love with her and decided to leave everything else behind to run away with her, this path of villainy was going to be her real life. She might as well own it.
Together, she and Taylor would be untouchable.
It was time to see what her power could really do.
Amy could almost feel it purring happily in the darkest corners of her mind. Not exactly encouraging.
Yes, yes, you won. Are you happy now?
It didn't answer, but she could imagine a sense of smug satisfaction.
Amy placed her hands on the tree and stretched her power's long cramped muscles.
The definition of a single organism had always been a bit foggy, even in her biosenses. A single bacteria was obviously an organism, but the human body contained trillions of bacteria, and it, too, was a single organism.
She had no limit, large or small, as to what constituted one living thing, so long as it was alive and connected.
So, for now, this tree was a single organism. But all it took was a bit of distribution, reaching with its roots to make contact with its neighbor, and…
Just like that, she had a single, bigger organism. Two trees, that were technically the same tree, as far as her power was concerned. Living groves naturally occurred all over the world, so this was easy, compared to the other designs that danced in her head. This was just the gathering phase.
She grew her grove bigger, and bigger. First tens, then hundreds of trees and other plants in the underbrush joined her biomaterial reserve. Amy could feel her power singing within her, different but no less potent than when she changed Taylor.
She had to guestimate based on the length of piping that they would need, but she figured it was better safe than sorry.
After what could have been thirty seconds or several hours, Amy redirected her attention.
The intrusive design her power fed her earlier came to the forefront of her mind. She probably could have made her new creation prettier, or more palatable, but what was the fucking point?
We're all monsters, here.
Amy took a hold of her massive grove of living biomatter, and twisted.
The majestic, snow-covered trees turned to flesh and flowed across the ground under her power, growing and changing into something monstrous.
Amy began to sculpt and thread the living blood vessels and capillaries into the Labyrinth, away from the cold. The material easily flowed down the pathways she built with no limitation for size or scale. As long as there was living material to work with, she could shape it.
"Holy shit…" she heard Taylor mutter behind her.
Good. Taylor deserved to get a taste of her own medicine every once in a while.
See? You don't have the monopoly on eldritch abominations, Hunter.
Amy ran the blood vessels along the ceiling of the infinite hallways, for ease of travel. She wouldn't want Taylor stepping on her creation with that prosthesis.
And in the center, in the two-story atrium just outside the Workshop, Amy created the heart of the Labyrinth.
It was a grotesque thing, barely recognizable as a heart when compared to a human. Easily eight feet tall and across, the unnatural organ would maintain the circulation and water pressure to keep their private little kingdom stocked and prepared, even if they lost access to the outside world.
Amy grew a few basic sensory organs at the end of one of the arteries, searching for the junction Taylor had set up at the desalination plant.
The long, intricate network of veins latched onto the valve and Amy used her control over its strange equivalent of muscles to turn the lever. Water poured into the living system, and Amy made the necessary adjustments to ensure that it was stable and pressure remained consistent.
And in the depths of the Labyrinth, the great heart began to beat.
…
"Amy, this is creepy as fuck, and I love it."
Taylor prodded the enormous, beating heart experimentally.
She desperately wanted to tinker with it. Her power was practically bouncing with all the different things she could do with a massive, living organism in her Workshop.
But she would make sure it was okay with Amy, first. This was her monstrosity, after all.
"I thought you might like it," Amy smiled at her. She seemed almost giddy, and Taylor wasn't going to take it for granted. Genuine smiles were still rare, for Amy.
"Seriously, this is fucking great. Is there anything I need to be careful about? Like, can I set up new taps, cut into it, whatever? Am I going to hurt it? Is it even an it?" Taylor asked.
Amy laughed and leaned against her side. She fit nicely under Taylor's arm.
"No, you can't really hurt it, unless you puncture the heart. And yeah, it's an it. It doesn't have a brain, and its nerves only serve to transmit the basic impulses that I programmed into it. The only reason it's beating is to circulate the water constantly and to keep itself alive. It will filter the water and reroute any minerals or debris to replace its lost cells, but you'll also need to feed it occasionally, if I'm not around to add more biomass directly," Amy lectured.
"I'm sorry, I have to feed the heart?" Taylor said incredulously.
"You have an abundance of dead bodies and blood. Actually, you could probably get away with just hooking up something like you have in your prosthesis, now that I think of it," Amy said.
Taylor's eyes widened as her power started feeding her even more Tinkering ideas.
"Right, right… oh my God, this is going to be so much fun," Taylor grinned.
"Don't torture my new creation too much," Amy rolled her eyes. "I don't want to come back to find that you've turned it into a giant robot spider monster or something."
"I would never," Taylor said.
She definitely would, but not after Amy asked her not to.
Taylor leaned down to kiss her girlfriend again, and relished the feeling of Amy melting into her.
"You're really, really incredible, you know that, right?" Taylor said when they separated. "And not just the healing, or the monster heart thing, but just… the whole package."
It sounded lame to her, but it made Amy smile.
"I know, but I still like hearing it," Amy grinned. "From you, at least. Everyone else can go fuck themselves with that sanctimonious bullshit."
Amy's phone buzzed, and her face fell slightly.
"That's probably Vicky. I don't…" Amy trailed off. "I really want to stay, but…"
Taylor understood. She also desperately wanted to kidnap Amy and never let her go back to her 'real' life, but it wouldn't be fair to take that from her. Not when they still had the choice.
"The invitation is always open," Taylor said. "But I get it. I know… I know how important Victoria is to you, even if I don't have the whole story. And I don't need it. But… we'll figure it out, and try for the best of both worlds, for as long as we can, okay?"
"That's…" Amy cut off again and let her head fall against Taylor's chest. "Yeah, okay. Okay. You're pretty incredible too, you know. And not just because of all the murder and magic blood bullshit."
Taylor chuckled, but her chest felt very warm. It was nice.
She didn't get many compliments that weren't from her dad, and even that was a recent development. Before that…
Well, it had been a while.
"Thank you," she said softly.
They stood in silence for a long time, aside from the omnipresent heartbeat.
Amy's phone buzzed again, and she sighed.
Taylor smiled and took her hand, reaching for the lantern at her belt.
"Let's go keep up the charade," Taylor grinned. "We wouldn't want the PRT to figure out what their miracle healer gets up to on the weekends."
Amy looked up at the massive beating heart and something in her face twisted.
"On a totally unrelated note, you're sure you can get me out of the Birdcage, right?" Amy asked. Taylor couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
"Yes," Taylor said as they began to walk towards the door at the Boardwalk. "I don't know exactly what Dragon's cooked up over there, but nothing will keep me away from you."
"Even if I sent myself there in a fit of self-destructive nihilism?" Amy said.
"Even then," Taylor kissed the back of her hand and Amy smiled. "I'm not above a bit of kidnapping. For your own good, obviously. I'm too selfish to pretend otherwise."
Taylor wasn't sure if she was joking or not, either.
Amy's expression was unreadable as she glanced over at her.
"Sure, you're the selfish one. Whatever you say," Amy said, shaking her head.
"I guess we're both a little selfish," Taylor shrugged. "And… maybe that's okay."
The heartbeat of the Labyrinth echoed behind them, just out of sync with the metallic sound of Taylor's prosthesis against the tile.
Amy bit her lip and took a long time to reply, but Taylor let her think while they walked.
"Yeah," she said finally, the door glowing white in the gloom ahead. "Maybe it is."
…