Fate Clad in Crimson

A blow to the head can knock loose all sorts of interesting things, things like memories and powers. I had the bad luck of getting two lots of one and FAR too much of the other. While perhaps not as flashy as some, its usually wise not to underestimate the Holy Maiden of the Fates. Unfortunately, that power might not be enough to survive Worm

Well, this got more interest than I was expecting. Lets see how far we can go with it. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Crystal was concerned. She knew how to deal with with new Capes of course, her Mother had made damn sure that all of New Wave had basic training in dealing with them since it wasn't impossible that they'd be among the first ones to actually encounter new Parahumans, but the problem was that Anne wasn't really acting at all like she'd expect from a new Trigger. While it was true that people reacted differently to trauma and Anne was rather jittery, it mostly seemed to be a result of not having any idea how to approach her new powers and, after that pep talk from one of her projections, Anne had refocused and a lot of that nervous energy had gone. It was weird to the point of being concerning.

And then there were the projections themselves. Crystal was far from an expert on powers, that was more her cousin's area of interest than hers, but she had never heard of a Master with the ability to create multiple sentient, empowered projections and definitely not so many. She had no idea if Anne's claim of having 999 different ones was accurate or not, but even the 3 she currently had was more than was normal. And the things they talked about also baffled her. It was almost like they existed somewhere else prior, but that made absolutely no sense!

Crystal groaned and rubbed at her eyes. This entire thing was going to make her go gray and she still needed to set up the meeting between her family and Anne, despite the fact she was leaning more towards calling the PRT and their Master/Stranger protocols.

The sound of a chair being pulled out across from her made Crystal look up as a girl with lavender hair sat down at her table, setting down a tray with two cups and a plate of cookies as she did.

"You look like you could use some sweet therapy," she said, putting one of the cups in front of Crystal.

"Oh you have no idea," said Crystal, snatching up the cup and taking a pull of the expensive coffee inside, sighing at the taste and rush of caffeine, "Thanks Cassie."

Cassie smiled as she took a sip from her own drink.

"So, whats got you looking so down?" she asked, "School stuff or…?"

"Or I'm afraid," said Crystal, "I…cant really talk about it, but I'm worried about a friend of mine."

"Well, I'm not sure that I can help with Cape stuff, but if its your friend, shouldn't you trust them?" said Cassie.

"Normally I would, but shes been acting…weird," said Crystal, "She just got her powers and they are incredibly unusual. I'm not sure if they aren't affecting her mental state."

"Powers do that anyway from what I've heard," said Cassie, "Still, it might be best to give her the benefit of the doubt for now, at least until you know for sure."

Crystal sighed.

"You're probably right," she said, "She wants to talk to my family anyway, so I can get Moms input on it. Thanks for the coffee Cassie."

"Don't mention it, happy to help," said Cassie, "Just make sure you come along to the grand opening later!"

"Sure, we'll be there," said Crystal, "See ya!"

She stood and left, taking off once she left the building.

Missy Biron was annoyed. The previous day, her parents had started another fight and, as was her norm, she had tried to avoid it by either going into the PRT or going to spend some time with her brother. Unfortunately, she had already used up all her allowed time at the HQ and her brother had a lecture that day, so she had been forced to stay home and sit through them screaming at each other. As such, she was in a less than pleasant mood the next day at school.

To make matters worse, Dinah was in a disgustingly good mood, apparently over whatever had been bothering her over the past few weeks.

"86% chance that things will get better," said Dinah suddenly, breaking Missy from her brooding.

"What?" she said.

"Things will get better," said Dinah with a smile, "I don't know how, but they will. They have for me after all!"

Missy snorted.

"I wish I could be so optimistic," she said.

Dinah shrugged.

"4% chance anything I say will help, so I won't bother," she said, "Just…try to cheer up. Its no fun to see you looking so down."

She looked up, then hopped off her bench as a red muscle car rolled up and a tall, blonde haired man got out.

"Welp, gotta go," she said, "Marcus' here."

She ran over to her brother and gave him a hug, making the well built man grunt and pat her on the head, his hard expression softening slightly. He glanced up as Dinah hopped into the passenger seat and nodded slightly at Missy, before getting into his car and driving away. Missy sighed and settled back to wait for her own lift. She wasn't entirely sure what had come over Dinah lately, but she had certainly become much more optimistic all of a sudden. She had been far more withdrawn than usual since Christmas, often missing school with uncharacteristic migraines. Not only that, but she'd said a few things that were really strange, often talking about percentages and chances of things happening, although that had stopped not long after school had started when she'd suddenly started to get really scared of something and refusing to talk about it. It was a weirdly sudden change, but certainly a welcome one.

Due to her status as a Ward, Missy had a far better understanding of the state of the city than even most adults and as a result, she didn't exactly have the most sunny of dispositions, not helped in the slightest by her parents' constant fights. She'd missed Dinahs formerly sunny disposition and it was nice to see that whatever had been bothering her wasn't anymore.

Missy was pulled from her ruminating yet again as a large hand came down on her head and ruffled her hair. She looked up and glared at her brother, the only person who would be dumb enough to do that. Kevin just grinned at her glare, his white blonde hair catching the sunlight and his bright blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Yes yes, you're terrifying," he said in response to her death glare, "Come on, lets go."

Missy smacked his hand away and ran her fingers through her mussed hair, ignoring her idiot brothers snickers as she led the way back to his car. She flopped down into the passenger seat, still ignoring Kevin as he hopped in and started the car.

"So, how was your day?" he asked as he pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Fine," said Missy, staring out of the window.

Kevin glanced at her and sighed.

"Are they fighting again?" he asked.

Missy didn't respond and he sighed again.

"You know you can call me whenever you need to, right?" he said.

"I didn't want to interrupt you," muttered Missy, "You've been preparing for this for ages and I can handle it."

Kevin sighed a third time and shook his head.

"Missy, the others can manage without me for a night or two," he said, "I'm always willing to help you if you need it."

"I can manage," said Missy again, "They aren't…that bad."

Kevin eyed her for a moment, before letting the matter drop. The two siblings were silent for the rest of the drive until Kevin pulled up outside their parents house.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with me for a few days?" he asked.

"I'm sure," said Missy, "But…thanks Kev. I'll call you if it gets too bad."

"Make sure you do," said Kevin, "See you sis!"

He reached across and ruffled her hair again. She batted his hand away and hopped out of the car, grabbing her bag on the way out. She ran up the garden path and slipped inside, immediately heading to her room. The house was silent, despite the fact her parents were both home. They were giving each other the silent treatment after the screaming match yesterday, which would likely mean that she'd have to sort out her own dinner as they forgot about her. For a moment, she was tempted to call Kevin and take him up on his offer, but quickly dismissed the thought. She could handle this. She'd handled worse after all.

Still, she really didn't want to deal with another day of her parents bullshit. Normally, she'd blow off some steam at the Wards HQ, but since she couldn't, she decided to something possibly foolish.

For fairly obvious reasons, Wards weren't supposed to go out on their own, the entire reason for the programs existence was to keep child Capes off the streets after all, but no one has ever accused teenagers of being smart or following the rules and that went double for Capes. While Missy did usually follow the rules, sometimes she just had to go out and hit something, especially when her parents were being stupid and she couldn't get her frustrations out with Ward training. She'd gone out on her own a few times in the past, one of which had nearly ended badly for her when she encountered Hookwolf. Still, she needed to blow off some steam, so she dug her spare costume out of her closet, suited up and opened her window, crunching space and stepping through to find a thug to terrify.

As it turned out, she didn't end up finding any crimes in progress, but that was fine. Honestly, just getting out of the house and running around, stretching her powers in new ways was a lot more interesting, as funny as it would have been to mess with some thugs. Eventually though, she found herself somewhere in the Docks, sitting on the edge of the building and watching the sea as she caught her breath and let her powers rest a little, feeling a lot better than she had been. This little outing was exactly what she needed to burn off the stress. She was starting to see why Shadow Stalker did so many unsanctioned patrols.

Missy got to her feet, turning back towards the nicer part of the city, intending to go and see if she could find something to do there. Sure, crimes were less obvious there, but they did still happen. She stretched and took a step towards the center of the roof, only to pause as something creaked. She looked down, just in time to see the roof collapse under her foot and dump her into the dark warehouse below.

While I was waiting for Crystal to get in touch with her family so I could disarm the pressure cooker that was the Dallon family, I decided to deal with something closer to home. After getting the Heberts number out of the Yellow Pages, I waited until the evening when I knew that Danny would likely be home and called. Almost immediately, the phone was picked up.

"Hebert residence," said Danny's voice.

"Mr Hebert, its Anne Barns," I said.

"Oh, hello Anne!" he said, his voice perking up a little, "Did you need something? I haven't heard from you in ages! How are your family?"

I sighed.

"They're fine, although this is somewhat about them," I said, "I…need to speak with you and them. Would you and Taylor be able to meet me at my Parents place? And tell her to bring her notes. The ones in the bottom of her closet."

There was a pause.

"Anne, has something happened?" asked Danny, his voice now holding a hint of steel.

"Yes, and its not pleasant," I said, "I don't want to have this talk over the phone and this won't be pleasant for anyone, but it does need dealing with. Preferably as soon as possible. I know this is short notice, but can you meet me there? And bring Taylor no matter what she says. She NEEDS to be there for this."

There was another pause.

"Alright, we'll be there," said Danny, "And bring Taylors notes?"

"If you don't mind," I said, "They are going to be needed."

"Alright, see you later then," said Danny.

"Bye."

We hung up and I slumped back in my seat. Well, there was no going back now. Time to go set off some landmines. I got to feet and grabbed my jacket, only to stumble as I felt a jolt of surprise coming through my link to the Triplets, who were currently off doing…something Tribbie hadn't been very clear when they asked, but it had something to do with wanting to see what they could do by combining Amphorius and Earth technology. I had let them go since I trusted them to keep themselves safe and it was kinda hard to actually get a firm hold on three girls who could fly and teleport.

I reached down the link and poked Tribbie, trying to figure out what was going on. I was still figuring this out, but I got a response back so I guess I managed it. Apparently something had happened that surprised them, but they were dealing with it. I poked back, trying to get more details, but got a 'don't worry about it' in response. For a moment, I considered calling them, but decided that the millenia old Demigod probably knew what she was talking about and I needed to get going anyway.

I sighed and pushed my concerns away. Tribbie or Trinnon would contact me if they did need help and I kinda wanted to deal with this mess on my own for now. It was going to be messy enough without having to explain the extra bodies.

Tribbie sighed as she closed down her link with Tribios and glanced over to where Trinnon and Trianne were extracting the small, masked figure who had literally dropped in on them from the crushed remains of the rusty shelves that had broken her fall. She still wasn't entirely sure what to make of this entire thing. The last thing she remembered clearly was returning Thanatos' Coreflame to the Genesis Vortex, after which everything was…blurry, as if seen through frosted glass, right up until she and her sisters had suddenly found themselves appearing on Tribios' bedroom floor with a brand new set of memories and a closer link to Janus Divinity than They had ever felt.

The world They found themselves in was both far worse and better than Amphorius. The future They had seen through Tribios was a horrific one, but at least They had a solid goal to avoid, rather than the vague prophecies They had had for the Flame Chase journey. On the other hand, it also had wonders beyond anything They could have dreamed of which Tribbie couldn't wait to really get stuck into and understand.

They had already got started after finding this abandoned warehouse full of tech that They had, ah, appropriated and started going through. A part of Tribbie wanted to go and joined Tribios to help her with her current problems, but the biggest sister had made it clear that she wanted to deal with that bit herself before revealing the rest of them, which Tribbie understood, especially after she'd spent some time looking into the mysterious powers of this new world and the issues Tribios was attempting to fix. She could certainly understand why Tribios wanted to deal with one issue at a time with her family. She just hoped it wouldn't be too long, it would be nice to have a family again and she wanted to meet their new Mama.

Tribbie was abruptly pulled out of her musings as Trianne poked her in the side.

"Hey, shes waking up," said Trianne.

Tribbie sighed as she moved to join her sisters. She'd already recognized the girl as Vista of the Wards, which meant that this was probably going to get complicated. Still, with any luck, this would let Them deal with some other issues Tribios wanted to work on. And with more luck, the Triplets could deal with it themselves and take some of the weight off of Tribios' shoulders. It was pretty clear that the biggest sister hadn't fully grasped what it meant to be one of the Demigods of Fate, but Tribbie would not let that ignorance make Tribios take on more of the weight than she needed. Tribbie had no idea why they had gained this new life, but she would be damned if she allowed it to end with the same tragedy as the last one, even if she had to strangle this worlds Titans with her bare hands!

Urrrg, done. This chapter…there were several times where I nearly finished it, but it never felt quite right. Even this ending doesn't feel right, but I want to get it done tonight. I might do a rewrite or add something more if I do more for this story, but its fine for now.

So, Crystal is understandably concerned considering how different Anne's powers are from the norm. Fortunately, she has other friends to talk to.

Speaking of, it looks like Tribios' bombshells are already having effects, which means that Dinah has less to worry about. Which is nice because she gets to spend more time with her big brother.

Incidentally, I have to wonder whats going on there. Hehehe.

Anne's called a meeting to really light the fuse. I see no way this meeting will end well for anyone, other than perhaps Taylor.

I'm sure that Missy bonding with the Triplets won't end badly for anyone. Absolutely not.

Anyway, thats done, fucking finally, so its time for me to sign off. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!