Inheritance - Deference 5.5

Thursday May 12th, 2011

Oh goddess.  No, not like this…

The blood streaked down her pale face with each drop of the pouring rain, disappearing as fast as it leaked from her.  Bloodsight flickered, showing what I already knew to be true.  Her heart had fallen silent, not a drop of blood pulsed through her veins.  The armband was screaming out warnings, my Teeth were scrambling to move, but I stood transfixed as my mind refused to accept the reality before me. 

Not Chrissie… 

She wasn’t dead, not yet.  I refused to believe it!  We were dating the most powerful healer in the world; flesh was her plaything!  If anyone could save Chrissie, it was her.  The armbands weren’t responding, just telling us all to standby due to Leviathan’s charge across the city.  Eidolon was facedown in the water, unmoving, and I didn’t have the patience to try and coax him back to consciousness and explain. 

It would take too long and Chrissie would be lost forever. 

No help would be coming for us.  All I had was myself and the collective powers of the Butcher.  The relays unfolded like a tapestry as my senses reached out, guided by an unseen touch, frantically for the closest insect I could find to Amelia.  The chorus was right there with me, their whispers of reassurance feather light as I found the path of least resistance.  Pyro’s teleport wasn’t ready, but that didn’t matter.  I shouldn’t be able to bring another with me, but that was a restriction that I disregarded. 

My light was fading, each second that ticked by taking her further from my grasp.  Even as Leviathan himself rounded the corner at the end of the street, glowing eyes locked with my own as I stared outward; looking for something beyond myself.  A hand reached out, splitting and converging endlessly, distance proving irrelevant.  It wrapped me tight even as the monster lunged forward impossibly fast. 

Time dilated, reality slipping as my mind sped up to match the monster’s increased speed.  Calculations whirled through my mind as its claw inched towards my unblinking eye, the tip piercing the lens of my mask and almost brushing against soft flesh when the final numbers came in and everything solidified. 

We vanished in a puff of smoke just as claws would have cleaved us in twain.

And crashed right into Lisa’s waiting arms. 

“I’ve got you,” she said.  “Amelia!  Hurry!” 

Familiar fingers snaked out, grasping hold of the first bits of skin they could find.  A gasp sounded and without any verbal communication Lisa was leading us to a gurney.  Lisa and I laid Chrissie out even as Amelia didn’t flinch, just continued whatever she was attempting to do.

Information raced through my mind; images of failing connections, burst capillaries and aneurysms.  Her mind was effectively falling apart, the polarization already cascading towards failure.  How I could understand all of this was beyond me at the moment, but all my attention was on Chrissie as I held her hand with all the desperation I could muster. 

After Dad, I couldn’t stand to lose her too. 

Alert.  Leviathan course altered. 

Amelia continued her grim work, cycling the blood that had pooled into Chrissie’s sinuses and lungs back into her body as she manually worked her heart, oxygenating the blood as she restored Chrissie’s flesh.  Breathing, pulse, even neurons firing were all being handled manually under Amelia’s careful ministrations. 

“The triage center,” Armsmaster’s voice came over the comm.  “He’s after the wounded.” 

Piece by painstaking piece Amelia was rebuilding Chrissie’s brain and keeping it from collapsing onto itself.  That didn’t mean she was winning the race by any means.  For each part she repaired another would start to fail.  Sections already repaired would short out and she would have to double back.  

She was losing the race, I knew that.  I could see it all, how each passing second was putting Chrissie closer to the brink where we couldn’t bring her back.  Amelia needed something more than what she had, she needed my multitasking if she was going to get ahead of the cascades.  She didn’t have it, which meant there was only one choice ahead of me, one I was more than willing to make if it meant that Chrissie would get to live.

“Tay, you don’t know that will work!” Fester said hastily.  “We might joke about it, but trust me, this isn’t a road you want to go down!” 

“Not yet,” Pyro muttered.  “She’s right.  You’ve finally found happiness.  Don’t give it up like this just for a maybe.” 

“It will not go as you imagine,” Reflex warned. 

Not letting go of Chrissie’s hand, I reached out even as I shut down each and every voice that cried out in sudden dissent.  Why were they suddenly so concerned about my wanting to pass on the mantle?  It wasn’t like the Teeth would be losing anyone, and we wouldn’t dare do anything to drive Amelia into the insanity of the past. 

She would be embraced by each of us, and free to keep living her life with Chrissie and Lisa, and I would be right there with them in my own way.  There would simply be one less body in the cuddle pile, but the same number of minds.

“Amelia,” I said, gently pulling my mask up.  “You know what’s needed to keep up with all this.” 

“Tay—” Lisa snapped, cutting herself off before she shouted my name to the whole goddamn room.  When she spoke again it was far softer, and vulnerable in a way I had never heard from the Thinker.  “You can’t put that on her.” 

“Chrissie isn’t going to make it,” I said, tears streaming down my cheeks.  Chrissie’s beautiful face had lost all its color, the blood still leaking slowly from her nose standing out starkly in contrast.  “Amelia needs my power so she can make all the changes at once.  It’s the only way.” 

“No,” Amelia snarled.  “I am not losing you just to have a chance at saving her!” 

“You wouldn’t be losing me,” I countered, the desperation turning my voice shrill.  “I will be with you, always!” 

“Not in the way I want!” Amelia screeched, screwing her eyes shut as she clenched her hand holding Chrissie’s until her knuckles turned white.  “I’m sick and fucking tired of people telling me how things have to be!”  She glared at me, full of defiance.  “It’s high time that I started being selfish!”

Her free hand snapped out like a whip, my danger sense not saying a damn thing as she grabbed my breastplate and pulled me forward into a rough kiss right atop Chrissie’s still form.  My everything seemed to explode in a perfect moment and I almost thought she had done it and that I would be joining her. 

Instead, she shoved me back.  “Now get out of here so I can work.  I’ve got a girlfriend to save and you’ve got a kaiju to kill.” 

“Never should have let Chrissie pick Godzilla for movie night,” Lisa muttered.

“Attention.  All capes regroup at grid marker F-7 and assist with evacuation of the triage center.  Armsmaster will be delaying the Endbringer for as long as he is able.”

“Go,” Amelia said harshly.  “You wanted to be a big damn hero?  This is your chance.” 

Was she really suggesting that I fight Leviathan?  The monster that could dance around the combined might of a hundred capes including the goddamn Triumvirate?  That thing came a hair’s breadth from taking my head off mere moments ago, and she was asking me to throw myself at him? 

“To be fair,” Reflex said, piercing through my iron grip in a way no voice ever had.  “It would be less self-destructive than your current course.” 

The collective shouted their agreement from the dark, decrying my choice to die for my most important people.  Part of me was tempted to pull my last blade and take the chance by slitting my own throat, to force the matter.  The only problem was that I would have to live forever with the grief that would bring Amelia. 

Because we would be forever inseparable. 

Enough of the collective had fucked one another for me to know how that would go over.  It would be miserable, and the feeling of loss each time she heard my voice in her head would be echoed in my own experience, whatever that ended up being. 

As much as I wanted to save Chrissie, could I really go through with what it would take?  Could I condemn my girlfriends to watching me die?  Could I accept being nothing but a voice watching the world through Amelia’s eyes?

“We certainly don’t want that fate for you,” Fester said.  Try as I might, I couldn’t force her down, and she continued, speaking in a soft and caring tone.  “Trust us, Amelia will save her.  She has everything she will require to do so.  What you need to be doing is getting out there and making sure she stays safe.” 

I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, and felt more than a little bit of fear as my control over the collective slipped.  The others rose back up, all voicing their agreements, but something else accompanied their return to the light.  My body shivered as electricity rippled over my skin; muscles twitched and tensed before relaxing and several little mental switches shifted imperceptibly. 

My eyes widened when it all clicked into solid clarity.  Just the idea of that was making my blood boil.  Spree was dead because I wasn’t good enough to stop Echidna on my own.  Sure, we all knew the risks, but knowing that there was more I could have done, but the only reason I hadn’t been able to was because the voices in my head were keeping things from me… 

“You fuckers were holding back?” 

“More like repairs were necessary,” a new voice said, one I vaguely recognized from the night of the PRT ambush.  One that had spoken when Animos almost killed me.  I tried to place it, but each time I focused on their words, the tone and cadence shifted.  “Who I am isn’t of consequence right now, Taylor.  What matters is ensuring we all live to see tomorrow.” 

Lisa was staring at me with wide eyes, her jaw hanging open, but I was focused inward towards the collective.  

“We are going to be having words after this.” 

“Yes, we will,” the entire collective said in unison. 

“Holy shit,” Lisa whispered.  “Taylor.  Please tell me you’re still in the driver’s seat.” 

I shivered, if for no other reason than the fear it inspired within me.  Something sinister was happening with my powers, and it was quickly becoming obvious that my hold on the collective was effectively shot.  Would I find myself having to suffer as my predecessors did, trying to shout over the voices? 

“We work together,” the collective said.  “You taught us the value of cooperation.” 

Logically, I shouldn’t believe them, but every fiber of my being was telling me that I could trust them at their word.  I still had all of their memories, but there was something else now, some deeper understanding of what we could do together. 

Hesitantly, I nodded.  “I think so?  Nobody’s tried to take the wheel, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

“That’s good,” Lisa said with a tight smile.  “Because I have no idea what the hell is happening right now.” 

“Well, that makes two of us,” I said.

Beside them, Amelia frowned in concentration, and I could tell that something had changed.  She was pulling ahead of the cascading failures happening within Chrissie’s mind, piecing things back together before they could so much as finish destabilizing.  How I knew that was something else I was going to ignore, because I had enough of an identity crisis popping off as it was.

Another presence reached out within the collective, one I understood wasn’t part of me, but something closely linked.  A reassuring touch was offered, and as much as it frightened me, I somehow knew that everything would be alright.

Be advised.  Leviathan has engaged the defensive line.

“Might want to get on that,” the collective said calmly.  “We’re with you.” 

I took a breath, the new strength of my frame still unfamiliar.  As much as I wanted to hug my girls, I knew better than to risk hurting them.  It felt wrong to leave them, but I could feel the shift in the powers that made up the collective, how I could shift my form just as well as Sabertooth, how I could use pain to kill a man just as easily as enraging them into suicidal charges.  More than that, all of the Brute packages within the collective were back up to muster, which meant I could go toe to toe with Alexandria just as Knockout once had at his own peak.  

People continued to run all around us, urgently moving to evacuate the building.  Amelia ignored the Ward that had come up to her, continuing her work on our girlfriend even as Lisa directed him to help others more willing to pack up and go.

Strider appeared in the parking lot gesturing for people to come to him as quickly as possible.  Once the circle was filled, he vanished, taking the mass of pressed bodies with him.  Wherever the new destination was, it was outside of my considerable range.  Despite the evacuation orders, most capes were staying.  Those that were helped move those still waiting for a healer, but a few seemed itching to cut their losses despite their desire to save face among their peers.  

I was vaguely aware of Victoria flying down with Ashley in her arms, taking her within the building.  Ashley was missing her right leg, the stump tied off with Victoria’s cape.  Amelia was still busy with Chrissie, but the former Empire healer was there helping Damsel before anyone could threaten her into it.  Victoria kissed her injured girlfriend before departing with the intention to return to the fray.  Or at least, that’s what I assumed until she stopped to talk with… 

“Is that the half-pint?” Marauder asked.

Why the hell was Vista here?  She was supposed to be back in Brockton helping with the hometown preparations for a bad Leviathan fallout, not here getting herself killed!  The pair exchanged some heated words when a sudden and bone chilling call rang out.

Alexandria down.

I think everyone in attendance stilled when the words registered.  Some collapsed, the fight leaving them now that we were down two members of the Triumvirate, others resolved to continue moving people faster even as Strider regained his bearings, urging others to move faster.  Victoria and Missy were gone, probably heading out for more search and rescue. 

Lisa was muttering something as she continued to listen to the Thinker feed; something major was going down back at the fight.  I could only pick up the edges of the conflict, my swarm not nearly dense enough for a clear picture, only the basics.  I had a few waterbugs lodged in some of Leviathan’s wounds, and the ticks continued to prove to be a great idea for the capes. 

Wait, why was Victoria—

In the distance, the storm completely broke, stars and the moon glaring down upon the battle a few miles out.  The break in the storm spread rapidly even as the sky itself seemed to revolt from the violation. 

“Did the sky just part like the fucking Red Sea?” Alkaline asked. 

Fuck.  Okay, that was—

Then every point I had in the immediate area went dark all at once, the impression of searing heat the only warning I had before pure plasma crashed in the distance.  It was the mother of all lightning strikes, more resembling some old photos Pyro had seen of atmospheric lightning before the Simurgh put an end to all manned space ventures. 

It was bright and blinding on a level that none within the collective had ever experienced in person.  I covered my ears out of instinct, and the shockwave that crashed over the city shattered every window in its wake and visibly pushed back the torrential downpour. 

Knockout’s shields sprung up, bracing me even as I shielded my girls from the splintered glass that washed over the entire structure.

“What the fuck was that,” I demanded, the ringing in my ears rapidly receding. 

Lisa groaned, picking herself back up.  “Vista dropped the ionosphere on the bastard…  And she’s about to do it again!” 

Everyone that could still hear her warning braced themselves as the second bolt came down hard.  The shockwave that followed had no more glass to break, but that didn’t stop it from rattling the few fixtures still upright.  I jumped back to my feet, looking out the window towards the clear skies when the armband chimed once again.

Armsmaster down. 

“Oh shit, we like him!” Sabertooth exclaimed.

Chisel was just as urgent with her words.  “Go before the lizard gets him!” 

Turning back towards my girls, Lisa offered a nod.  Amelia was focused on her work, but there was one thing I refused to go without.  I quickly leaned down and kissed Chrissie on the forehead, feeling an echo of Amelia’s touch as I did so.  The Collective was right, she was going to be okay.  Faith was a funny thing, but it was the only thing I had left to keep me going. 

“Is it really faith when you can verify it?” 

I winced at the comment, the literal chorus of voices speaking at once was getting old fast.  “Look, whatever this is, we can table it for after Leviathan, but right now I need the people I’m used to, not this distracting gestalt thing you have going on.”

Something in the back of my head clicked metaphysically. 

“As you wish,” Reflex said.  “We will indeed be willing to discuss matters once time permits.  For now, go with all of our strength.” 

“Fuck yeah!” Fester cheered. 

“Rip and tear!” 

With a twist of will, I aimed my teleport and vanished.