Apotheosis 1.3
One quick shower later, I was wearing a set of Lisa's pajamas that didn't quite fit me. I know I could probably replicate something similar to a shower or just use a power to clean myself, but I wasn't sure I wanted to let go of something that made me feel like an ordinary human. After my shower, I took a bit of time to look around Lisa's apartment. To be frank, it was
tiny, consisting of a bedroom, a bathroom, and a study. As far as I could tell, there wasn't a kitchen, so I wondered what she did for food. Lisa was still at her desk, wearing a shirt and a pair of jeans that looked like they'd seen better days, waiting for me to finish. She'd looked up at me once I'd come out of the bathroom, but she seemed content to let me wander about her apartment until I was ready to talk. I kind of didn't want to, a mixture of fears, that she would reject me, or that she would be too afraid of me to do so, but I can't procrastinate forever.
"Hey, Lisa."
"Taylor," she stands and turns to face me, "I'm glad you're back, but what the hell happened to you? For one, my power is all wonky around you, and it's kind of freaking me out. Even…
then it worked on you. Right now, it just sort of
slides off of you, unless I push, and even then, I can't get much. Just enough to know you were actually, well, you."
That's interesting, I wasn't aware that I was affecting her power somehow, as far as I could remember, even Zion didn't do that, another thing to look into. Maybe I could suppress whatever was causing it so Lisa's power worked normally on me, but did I want that? Oh, Lisa's still waiting for me to respond, time to face the music.
She opens her mouth to say something, and in a classic Lisa move, I start speaking right then, "It's kind of a long story," I say, turning on the golden glow. I try and keep it low enough to where the master aura doesn't affect her too badly.
Her mouth doesn't close as she stares at me. "Ok, you have some serious explaining to do."
I cut off the aura, even if it made me feel more confident, self-assured. I had fallen into that trap once before, perhaps it was better for me to doubt a bit. "When Glastig Uaine made that portal, it led to an empty field. I was… I was breaking down, physically and mentally. I… I…"
"Why don't we sit?" Lisa suggested lightly.
"Ok." I let out a shuddering breath and let her lead me to her bedroom, where she plops down and pats the spot next to her. It's easier to speak when I'm not looking at her.
"I was a mess, and I was dying. Even now, when I can remember things clearly, I still feel terrified when I think of that moment."
"Mhmm."
"Then, Contessa showed up, and we had a chat, about what had happened, about what would happen. Talking made things easier, made things clearer. She told me she believed I could get better, and then I… She shot me, or tried at least."
Lisa made an inarticulate sound of frustration and anger. "We'll-"
"Lisa, wait."
"Why? She shot you! And she may seem like she's invincible but she's not. Everyone has weak points. We'll just need to figure out hers."
"Lisa… I…" I really desperately didn't want to tell her this part, and Lisa's
background with suicide just made it worse. "I asked her to kill me," I confessed.
Lisa inhaled sharply.
"I, I could barely even communicate, and talking… talking made me realize how far I'd fallen. I'd lost so much that I couldn't even tell how much I'd lost. I…" I was crying, I realized. When was the last time I'd let myself cry?
Lisa wrapped her arms around me again. Her hug was… nice. "Oh Taylor," she seemed to be at a loss for words, "I'm here for you, and the rest of the Undersiders are too." I looked around at the apartment, empty save for us, then back at Lisa.
She gave me a wry smile, "You've been gone for six months, things have changed a bit, but more on that later. I want to hear the next part of your story if you're willing to tell me?"
I take a deep breath, the next part should be easier, I'm not talking about how I begged Contessa to kill me. I'm… still afraid of what she'll do when she knows. I don't know what I'd do if she told me she didn't want to be around me anymore. "Before she shot me… or just after. I'm not sure actually. I had a… vision, I guess? Maybe a hallucination?"
Lisa just makes an affirmative noise and motions for me to continue.
"I was standing on this sort of crystal in empty space, and I saw my passenger. She spoke to me, helped me remember who I was, what I'd done. I'm still not sure whether I should be thanking her for that, the realization was awful. Then, she said goodbye, and the crystal cracked between us and pulled us apart. Right before she was too far away, she held out her hand, and-"
"Wait, your passenger had a hand? Your passenger was a she?"
"She looked like me, well, me before I had Panacea mess with my brain."
"Ok. That's… ok. Continue please."
"She held out her and said… something about opportunity I think. One of the things I had talked to Contessa about was second chances, and I thought that maybe this was mine, so I took her hand."
"What happened?"
"I'm kind of having a hard time remembering what happened after that. Things are sort of jumbled up in my mind. I remember that the empty space lit up like the starlit sky, and I also remember Contessa's bullets bouncing off a- my golden shield, then I remember being overwhelmed by my power, but I can't remember how I got from one to the other. I also don't know what happened to Contessa. Then, I slept for a while, woke up and came looking for you here." I knew I was leaving a bit out, but never mind that it was hard to remember. I also just wanted to be done with my story, to know what Lisa's reaction would be.
"Are you-" she got up and stood in front of me. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
I nodded.
"
Fuck!" I felt my gut
squirm at her reaction. "This is… This is... " she starts muttering as I slowly curl up into myself.
"No… It could… Maybe if… Taylor?" She finally seems to notice me. She stares at me for a moment, then looks bewildered. It's not a look that I've seen on her face often. I try and push down the fear of being alone again, alone with all of the passengers. "I'm…" I struggle for something to say. I'm just so
used to Lisa getting everything as soon as I think it.
Lisa comes and sits next to me again. "You, well, I'm not going to say you have nothing to be afraid of, but you have nothing to fear from me," she says, seemingly understanding something.
"I'm not…
me. I'm not Khepri, but I'm also not Taylor." Finding the right words to convey what I want is difficult. "I… Whatever my passenger did changed me, is still changing me."
"Oh, Taylor," Lisa sighs, "You're still you. I don't need my power to confirm that."
There's a pause, and I can't bring myself to look at her. She takes it upon herself to break the silence. "So, you're... "
"Yeah."
"What are you going to do?"
"I came here because I wanted your advice."
There's a rustling sound as Lisa shifts on the sheets, and I can practically feel how much she wants to make some sort of snide comment, but she holds back.
"Oh," she says, her voice quiet.
"Maybe you can tell me what's been going on, while you think about it," I suggest
Lisa seems lost in thought, so I nudge her. "Ah, yeah. I think that maybe we should get the old gang back together to discuss that. Yeah, that sounds good. Recent events, huh. As you may have noticed, the Undersiders aren't exactly a thing anymore. Oh, we still stay in touch, but we're doing our own things now. After…
that we organized an op against Teacher, who took over Cauldron's old base. We didn't manage to off the bastard, and afterward, we kind of split up. Aisha's still in charge of the Heartbroken, and Sabah and Lily formed their own group, the Needlepoints. I've still got my mercs and well, I'm laying low, since Teacher would really take any opportunity he could get to kidnap and enslave me.
"I see, and my other team?"
"The ones that are still alive have joined up with the Wardens, sort of a successor to the Protectorate, headed by Chevalier. That reminds me, The Faerie Queen joined up with them as well. She's calling herself Valkyrie now."
"Ok, and where are we?" The temptation to just use a power and find out was strong, in fact, this whole time a part of me insisted that talking to Lisa was unnecessary, that I could find out all of this on my own, figure out what to do on my own. I ignored it.
"This world has been dubbed Earth Tau. It's one of the Earths that still have some infrastructure left. Hence, the apartment, and there are enough people here for me to blend in with the crowd, not stand out too much if any of Teacher's agents come looking for me."
There's another pause, where we just sit on Lisa's bed.
"Let me just get in touch with the rest of the Undersiders. It's a bit hard considering we're all across different Earths now, but I have my ways. That's right, you probably don't know too much about the situation. I think I have a laptop with some documents somewhere around here."
Should I tell her about the Simurgh? Of course, I should, I should have already told her. I can't just keep holding back out of habit. "Something to tell me?" I thought her power didn't work on me. "It wasn't my power." Then how is she- "You're just predictable. That and I know you," she says giving me a trademark Lisa grin. "So what did you want to say?"
"I uh, I may have gotten in contact with the Simurgh." Lisa's eyes widen minutely. "I made a deal with her to leave her alone in exchange for information."
Lisa makes an exaggerated sigh, "Of course you did Taylor, no waiting for advice from someone who hasn't been dead to the world for the last six months, just hop right into making deals with Endbringers." I cringe. "It's, well, it's probably not too bad. The Simurgh hasn't been active since, you know, but nobody knows what she's up to. I just wish you'd ask someone first. It doesn't have to be me, just someone you can trust."
"I know, I'm trying to do better, be better. I came here didn't I?" I try.
"You did, and I'm going to help you," she declares as she leaves the room.
Part of me feels indignant that Lisa is criticizing me. I'm sure with a flex of my power I could have a laundry list of her faults, but that's not really the point is it? I came here specifically to ask for her advice, and it's not like she's told me she never wants to see me again, which is really what I was most afraid of. I'm… not sure what the others will do when they find out, but I think that as long as Lisa's willing to stick around, I'll be ok.
Another thought comes to me, do I really want to pin my second chance on Lisa alone, though. Lisa is my best friend, but I've long known that she's not a good person, neither of us are. She's not a bad person per se, but she's no selfless hero. Then again, should I really be thinking of things so callously? Lisa's my friend, she's remained my friend even when I up and joined the Protectorate and through all this. She's even welcomed me back into her home despite… whatever I am right now. I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt at least.
Speaking of morals though, who defines those, now that the government is gone. I pull out the laptop Lisa put next to me and see that it's already open to a folder with a bunch of helpfully labeled files. I immediately think about finding some sort of power that lets me just download all the information into my brain, but I hesitate. For one, I've very recently had bad experiences with information overload, and on the other hand, should I really be using my power so much in everyday life? Should I try and reserve it for only when I really need to use it?
No, that's stupid. I remember Glastig Uaine's advice again. I just need an anchor, and I have one right? Lisa, and the rest of the Undersiders. So long as I have them, they can keep me grounded. If I'm too afraid to use the power I've been given, then I won't be able to affect anything at all. It feels like bragging to say it, even in my head, but I'm
powerful. Powerful enough to significantly improve the lives of everyone else. I should try and get some sort of practice with my powers in while it's safe and I can afford to fail.
Closing my eyes, I tap into the power. It's really always
there in the back of my mind, just like my swarm, but it's much easier to ignore. There's no constant buzzing in the back of my head, no constant sense of where everything is in my surroundings. Honestly, thinking about it and recalling how pervasive my swarm sense was is making me feel disoriented. Why hadn't I been feeling that before? Why only when I'm thinking about it? My power, or as I'm starting to think, my passenger, brings up a power that allows me to have an awareness of my surroundings, a thinker power. That's nice, but not what I'm looking for right now. I try and think about what I want, some sort of digital data transfer, or computer interface. Oh, that should work, even though it's quite… odd. I suppose I can't make overtures about the usefulness of a power when I'm about to make use of it.
I make a copy of the all the documents Lisa has on events after the Gold Morning, and then I reach for the computer screen, my hand glowing dimly and as my fingers come into contact with it, the screen ripples like water as my hand passes through. They feel like metal rectangular prisms in my hand. After I pull them out, I examine them, they look like, well, glass prisms, with the name and icon presented on each of the four long faces. Slowly, doubting my own power, I take a bite out of one.
It's crunchy.
They sort of have this cool metallic flavor, but what really gets me is the sudden influx of information. I don't actually swallow as the shards of information seem to dissolve in my mouth. It seems like the Wardens are mostly just enforcing things on a case by case basis, with little consistency between separate groups. They are acting as both judge and jury, which is ironic in a way. The Protectorate had always been about enforcing the rule of law, but what do you do when law no longer exists. I continued munching on the files. Apparently, the most talked about member right now is Valkyrie, who has been tentatively declared the strongest parahuman. It seems that she's doing a lot of good by keeping things in order, and also changed her look, twice in fact. First to some sort of frilly skirt, and second to an older girl, roughly my age, with wings.
Speaking of her, I'm reminded of the some of the powers I'd used. I'm pretty sure that some of those were her 'shades' like Doormaker or Eidolon. People whose power she'd harvested. I try reaching out for her own power, and I touch upon it. A power designed to reclaim shards without a host, to gather them. Once again, I wondered how I had access to these powers. What were the implications of that? I almost reached out and grasped her passenger, to see if I could use it,, but then I remembered the conversation I'd just had with Lisa, about not doing dangerous things without getting a second opinion. It could wait, I didn't need to use it urgently after all.
I continued snacking on the information, which is what Lisa saw as she walked into the room. Me, sitting on her bed with her laptop in my lap, snacking on rectangular prisms with folder names on them. I see her glance between my face and a half-eaten file and see as she makes the connection.
"Couldn't you have picked a less ridiculous power?"
"It's the first one that I found that actually worked," I protest.
"I better still have copies of those files. You hear me?"
"I made sure to make copies," I say, doing my best to affect an innocent look. I'm not as good as Aisha is though.
Lisa holds her stern look for a moment, then snickers, then bursts out in laughter. I smile, I want to laugh, but somehow it just doesn't feel like I can. How long-, no. Now isn't the time for morbid thoughts like that. Right now it's time to enjoy the moment.
Lisa calms herself, "I've contacted the rest of the Undersiders, though it'll take a bit for them to get the message. We can see if you can teleport us to the rendezvous point tomorrow. It's 2 a.m. and I'm tired. So use your phenomenal cosmic power to make yourself another bed or whatever, this one's mine." She says as she flips off the lights and gets into bed
I dip into my power, aware of how the formerly dark room is lit up by me. I wonder if I'll ever get used to being a human nightlight. I look for something that'll let me make a bed. The first power I find is a comfort tinker. Just… how is- Oh. The furniture has a master effect that makes you not want to get up. Insidious. Oh, this should work, inorganic item duplication. I grab the foot of Lisa's bed and pull. A second bed seems to be pulled out of the first, as if they'd been overlaid on top of each other in reality somehow. Lisa yelps.
"What the hell was that?"
I find myself smiling again, "Phenomenal Cosmic power of course."
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AN:
More Angst than expected. Did you know that the original drafts I have for this story were a lighthearted power fantasy? Anyway, I'd planned on putting this out yesterday, but I couldn't find it in me to actually write the beginning, which I felt was an important part of the scene. I'll probably try and update this around once a week. I've also been considering getting a beta since I'm spread kind of thin among fics and quests as is and I don't have a lot of time to review everything. I will probably make mistakes since I've only read through Arc 9 in Ward, and when I reread Worm it's usually up to the S9 and then I skip right to the S9000, so a lot of the middle bits don't quite stick in my memory.
Not sure if there were too many ellipses. I was trying to make the tone kind of halting. Stopping and starting over and over again.
I've also noted that the reunion scene and the Endbringers thing were rushed, If I do a rewrite I'll go back and fix them.