"Hel? Taylor? Taylor! Focus on me, Taylor! Danny, maybe…no, Jane? Shadow? Argh, my head."
The voice wasn't important. It had no effect on the Legion. The Legion threw themselves in the path of the Horror, and fell in droves.
"What am I…Am I? Letter Em? Em Eye? Emma? Taylor, what would Emma think…do…Ach!"
The Legion would silence the irritating voice. The Horror must be brought down before it destroyed more of the city.
"Jane, I need your help! Get this thing off me! Don't do this, Taylor! Talk to me, we can figure this out - you just need to focus on me. Forget about Lung for right now! Look at me, look at Lisa!"
The Legion hesitated. There was a…wetness. A leaking. The Legion wiped her face.
"Oh no, not again. It's OK, Mistress! We'll figure out how to fix it. Please, stand up - look, there's a little girl who got ripped in half! You can save her! You have to save her!"
Taylor blinked and focused. There was a little girl - or the top half of one. Struggling against one of her bodies…one of Hel's Legion. It was undead - but not part of the Legion. Taylor got mad - that wasn't right. Instinctually, she moved to the thing and touched it. Dead flesh, rigor mortis had not yet set, body not even cold yet. It was in perfect condition aside from being ripped in half, why didn't it join her?
She pushed her self-awareness towards it. She felt a spark, then a flame. A burning sensation, almost like pain, radiating out from the girl/body and getting more intense. Suddenly the sensation is too bright, like a magnesium flare going off in her brain. It was painfully intense, almost a migraine - the first real 'sensation' of Taylor's new existence - and she could almost, almost tell what it was from. Not the girl - at least, originating from where her body was, but not something that came from the girl. No, it was…something. Something just at the edges of her awareness.
"Taylor? Whatever you're doing, keep going! The zombies have stopped fighting each other!" It was Lisa's voice. Jane seemed oddly silent. The world seemed weirdly silent, but tumultuous at the same time. Like an enormous battle was raging all around, but invisible to everyone else. "What are you staring… Between the zombies? No, in the air, all around. Like a disease? Like…like a plague?!? You're not creating the zombies, are you Taylor? Only controlling them. With your power - your power! Not a shaker, not a tinker - a thinker/master? Oh no, oh shit, oh shit…"
*
Destination, the Warrior entity broadcasts the idea.
Agreement, the entity absently responds - still lost in the simulation.
An efficient future. It is a difficult future because it gave up a part of its ability to see the future to the other being. The Scholar entity does not fully understand the details of what might be, there is not enough data on the foreign shards. But the new strategy shows such promise! The Scholar will arrive at the destination, and it will deploy shards to complicate and create stalemates. Losing sides will be granted reinforcements through mutating shards. A different sort of engagement, a different way of testing the shards.
This entity continues focusing on converting, translating and relocating the shards. It is frail, fragile.
Hive, the Warrior broadcasts. A particular world, with a specified population density and degree of conflict.
But this entity has already decided on that world, seen it in a future. It responds without consideration. Agreement.
They are more engaged now, as they close the distance. They negotiate who should place shards where, and this entity now holds its shards in reserve.
The Warrior is focusing on refining the shards, and this entity is, in turn, focused on refining the future. A complex goal, an entire reality.
Too complex to convey to the other. But not too complex to entrust to a shard - a safeguard against an unknown future. Uncertainty should increase caution. This was a key insight from the third entity.
The communications continue, and they approach the galaxy. This entity begins altering its own powers, but it is not a great concern.
The gravity of the planetary bodies pull at it. It loses great clumps of shards.
It loses more. Its focus is now on holding on to the shards critical to making this future it has seen a reality. A world perpetually in conflict, the groups and factions kept small enough that none can challenge it.
All energy it can spare goes towards the reorganization. Shards must be discarded, or it will dwarf the destination planet. It casts shards off, and it retains shards that will allow it to draw power from those shards.
Danger, the Warrior broadcasts.
Confident, this entity responds.
It picks a reality. Up until the moment it hits ground, it works to reorganize itself.
In the doing, it alters one of the third entity's powers, replacing its own ability to find the optimal future.
In that very instant, it recognizes that it has made a grave error. The simulated world and the glimpse of the optimal future are already gone from its grasp. Too late. But this too was not completely unforeseen. The impact will be too much to survive - but it will not be enough to stop the Cycle.
Hope, the entity broadcasts to its partner - something the other does not yet have the context to comprehend. But…
*
The vision/memory fades, but Taylor doesn't have the time or attention to process it right now. Around her, all she saw was the Legion - but not just Hel's Legion. Something…reaches out into the Others' Legion - finding their *SONG//CARRIER* - it was the same as her own, just in a different *KEY//KEY*. Those concept/words weren't part of her originally, but something…new was there with her. In her mind. It was *WAVING HELLO//PERFORM GREETING PROTOCOL*. Taylor looked out at the world again and this time, Legions of Hel and… Euthanasia? They were obvious, distinct, but also the same. She reached out to the ones she saw and…changed their *COLOR//OPERATIONAL DIRECTIVE*.
Taylor blinked and looked around. Aside from her Legion, the fires raging in some of the buildings and a small horde of barking, panicking dogs, the world around her was still…and surprisingly not at all pink. It was Brockton-Bay shaped and colored from all angles - including the sight of her Legion. Several of whom were partially embedded in walls or floors, proving that yes, they were now in the 'real' world.
Taylor was annoyed that her first thoughts were of how that was a breach of contract.
A/N: The vision section of this was partly copied Interlude 29, but modified to show where the divergence in this technically starts.
