Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers #34 (Patreon)

Waterborne, Part 1

Wilhelmina Azul's eyes snapped open as the alarm on her phone rang. With practiced movements, she reached out to touch the screen and turn off the alarm so that Tammy wouldn't wake up. Then she lay back and folded her hands over her stomach, staring at the ceiling. It was Saturday, and around her everything was quiet, people still asleep. The waters were still, the distant turbulence at the edges easily ignored. Even the drone Sanny used to spy on them was still, the ripples coming from it subdued and distant, as if in dreams. The depths were close to the surface, almost relaxed.

Tammy had sighed tiredly, but said just to leave the drone alone, and Willy did. But she still surrounded it with water so she could kill it with ice and steam if she needed to. That was just rational and logical, given how untrustworthy Sanny acted. Tammy hadn't said that what she had done was wrong and gently told her what she should have done. It had been years since Tammy had to do that after Willy told her what she had done that day.

Willy felt it when people started waking up around the neighborhood. Inside her, the waters began to tremble, ripple, and vibrate. The depths shivered and dove, hiding deep within her as a distant stillness, leaving her to face the increasingly turbulent waters alone. Her own little circle of the water bubbled and boiled at this, but she chilled it forcefully. It wasn't the first time and it probably wouldn't be the last. She cooled, leaving only hot currents beneath the surface as the water slowly grew more and more turbulent with people waking. The waters became sluggish and turgid, crashing and energetic, thick and slimy, on and on and on. The turbulence grew, and she had to feel every moment of it as it intruded on her own little circle. She closed her eyes as she was finally forced to make an effort to keep her water still, pushing out the unwanted, unwelcome turbulence as depths hid deep within, taking advantage of her efforts.

Only the hot currents remained, and she made sure the depths knew it. The depths bubbled weakly, but did not rise, did not stir, stayed deep and buried beyond reach. No matter how hot the currents, no water if it bubbled and steamed, it would not move, and she had to face the waters alone…

No. Not alone. Never alone. Not anymore.

Sighing, because her lungs and mood urged her too, Willy opened her eyes to brighter morning sunlight making the edges of the blackout blinds glow, fluttering slightly from the wind coming in through the open windows. The blinds were effective, however, and left the room mostly dark as she pushed herself upright and turned to set her feet on the floor, toes coming to rest on the carpet. Willy stood up, then turned to make her bed as Tammy had taught her good girls should. She smoothed covers, straightened her pillow, folded her thin sheet of a blanket. It was no longer so hot that they needed to turn on the air conditioning at night, so the blanket wasn't really needed, but it had been a gift from Tammy when she had first started living here, and so she cherished it. It made her waters feel warm and welcoming and for a moment she forgot the burning undercurrents beneath…

Her bed made, Willy walked across the carpet to wake up her cousin. There were some particles amidst the fibers under her feet, and Willy made a note to point it out to Tammy so she could decide if it was time to take the carpet outside and beat it clean. She carefully wove around the branches and vines that had grown from her cousin in the night. The scratch of something sharp and fine against her temple warned her there were thorns too as she stepped on flower petals and her toes fell on an undersized green mango. Her skin crawled at the point of injury, and her flesh became ice, her whole face becoming cold and solid and transparent. Her field of view widened and distort as she saw from every inch of her face and head, and suddenly the water and its turbulence became louder, more urgent, more immediate. The water grew wider, and once-distant turbulence leapt at her awareness. Bubble and undercurrents and explosions of steam and chunks of ice…

Tammy pushed away the unimportant things as she knelt down next to her cousin, still needing to bend over a little to bring her close to Tammy's face. It was needed, with her 6' 1" frame. She'd been called a giant by their peers all her life. In the dark, the vines and branches grew slowly, but with the sunrise and more light coming in front the edge of the blackout blinds, they were growing, creeping inexorably towards the windows, wrapping around the metal bars of the bedframe, spreading down to find someplace to take root. They'd long since learned to keep the floor clean and to make sure the little niches were free of dust and patched up with grout, silicone and other thing's they'd bought at the hardware store.

Willy gently began to nudge her cousin awake, her fingertips turning to ice as she tried to find somewhere Tammy would feel the cold. "Tammy," she said, speaking in her normal speaking register, "wake up. Mama and Papa are about to call from Cebu to talk to you."

On cue, Tammy's own phone's alarm sounded, some energetic song in Japanese that was the opening of a series she'd watched with her cousin three years ago. Willy didn't reach over to turn it off, because her fingertips were made of ice and wouldn't interface with the screen, and because it was Tammy's alarm and she shouldn't interfere with it.

Finally, the mass that had probably been Tammy's head creaked, and there was a crack as two branches split and parted, revealing an opening between them. Air passed through it, creating a sound…

Across the water, in the midst of the turbulence, warmth bloomed. It was full of shallow tangled currents, but those currents subsided, and only warmth remained. Willy basked in that warmth, let herself sink into it, let it join with her waters. It cooled her boiling undercurrents, and she let it…

"Fhtagn… rasjvh frashjn…" These sounds or something to their effect resonated from the hole in Tammy's head, even as the growth of the branches and vines began to reverse, drawing back into her. Willy watched impassively for a moment as leaves curled, and wood began growing backwards before she nodded and got back to her feet, walking towards Tammy's desk and opening a drawer to put out a small plastic brush and dust pan, the ice on her face and fingertips absently turning back into flesh as she basked in Tammy's warm, comforting presence. Her awareness of the water contracted, much of the turbulence becoming distant once more, making it easier to keep her own patch of the water still and warm.

The little brush and dust pan in hand she stood up and reached for the pull cord of the blackout blinds and began to pull. The blinds began to roll upwards, and just the first foot of window revealed filled their shared room with light, thought it was the weak, diffuse light of an overcast sky. When she turned back, the last of the growths were being pulled back into Tammy, whose skin was changing from light silver and vibrant green sapling wood to flesh. She was raising her fingers to her eyes as if to rub them, but a quick pat from her fingers showed there was nothing to remove. Shaking her head, Tammy yawned again, covering her mouth as she'd taught Willy and blinking. Her cousin pushed herself upright to a sitting positon, and her eyes roamed, looking around the room.

Tammy made a sleepy smile as she saw Willy. "'Morning, Willy," she said, and in the waters, there was only warmth and warmth and warmth…

"Good morning, Tammy," Willy said, and held out the small brush and dustpan.

Tammy took the tools, and then bounced a little lower down her bed, then began sweeping up the leaves, petals, small flowers, seeds, pieces of bark, and a few thumbnail-sized mangoes that had fallen on her bed as she'd slept. There were far more flowers and fruits than there used to be. Willy suspected it had something to do with the bee her cousin had devoured in Tagatay some weeks ago. As her cousin cleaned her bed, Willy went and got the long broom and dust pan and swept up the things that had fallen on the carpet and gotten blown under Tammy's bed, turning her toes into ice so she could see without bending down.

They worked in comfortable silence, collecting the castoffs that had fallen from Tammy and putting them in the trashcan under Tammy's desk for later disposal. After that, they went to the bathroom down the hall to wash their faces. The house was quiet, save for some sounds of cooking in the kitchen. Her aunt and uncle weren't home this month, their work having taken them out of the country, leaving only herself, Tammy and the housekeeper, Manang Zenny, who was probably making breakfast for them.

"Tammy! Willy! Time to eat!" Manang Zenny called.

The two of them went to the dining room where breakfast was waiting. On the table was a serving bowl of steaming white rice, and a smaller serving bowl of corned beef with diced corn and onions. "Thank you, Manang Zenny," Tammy called cheerfully, and made to pray. Willy copied her, mimicking the gestures and the words. It was what Tammy said they should do, after all. Then Tammy stood up to get the bottle of lechon sauce and the liquid seasoning to go with the food, and the two of them ate quickly in companionable silence. When her aunt and uncle were home, breakfast would take longer, with more interruptions from eating to talk, even if it made more sense to eat first then talk later. When it was just the two of them, they ate quickly.

After eating, they took the dishes to the kitchen for Manang Zenny to wash, and then retreated back to their shared room. The two of them sat on Tammy's bed and cradled her tablet, waiting for Willy's parents to call. Tammy sat between her legs, leaning back against her so that they would both be in view of the tablet's camera. Willy wrapped her arms around her cousin's middle and pulled her close, and it was like holding the warm water she felt inside, so pleasant and enjoyable…

The tablet began to vibrate, and Tammy adjusted the tablet one last time before tapping the screen to accept the call. "Hi, Uncle Matthew, Auntie Jeanne!" she greeted. "Hiya Ate Leona, Ate Sheryl, Kuya Henry!"

"Hi Tammy!" they chorused, everyone trying to be visible by the camera and waving. To Willy, they were just another video image, too far for her to perceive what they did to the water. "Hi Willy!"

Willy raised a hand waved perfunctorily. "Hi," she said, not waiting to be prompted by Tammy. They had done this so many times that she was familiar with the routine. Inside, she felt Tammy's water change. The water became warmer, denser for a moment, and Tammy patted her hand in a way that told her Willy had done something good.

"How have you both been?" Mother asked, her voice a little too loud, as if she wasn't sure the microphone could hear her. "How are your grades?"

"We've been doing great!" Tammy said. "Willy, tell Auntie what grade you got on the quizzes we had this week!"

"My tests this week were all graded at one hundred percent," Willy said dutifully. After all, Tammy had told her a long time ago she should study diligently so she could answer all the questions on tests correctly, so that was what she did. It was among the easier things that Tammy said she had to do to be a good girl. It was far easier than being 'polite' or 'sensitive to other people's feelings'.

"In all the tests!" Tammy said loudly. "She's going to be summa cum laude again when we graduate, I just know it!"

"That's great!" Father said, also loudly.  He was smiling, which probably meant he was happy, but Willy had noticed most people tended to smile in front of a camera. "We're so proud of you, Willy!"

"Thank you," she said, trying to be polite. What they thought didn't matter, after all—only what Tammy thought did—but Tammy had said she should be polite and so she was… most of the time.

"When are you coming back home?" Henry asked. Her brother had gotten taller again, though even two years older than her, he wasn't as tall as her. He was also getting fatter. He wasn't really important, though.

The question was nonsensical, but Willy answered it anyway, because she was supposed to answer questions when they were making the weekly call. It was like when a teacher asked her a question in class. "I amhome."

In her arms, Tammy's waters churned, waves quickly slapping from side to side as Tammy hastily said, "Tammy, Kuya Henry is asking when you can go back to Cebu. It's been a while since we've been there to see everyone."

Tammy did this sometimes, rephrasing a question because Willy had apparently not understood it properly. "I don't know," Willy said, since she didn't know what to answer.

The water never lost its warmth, the rush of small bubbles appeared as Tammy sighed. "We can probably visit over Christmas Vacation," Tammy said. "I'll talk to mama and papa, I'm sure they'll love the idea! It will be great to see everyone in Cebu again."

"We're seeing everyone in Cebu right now," Willy pointed out politely.

"It will be great to see everyone in Cebu face to face again," Tammy amended.

"Hey Willy, have you found a boyfriend yet?" her sister Leona, her eldest sister who was six years older than her, asked. "And I mean a boyfriend, not a boy who's a friend, little sister!"

"Or any kind of friend at all," her elder sister Sheryl said. Sheryl was four years older.

"Actually, she has!" Tammy said. "We've made three new friends! There's Kim—Kuya Kim, I mean— Ate Sanny and Ate Jas. We're actually going to see them today."

"What, really?" Willy frowned. Tammy wasn't lying.

"Tammy isn't lying," she sternly corrected Sheryl.

"That's wonderful, Willy!" her mother said, speaking over her sister. "Do you think you like them?"

Willy considered the question. Sanny was untrustworthy and spied on them. Kim was useless and kept asking questions about things. Jas was incompetent.

But Tammy liked them. Ever since she had met them, her cousin had become warmer and warmer, with waves and swirls…

"Tammy likes them," Willy said dutifully.

"But do you?" her mother pressed.

"Tammy likes them, so I like them," Willy said. Really, she shouldn't have to say something so obvious.

Warmth and bubbles. Tammy sighed.

"But do they like you?" Sheryl said.

In Tammy's waters, a single spike of ice suddenly snapped into being, long and sharp and surrounded by water that went from warm to boiling. It was sudden, and there the spike ground away, leaving a cold iceberg, heavy and deep.

Onscreen, her mother's arm jerked just under the screen, and Sheryl's arm twitched, her face wincing.

"I'm sure they recognize Willy's wonderful qualities, just like I do," Tammy said. The ice creaked, floating in the boiling water. "Look, we need to get ready, we're meeting up with them later, and it's a long commute. Talk to you again next week, okay?"

"But… all right… say good bye to Willy and your cousin, everyone," Uncle Matthew said.

There was a disjointed chorus of words that were probably variations on 'good bye', and Willy dutifully waved at the camera with Tammy before her cousin reached towards the screen and touched th icon to disconnect. The call ended, and there were bubbles as her cousin leaned back against her and sighed, one hand over her eyes.

Willy waited patiently as Tammy continued to lie back against her, simply enjoying the warmth in the water and on her chest.

Eventually, Tammy said, "That was good, Willy." And while there were bubbles in the water, the warmth was back, with no ice. "Just… say more next time, things that you like, and not because I have some kind of opinion about it, all right?" She said this every time.

Willy nodded, as she always did, and replied as she always did. "Yes, Tammy."

Bubbles, but warmth. Tammy reached up and patted her cheek, and the warmth of her hand and the water were the same…

"Go take a bath," Tammy told her. "I'll go after you, I just need to call some people."

Willy nodded and let go of her cousin, who squirmed away from her and to one side, giving Willy room to stand up, her long, lanky frame unfolding as she stretched and headed for the bathroom. No matter how far she got, the waters were warm.

––––––––––––––––––

Commuting to Kuya Kim's was a long process, and the first leg required them to walk along the highway that passed their subdivision until they were past the congestion caused by all the emergency and military vehicles still crowding around Admiral Hills. Only once they were past did they hail a jeepney and get in. then they took another jeepney to UP Diliman, then a third to head for the street where Kuya Kim's house was. As the travelled, Tammy kept glancing upward at the increasingly more overcast sky, little clumps of cold slush marring the warm waters.

"Do you have your umbrella, Willy?" she asked at one point as they waited for a jeepney to take them on the last leg of their journey.

"Yes, Tammy," she said, reaching into her shoulder bag for the small, collapsible umbrella.

There were bubbles. "I should have brought a bigger umbrella," her cousin said, the bubbles rising from deep within.

"It's all right. It doesn't matter if I get wet," she reminded her.

The bubbles lessened somewhat. "Well, I suppose," Tammy said, glancing at the dark overcast again. "Still, I hope we get there before it starts to rain."

Willy nodded.

A jeepney arrived, and they joined the throng of people getting on, sitting together near the middle of a row. When they finally got off at an intersection near Kuya Kim's house—they still needed to cross the wide road, and they could only do that at intersections—the clouds above were dark and thick. There was a swift current in the warm waters filled with bubbles as Tammy grabbed Willy's hand, waiting for the light to change so they could cross. When it did, they hurried across, a cold wind thick with moisture blowing past them.

"We're going to make it," Tammy muttered as they walked hurriedly towards the front gate of Kuya Kim's house, just in sight. They could even see someone knocking on the pedestrian gate. From the height, it was clearly Ate Jaselle. Ate Sanny would be far taller, even if her height occasionally varied. "Oh, Jas is here! Come on, let's hurry."

Tammy pulled her along as the first cold drops of rain fell from the sky, striking Willy's cheek.

Will stopped dead as her waters were tainted, a thick, viscous, burning slime she had never felt before intruding on her warmth. Her heart beat faster against her will, her breathing became ragged, and she could feel things tensing—

"Willy?" Warmth pushed back the intrusive taint, and Willy blinked as she forced herself to focus back on her cousin. "What's wrong?"

"There's something in the rain," Willy said as she consciously calmed her breathing, even as her heart continued to beat faster. She made it stop, turning her organs to water, and her heart ceased to be. Only pure water was in its place in her chest cavity, the blood reaching it through her veins turning to water before being pushed back up to her brain as blood again. "I felt… something. I'd never felt it before."

Not up close anyway. Sometimes she would feel it coming from the other houses in their neighborhood at night or on weekends, but it was always a distant, pointless thing. The warmth was stronger, closer, more important…

More drops of rain struck her, and she winced as more tainted slime exploded across her waters. It was so intense, so distracting, as if it were happening right in front of her. the water itself roiled as it always did, but the slime was pervasive, a layer of scum over everything.

"Let's get you inside," Tammy said, raising her free had to shield her face for a moment as more raindrops struck her as well. Willy let herself sink into the warmth to push back the tainted slime as her cousin blinked repeatedly and shook her head, than reached for the umbrella she was carrying, opening the small thing. Despite her height, she tried to hold it over Willy's head. "We can—" Tammy yawned, her eyes fluttering,"—we can figure it out when… we… "

Tammy's eyes closed, and the umbrella drooped on listless fingers.

The warmth vanished.

There was only turbulence and taint as Willy stared, her instincts compelling her to move as Willy collapsed the cold wind whipped the umbrella away as more droplets of water struck her, more and more tainted slime filling the waters around her.

It wasn't important. None of it was important. The warmth was gone. The warmth was gone and something had happened to Tammy!

Frantic hands moved, pressing against her cousin's sternum, felt the chest rising as she breathed. Fingers reached for Tammy's neck for a pulse and didn't find any, moved to a wrist that was slowly becoming wetter and wetter as rain began to pour. No pulse under the wrist, moved sideways past the tendon—or was it ligament?—in line with the thumb, and found a pulse under the, feeling weak and feeble but regular and calm.

Willy sighed in relief, even as her eyes struggled to stay open. She pushed on, picking up her cousin, now seeming so small next to her giant self. Willy forced herself to move, to put one foot in front of the other and keep putting one foot in front of the other, even as an unearthly, haunting, wordless song began to fill the air, even as the turbulence in the waters began to change, and the tainted slime continued to spread—

She found herself swaying, her eyes trying to droop no matter how much she fought them, even as she felt fevered from the strange sensations of the tainted slime in the waters. It was a familiar feeling, of being on the cusp of sleep, and try as she might, she could not force herself awake, her eyes inexorably drooping shut…

The pain of her knees slamming into the sidewalk as her knees collapsed from under her was a distant, nebulous thing compared to the core of ice in her center as she realized she had dropped her cousin, dropped Tammy, and her eyes were closing, and she was being dragged downward and downward into the lightless, empty silence of sleep—

And as she sank, pulled down by gossamer bonds she could not break, by empty weights of inexorable gravity, the cowardly depths, hiding deep beneath the surface, rose…

In the border between sleeping and waking, between dreaming and thought, Willy faced the squatter who dwelled inside her, the coward that hid and did nothing else…

From it came heated strands, like piss in a swimming pool, as she sank and it rose…

Willy sank into darkness, surrounded not be warmth, but burning, boiling steam.

And she knew it was rage. Her last thought was—

Willy's eyes snapped open. Around her, the waters were silent and still and coated with endless, endless tainted slime as the rain fell on her unceasingly.

And on the edge of dream and thought, of sleeping and waking, sinking deep below and within amidst heated strands, she remembered a liberation from empty shackles.

Deep within, the dark, cold depths sank, taking her place.

Slowly, wet from the rain, Willy pushed herself up.

On the ground, her clothes soaked completely, what was left recognizable of her head turned to its side, Tammy was growing branches, wet young leaves unfurling open to the weak light of a nearby streetlamp, roots digging between cracks and into the ground.

The warmth was gone.

The warmth was gone and Willy was all alone.