A Darker Path Pt 52 (Patreon)

Diplomacy, Atropos Style

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Sundancer

Marissa was grinning all over her face as she and Krouse helped a positively giddy Noelle into the shower. Atropos had left just moments ago, taking Panacea with her, but Noelle was okay now! Granted, she would need to learn how to walk all over again …

Oh.

"Oh, shit," she whispered, her happiness falling away.

"What?" asked Krouse.

"Jess. We forgot to ask Jess if …"

"Don't worry about it," Jess said, from just down the corridor. "I should've said something too, but I didn't. Anyway, it looked like they were focused on Noelle, and she's fine now, so that's a win, yeah?"

Her words were brave, but Marissa saw through them to the hurt that lay underneath. She'd felt that a time or two herself. Why do they get the prize, and not me?

"Next time we talk to her, we can ask," Oliver said firmly. "She did say to get back to her when we were ready to make a decision about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We'll just say something about it then, that's all."

"Totally." Cody put his hand on Jess' shoulder from behind. "Nobody gets left behind. Not when we're so close to getting where we want to go."

"Yeah," agreed Marissa, glad that they were all on the same page.

"Sure, we can do that." Jess tried to fake an uncaring attitude, but again Marissa saw through it. "If it's not too much trouble, just saying. I've been in this thing most of my life; it won't be the end of the world if I don't get out of it."

Marissa met Krouse's eyes, and he nodded. He was on board too, which was good.

One way or another, Jess was going to get her chance.

<><>

Taylor

Returning to the scene of the crime has always taken a certain type of bravery (or stupidity, depending on one's point of view). I'd already been to Ellisburg once, on a smash-and-grab mission; specifically, to grab some of Nilbog's DNA. The incursion had also served to demonstrate to the Goblin King that I was not someone to be fucked with.

Of course, while nobody outside the wall knew I'd already been in there, and nobody but Panacea and I knew why I'd been there, this time around my presence was semi-official. With that in mind, my first stop was the command post for the Ellisburg containment area. It was in a 'temporary' demountable building, which had been there longer than some of the newer buildings in Brockton Bay.

The guards on duty outside the command post were visibly startled when I stepped out of the portal in front of them. A rifle and a foam sprayer were lining up toward me when the guards recognised me, and just as hastily pointed the weapons away again. I had no weapons in hand, which possibly assisted in that decision.

"Hi," I said cheerfully. "I'm here on behalf of Director Piggot. Need to have a word with your commanding officer."

The one on the right reached up and rapped on the door. "Sir?" he called out. "Uh … Atropos is here to see you!"

Those were possibly six words that nobody ever wanted to hear. Or rather, a very select group of people would be okay with hearing that. Everybody else would be immediately looking over their recent past, to see what they'd done to earn my attention. I was perfectly fine with this attitude, as it made my job a lot easier.

The door opened after a moment, and an officer stepped out. He was wearing fatigues instead of the same armour as everyone else—by now, troopers were staring at me from all over the compound, though they weren't coming any closer—but I suspected his armour was really close by, just in case he had to gear up in a tearing hurry. Two steps brought him down to ground level, where he stopped and squared his shoulders.

"Good evening, ma'am," he said almost curtly. "I'm Major Holden. What do you need from us?"

I gauged this attitude to be his fallback for when he was faced with higher-ups showing up unexpectedly. He wasn't saluting because I wasn't military, but he was being respectful and prompt. I could work with that.

"This is more of a courtesy call than anything else." I gestured toward the wall in the distance. "Director Piggot has engaged my services to End Nilbog once and for all. In a minute, I'll be going in there and giving him twenty-four hours to surrender to the PRT. If he doesn't, I'll be back in twenty-four hours to kill him."

I was pretty sure I heard some under-the-breath swearing from inside the guards' helmets, but Major Holden was made of sterner stuff. "I see," he said. "You are aware that if anything goes wrong, we will not be able to send men in there to rescue you." It wasn't a question.

"Major, if you'd offered to send volunteers in with me, I would've had to turn you down." I turned my hands palm up in lieu of a visible smile. "No offense, but they just can't do what I can."

He nodded in acknowledgement. "Having seen the footage, ma'am, none taken." He didn't specify exactly what footage, but I suspected it didn't matter. "Though may I make a request, ma'am?"

"Sure, go ahead." I was pretty sure I knew what he wanted to ask, and it aligned with my aims.

"All the information we have of the interior comes from cameras and drones, but they've gotten very good at nailing anything we set up to look inside, and satellite imagery doesn't give us a great deal." He took a deep breath. "If we rigged you with a body-cam, ma'am, would you be amenable to wearing it in there? Any footage at all would give us invaluable data."

I nodded. "I can do that. I mean, in about twenty-five hours he's not actually going to be an issue, but sure." However, the footage would definitely join all the other bits and pieces that ensured nobody fucked with me or mine.

Major Holden almost smiled. "That's excellent news, ma'am. If you would please accompany me?"

<><>

Danny

It seemed that someone in the precinct was on the ball. When Danny had given them the names of John Giardini and Pat Bianchi, red flags would absolutely have popped up in the right sort of search. It wasn't that they'd ever been convicted of criminal offenses, precisely, but they each had several known associates who definitely had. Giardini and Bianchi, in short, were what was officially known in the trade as 'persons of interest'.

Bianchi had recovered first, but by that time Danny had secured their wrists behind their backs with a bunch of cable ties from his bottom drawer—he didn't keep them there for that reason, but the things were endlessly useful—and retrieved the autographed hockey stick from its place of pride in Kurt's office. Each of the men he'd put down had wisely decided not to try to break free, once they'd realised he now held an actual weapon. It seemed nobody wanted to bet on the odds that he was planning to go out later and hit a puck around.

When Danny heard the sirens, he wasn't sure how many cars had shown up, but from the flashing lights, it was more than one. With the hockey stick leaning safely against the desk beside him, he held up his hands in plain view and called out to them. No fewer than six cops came into the office and stared at the men lying on the floor, then at Danny.

"Good evening, officers," he said politely. "I'm Danny Hebert. These men just threatened and assaulted me. I want them arrested."

The first cop who'd come in through the door, a beefy sergeant, looked down at Giardini and grinned. There was definitely some recognition going on there. "I believe we can arrange that, sir."

"What the hell was that?" demanded Giardini, finally coherent enough to string a sentence together. "How in God's name did you do that?"

Danny decided to go with the literal (if misleading) truth. "I'm a Dockworker. Always have been, always will be."

<><>

Taylor

While I was waiting for the body-cam to be sorted out, I checked on my mental map of allies and threats. Amy was singing to her mushroom babies, Dad was talking to the cops, Cherie was chilling on the sofa in front of the TV, and Riley was laughing at a comedy along with Aisha, so that was all good. Valefor was planning to infiltrate Winslow on Monday, and … huh.

I was on the minds of several of the Travellers, but not in a bad way. Noelle was still thrilled to bits about being fully human again (and Francis was equally thrilled), but a couple of the others were nursing the intent to ask me to do something about Genesis' paraplegia. I'd known she needed a wheelchair, but my interest in the matter had ended there. My whole reason for showing up had been to End the problem that Noelle posed. Genesis hadn't even registered on my radar at that point.

Did that preclude me from being a good person? Possibly, but I already knew that about myself. Did I give a fuck? Not in the slightest. I had bigger issues to deal with.

Though if I wanted to, there were two separate ways I could End Genesis' problem with minimal effort. Amy was the first; she'd had already met the Travellers, and had the beginnings of a professional rapport with them, but I didn't think I'd ask her again. For one thing, I didn't want to call on her too often. And for another, I was pretty damn sure she'd cured paralysis before. I preferred to give her power interesting and unusual challenges, to keep it on its metaphorical toes and stop it from getting bored.

Bored shards, I gathered, could get very problematic very quickly, though I didn't have any first-hand knowledge of that; my power had never been bored since I got it. Something about a 'target-rich environment', or so I gathered.

My second option was (of course) Riley. She absolutely had the know-how to get Genesis back on her feet, and I strongly suspected she would jump at the chance.

If I did this, I wouldn't make it contingent on the Travellers assisting in the Brockton Bay rebuilding. That sort of thing tended to breed resentment and malicious compliance, and I had no desire to find out just how big a mess a bunch of unhappy capes could make by 'helping'. On the other hand, I'd already made the suggestion, so there was a good chance they'd volunteer anyway.

And if they opted to go back to Aleph instead, they'd be out of my hair, so that was a win-win situation all around.

With that in mind, I opened my phone up and sent off a text just as they brought me the body-cam.

<><>

Tenebrae

Seated on the weight bench in his bedroom, Brian steadily curled each weight up from full arm extension to his pec: left, right, left, right. Out in the living room, he could hear the girls enjoying a comedy, and a grin crossed his lips. It was good to see Aisha having fun that didn't involve going out and vandalising stuff; when she was around Riley, she visibly matured by a couple of years, even though she probably didn't see it herself.

A couple of reps later, he registered that the movie had shut off, and so had the girls' laughter. That was unusual enough for him to lean over and put the weights on the floor, just as Riley knocked on his open bedroom door. She looked pensive, which was unusual enough these days to get his full attention.

"Hey, sprout," he said easily. "What's up?"

"I, uh, just got a text," she said, holding out her Wards phone.

Brian frowned. That was odd, because his phone was in his pocket, and he hadn't gotten one. The procedure, as he understood it, was to keep him in the loop if she was being called out, seeing as he was her primary caregiver. "Who from, and where are you being called out to?"

"It's from Atropos, actually."

That got his attention. He stood up from the bench and took a step toward her. "What does she want?" He was fully aware that Atropos was exceedingly unlikely to intend harm toward the girl he was seeing more and more as his baby sister, but his emotional reaction didn't care about his intellectual understanding.

"Well, um, she says there's a bunch of ex-villains called the Travellers out at the city limits, and one of them's in a wheelchair because she's been a paraplegic since forever, and if I wanted to, I could go and fix her spine for her." She took a deep breath, having said that all in a rush. "Can I? I mean, helping people is what I want to do now."

Shit. Okay, how do I handle this?

Brian was certain that rushing out of the apartment to go fix someone up at any time of night or day, even if it was in response to a message from Atropos, was not a great idea. However, Riley looked ready to call a cab if he took too long to make up his mind. And healing people was a thing heroes did. We're heroes now, aren't we? Time to think like someone who does this for a living.

"I'll make a call," he said. When in doubt, kick it upstairs. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was endanger his own probationary state by taking action on his own when he had an entire chain of command to call upon.

She beamed. "Thank you! You're the best!"

"You're pretty cool too, sprout." He dug his phone out and hit the number for the Wards' duty phone.

"You've reached the Wards, Aegis speaking. Hi, Tenebrae, what's up?"

Triumph must have been off duty, Brian realised. It didn't matter; Aegis was as squared-away as they came. "Hi, yeah, Miss Medic just got a text from Atropos. Apparently there are some ex-villains, that's how she described them anyway, at the city limits. A gang called the Travellers; ever heard of them?"

"I have, yes. Just not much in the way of detail." Brian heard rapid typing. "Let's see … a teleporter, someone who can make a literal sun appear in the same room, a changer, and a blaster. That's all the hard info we've got on them. She's saying Atropos described them as being ex-villains?"

"That's what she said. The reason Atropos contacted her was that one of them is apparently wheelchair-bound, and if Riley wanted to go out there and fix her spine, she could."

"And she wants to go?"

"She's giving me puppy-dog eyes right now."

"She's definitely dedicated to helping people, I'll give her that. Okay, I do not have the authority to make a call on something like this. I'll call the Deputy Director and let you know how it turns out."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Brian ended the call and returned his attention to Riley. "Aegis is checking with the higher-ups. He'll let me know."

"Oh, cool. I like Aegis. He's nice."

He raised his eyebrows. "Be honest, you like everyone in the Wards."

"Well, yeah, that's true." She nodded judiciously. "But that's 'cause they're all nice to me. None of them are mean because I'm the youngest."

"They're good people," he agreed. "I like them too. They're giving me a chance when they really didn't have to." He'd taken the time to get to know each of his teammates, and the effort had paid off.

It wasn't like the old days with the Undersiders, but that was mainly because he didn't have to deal with wall-to-wall snark and dog hair. Sometimes he missed the camaraderie he'd felt with Lisa and Rachel … well, Lisa, and Alec … well, okay, just Lisa … but only sometimes.

Those had been wild times, and the adrenaline had definitely flowed, but he'd never been in it for the crime or even the thrill. It had been all about protecting Aisha. And now he had all he'd ever wanted, and more besides. It had just taken the intercession of Atropos, the murder of Coil, and a change of sides.

"So, do you think they'll let me go?" She looked hopefully at his phone. "I mean, it's Atropos. Why wouldn't they?"

Personally, he figured her logic was on point—he wouldn't go against Atropos' wishes if he could possibly help it—but the world unfortunately did not always run on logic. "I can't think of a reason, but that just means I might not have all the information they do."

"Or they don't have all the information you do," she retorted.

While he was still thinking of a response to that, his phone rang. He tapped the answer icon, then put it on speaker. "Tenebrae here. Miss Medic is present as well."

"Great!" Aegis said cheerfully. "You've been cleared to go. A van will be arriving shortly to act as your transport. Assault and Battery will be coming along as an escort, and to speak to the Travellers about their new status."

"And maybe recruit one or two of them?" suggested Brian, over Riley's whoop of joy.

Aegis chuckled. "That's definitely outside my pay grade, but anything's possible."

"True. Thanks a lot, and see you around." Brian ended the call and turned to Riley, intending to tell her to go suit up, but she was already out of the room.

Well, he mused as he pulled his own costume off its dummy, this should be interesting, anyway.

Any situation involving Atropos usually was.

<><>

Taylor

Body-camera affixed to my long-coat—I'd honestly expected something bulkier, but it seemed camera technology was getting more advanced by the day—I teleported into Ellisburg. This time I appeared in the open, the contents of the vial soaking into (and evaporating from) the sleeves of my long-coat. There were more of the goblinoid things, each one a different size and shape from the snaggle-toothed monstrosity I'd killed earlier.

The next thing I noticed was the strings of fairy lights hanging between the buildings; between the lights and the fantasy re-imagining of the town itself, it actually looked quite charming. Where they'd gotten the lights from, I had no idea, but then again, I didn't care either.

"Intruder!" bellowed the nearest goblinoid, pulling a rusty, serrated blade from a sheath and leaping at me. "Kill it!"

Ending it permanently would've been counterproductive, but I had other options. As the thing came at me, waving its blade menacingly, I sidestepped and drove the rear handgrip of my good friend Mr Pump Action Shotgun into his face, right between his beady little eyes. His feet flew out from under him, the blade clattered onto the cobblestones, and he landed hard on his back, out cold.

I fired the shotgun into the air, then racked the action as they hesitated. "I'm here to meet with your king!" I shouted. "I call diplomatic parley! I wish to speak in peace with him!"

They might have been psychotic little misshapen monsters, but they weren't stupid psychotic little misshapen monsters. Word of my previous incursion had evidently been spread around by Rinke, including how I'd killed two of theirs and they hadn't laid a claw on me. And now I'd knocked the one guy unconscious and demanded to see Rinke himself.

They formed a circle around me, muttering to each other, while I kept the shotgun pointed at the sky. I knew Rinke could see through their eyes, as did they; we were both waiting for the same thing. A messenger from the king.

One arrived in impressively short time. From the way it was panting, it must have run all the way. Its legs looked spindly, but I suspected it had a fair turn of speed. "Parley with the king!" it squeaked. "Parley with the king!"

"Lead on," I said. "Let's parley."

We walked through Ellisburg, or what the town had been transformed into through the imagination of Jamie Rinke. Buildings torn apart and reassembled in fairytale structures, cobblestones instead of asphalt, and over all was a brooding menace.

Well, that last bit might have been my imagination. And if I'd cared about it more, it might've actually affected me.

Goblinoids shambled, strutted and galumphed (I could've lived my whole life without ever learning what 'galumphing' looked like) on all sides, escorting me to Rinke. As close as they were, they inhaled the virus-laden fumes from my sleeves. The virus did three things: first, it lowered the aggressiveness index. Second, it went straight to whatever they used for gonads and rendered them inert and infertile. When this disease reached Rinke's spawning beasts, he was going to have a sudden lack of new blood. And third, it laid the immune system wide open to the second virus in the sequence, which I had not brought with me.

Each goblinoid inhaled the fumes, and the virus bred within them; within minutes, they were exhaling more of the spores in all directions. I knew I was breathing it in too, but that didn't matter. Not being related to Jamie Rinke, I was immune to its effects.

After a winding trek through the bucolic Goblin Kingdom, we eventually approached an open-air gathering where Rinke sat on a sagging throne, holding court. I'd put my shotgun away, knowing they wouldn't dare attack me unless their lord and master gave the order. Even if I'd had it in my hand, I still wouldn't have been tempted to blow Rinke's head off, for the very good reason that Jamie Rinke wasn't the one sitting on the throne. Instead, he was underground, linked to his bloated homunculus via an umbilical cord.

"Who approaches?" he demanded in his bizarre accent. "Who dares strike down My subjects, yet walks free?" I could literally hear him putting the capitalisations on the words.

"I am Atropos," I told him, putting all the pitch and spin on those three words that I could. My power added some of its own influence, and I saw him flinch and lean away from me. "I am Death incarnate, and I am here to give you a message."

He fumbled for his composure. "Life and death are My playthings here, in My Kingdom! You dare usurp that from me?"

"No, Goblin King, I do not." I waited until the muttering and booing and jeering had ceased. "I am not here to kill any of your subjects. But the outside world that has long since kept your borders from expanding tires of your presence. In their eyes, your Kingdom is a weeping sore upon the land."

"You insult me!" He appeared to be trying to cover his earlier discombobulation by working himself into a rage. One long arm pointed a taloned finger toward me. "You insult the Kingdom itself, my glorious, lovely Kingdom! Why do you say such things?"

"Because it's true." I was losing patience with this nutjob. "I have come to pass on a message. If you do not surrender yourself, peacefully and without treachery, to those outside by this time tomorrow, I will return … and I will kill you."

"You? Just one of you? Kill Me?" He cackled with insane laughter, which turned in an instant to rage. "Seize her! Bind her limbs! Bring her to me on her knees!"

I ducked under the first reaching arm, dodged the second, and broke the wrist of the third. Over the howls of the thing that had tried to grab me, I shouted at Rinke. "You have been warned! Twenty-four hours!"

The ground broke apart almost under my feet, and I rolled aside from the claw-tipped tentacle that emerged. There was an eye on the tentacle as well, and it swerved to jab at me. I dodged a second time, then back-flipped as the teleporter kicked in, forming the portal behind me.

The claw-tentacle slashed at me as I went through the portal; I landed on my feet, and three inches of claw landed on the ground in front of me. Bending down, I picked it up. It was razor-sharp, and had been sliced through neatly when the portal closed.

The guards outside the command post weren't as startled when I appeared this time. Approaching them, I disconnected the body-cam from my coat. "Here," I said. "The message has been delivered, and footage has been recorded."

"Uh, thank you, ma'am," the guard said, accepting the camera. "Did you want to speak to Major Holden?"

"Nah." I shook my head. "Everything's on the camera. Toodles."

With that, the short-range teleport kicked in, taking me away from the command post. I hadn't gone far with the last portal jump, so it wouldn't take long to recharge for the jump home.

I couldn't wait.

Part 53