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Mature
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Graphic Depictions Of Violence
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Gen
Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - Wildbow亜人 - 三浦追儺 & 桜井画門 | Ajin - Miura Tsuina & Sakurai Gamon (Anime & Manga)
Characters:
Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverDanny HebertBrockton Bay WardsLisa Wilbourn | Tattletale
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Canon-Typical ViolenceCanon-Typical Body Horrorshard-altered psychologytags to be added as we go
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English
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Timballisto's Curated Works
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Published:2019-05-24Updated:2020-03-11Words:99,568Chapters:29/?Comments:226Kudos:730Bookmarks:266Hits:29,370
(Restricted) The Shadow Over Brockton Bay
Temeritous
Chapter 13: Lich 2.7
Chapter Text
Coryn and I hovered above the PRT van for probably too long, taking a few seconds for me to breath the chilly night air, clear my head, and push down the nausea threatening to bring up my dinner. Coryn flew up higher and paused, breaking my neck to heal my skinned limbs.
Focus on the goal. What do I want, and what do I need to do to get it?
The short time before my resurrection was a few moments of clear thought, and then I landed back in my body.
I want my fucking father back.
I shoved the anger away again. Unhelpful, since anger wouldn't magically make him appear.
I needed more information first. Dennis had tipped me off, but his message had been necessarily blunt and brief.
We flew up away, hopefully out of range of cameras or witnesses, toward my house. We didn't have to get close, but I needed to see it for myself.
I slowed down as my house entered the edge of my range, confirming what my sensors had been seeing for the last few minutes: the red and blue lights of police cars framing the ends of my street, the dully threatening orange glow of the PRT's emergency vehicle lights right in front of my house. The entire yard was lit up with portable floodlights, cordoned off with crime scene tape.
One of the vans had driven over a corner of the neighbor's landscaping, and I had the inane thought Mister Charles is gonna have a fit .
I shook off the stupor and got to work. Sensors into and around my house, while Coryn set me down two streets away in a vacant lot where I'd once buried a few severed fingers and some teeth. More sensors started searching through the houses around me. Coryn crouched down beside me and together we waited.
My house was open, the front door torn and left hanging on its hinges. The front step, always a risky gamble, was broken through - a petty part of me hoped that whoever broke it had sprained their ankle. I feared that the inside would be like the set of a horror movie, but instead it was almost pristine. Past the entry, they hadn't encountered any resistance.
The kitchen table was off-center, our three chairs askew and one laying on its side. On the kitchen wall, someone had left a message written in thick black marker.
TRADE, followed by a phone number I didn't recognize and a twelve-hour time limit. Eight in the morning.
I patted myself down, looking for something to write with, and came up holding my Ward-issued phone.
"Shit," I whispered, holding it up. I handed it over to Coryn, who flew it over to my house and dropped it on the roof where it slid into the rain gutter. Meanwhile my sensors in the nearby houses had borne fruit: someone was on vacation, leaving an empty house and an unattended computer.
When Coryn got back from her errand, I sent her into the house while I moved deeper into the overgrown bushes in the vacant lot. If they were tracking my phone, and I was sure they were, they'd probably check the place where it had paused for several minutes. I didn't want to move into an occupied lot and get caught by some nosy neighbors, either.
Coryn pressed one blunted claw to the power button on a desktop computer, beginning its startup with a whir of fans. I scattered more sensors around myself, watching the PRT troopers by my house for a tell-tale burst of activity.
Just as Coryn confirmed that there was no password, the troopers started to mobilize.
My time in this area was up, but the empty house was a street away - on the opposite side of my range from my house. I moved toward her and let my house fall out of range.
Except it didn't. My control was reaching farther than it ever had before, across three full blocks.
Not important. Coryn's arms reformed into normal human limbs tipped with dexterous fingers, and she began typing into a search bar.
The links on PHO were getting taken down within ten minutes of posting, but that just made people post them more. All of it led back to a simple webpage, something I could have worked up in HTML in minutes, a dark grey background with white text. At the top of it was my face.
They'd pulled the picture from my recent student photo at Arcadia. My hair fell down over my shoulders and around my face, pulled back behind one ear. I'd had to take off my glasses because of the flash on the lenses, and my eyes looked small and tired, red spots on either side of my nose. I hadn't smiled.
Next to it was a picture of Coryn and me in costume, on the stage at Glade park. Side-by-side there was little denying that both images had the same hair, the same jawline.
The reason for all of this uproar, the reason for why everybody and their grandmother was sharing this page, was in the text below.
Pictured above is the Ward Lazarus and the minion she calls Coryn. We were told that Coryn was a simple Alexandria package minion, capable of flight and super-strength, but they didn't tell us that the minion is invisible when she chooses.
This information must be spread for the safety of our city, to neutralize a threat the Protectorate and PRT are holding over our all of our heads. You may have heard of the recent capture of several Empire capes, but you have been lied to about how it happened.
The PRT told you that they were captured during a battle in the mountains outside outside Brockton Bay, but that is a lie, a cover-up for what really happened. They were taken at night, from their beds, by strike teams armed with deadly weaponry. The Empire capes resisted, and that's how Cricket was killed. There was no battle, what reason would the Empire have to be in the mountains? What were they fighting over? It was an unprovoked, unprompted attack… made possible by Lazarus.
I realized that I had stopped in my tracks in the middle of the sidewalk, and started walking again mechanically. Almost to the empty house.
With her invisible minion, she followed the Empire to their homes and their families, gathering this information for her masters. As soon as they got the chance, the PRT and Protectorate leapt at the opportunity to circumvent the law. While Lazarus is allowed to walk around unrestricted, no one who wears a mask can be sure their identity is safe, not rogues or vigilantes or even the heroes.
This information is being provided to you now as a warning, to neuter her threat, and to return the favor. Lazarus' civilian name is Taylor Hebert, daughter of Daniel Hebert...
Coryn put her claws through the computer tower and the screen went dark, the fans falling silent. I jumped, realizing suddenly that I'd stopped again. I had been staring at the front of the house Coryn was in, and a red haze had drifted over me. It felt good , but I cleared it away. Not yet. Not until I could use it.
The site was anonymous and, I was sure, untraceable. He wouldn't be so careless, even with as desperate a move as this. Maybe he'd fool some people, or throw just enough doubt to wriggle out of the consequences, but anyone with half a brain knew.
It was Kaiser, and I was going to make him regret this.
My finger hovered over the call button on the flip phone. The tiny number in the upper right corner told me that I had ten hours left.
I had just bought it prepaid from the disinterested clerk behind the counter of the gas station, trying to keep my head down the whole time. I probably didn't need to bother; his eyes had the glazed-over look of the perpetually stoned.
Coryn was perched at the top of the alley, staring down its length. I had other sensors watching every approach, but you couldn't be too careful. There were a lot of people looking for me right now.
I had the Empire's number typed into the phone, but I already knew I wasn't going to press it.
Piggot's stupid assignment danced in front of my mind's eye, a list of fates worse than death. It had been simple when it was abstract. Over half the things I'd listed had come with ideas for how to escape, which I hadn't written down because I knew that wasn't what she cared about. With enough time, I was sure, I could get out of anything. Pain is temporary, death is temporary. They didn't know enough about me or my powers to keep me forever.
But they had my dad . I couldn't afford to fuck up. He didn't get infinite chances.
I had the other Wards' numbers memorized, an old habit from when I only had a home phone to make calls from. Before I could talk myself out of it, I had punched in Dennis' personal phone number - not his Ward phone.
The call rang once and went immediately to voicemail. I had pushed away the hurt and started typing in Missy's number when the text came through.
Who is this
Of course. Everybody prefers texting. I should have sprung for the smartphone, typing on this was annoying.
Lazarus , I answered, and then regretted it. Should I have been more circumspect? I should at least have called myself Taylor - this was his civilian phone.
Unmasking me had put the others at risk, I realized suddenly. They were my only friends at school, we'd gone out together. One more sin to add to the list Kaiser was racking up.
Safe?
4 now. I need ur help
What do you need
What I needed was my team. I needed backup, someone to pull my dad out after I turned myself over. I needed more information, and more firepower, and as always, more Dust.
Could I ask him for that, though?
Could I ask any of them?
If I came in rn, what wld they do w me?
The response wasn't immediate. I put the phone in the pocket of the hoodie I'd stolen from the empty house, and started walking. Eventually, it buzzed.
Lock u up. There looking for ur dad & the E88, no luck
Armsy is PISSED
I wondered if I could get a location from the Empire and arrange for the Protectorate heroes to meet me there. But the Empire would be expecting something like that, and they'd either kill my dad or he wouldn't even be there.
at me or who
Cant tell. He wont talk to ms piggy, MM is go-btw. What do u need?
I found myself smiling, remembering his stupid Miss Piggy reference. Then I remembered why I shouldn't be happy, and it wiped all good humor away.
Nvm. Thanks. Dont tell them, pls
The PRT and Piggot especially would never forgive me, or trust me again. I couldn't drag the others down too.
I closed the phone and put it back in my pocket, next to the mask. It was ten at night, the streets entirely cleared out. I needed to find someplace to settle down, because there was no good reason for a person to be walking around this late, especially not someone my age.
I was supposed to have school in the morning.
I went back to the empty house I'd raided for clothes and computer access, Coryn carrying me most of the distance. When we landed in the fenced backyard I stumbled, exhaustion hitting me hard. I pushed my glasses up and scrubbed at my eyes.
Coryn came up behind me, her claws sharpened. I stabbed deep at the base of my skull, severing the brain stem instantly and almost painlessly. Coryn caught my body before it hit the grass, holding me for the few seconds it took to come back from so little damage. I gathered excess Dust, swirling it into my aura, and stood up on my own feet feeling refreshed.
I had been letting the despair and inaction get to me, and I couldn't afford the time to wallow. I had made mistakes, Cricket the latest of them. The investigation into her death had been short and easy: she broke her neck in her panic, throwing herself off a mountain to get away from me. It was her own fault, her own reaction that caused it, and I'd been acting in self-defense.
I didn't feel guilty; she was a bad person, a murderer who would probably have had a Birdcage sentence in her future. I was sorry, however, that my actions had had a such a permanent consequence - one I hadn't intended and wouldn't have chosen. When I'd heard her death pronounced, I'd resolved to be more careful in the future. I could have used my Dust to bind her legs, stop her from running away.
The Empire didn't deserve my caution.
"I'll kill them if I have to," I said to Coryn - myself, really. "I never wanted to hurt anyone who didn't hurt me first… but this is enough. It ends here."
And suddenly, my next step laid clear before me.
I'd kept the email from Tattletale.
At first because it was evidence, and later because… well. It seemed like a good thing to have. My bullies had taught me to never say a thing that could be used against me, and that seemed to go hand-in-hand with hoarding anything that might come in useful later on.
I stared, mouth twisted to one side, at the wrecked desktop computer. I glanced at Coryn. "Probably shouldn't have lost my temper, huh?"
I found an older model laptop in a closet upstairs, stowed away with its charger and a stack of computer keyboards. I took it down and cracked it open on the dining room table, plugging it into a nearby outlet. I drummed my fingers on the table while I waited for it to get a charge and boot up.
Thank god for people who don't password protect their stuff. The old thing ran slow compared to the desktop, but it was about the same speed as my computer at home. I jacked in the ethernet cable from the desktop - apparently these vacationers had disabled their wifi - and logged into my email account.
I sent the email to the only address I had for her, hoping it wasn't a temporary account. The subject line said I want to talk to you ; the body was blank.
What is the etiquette for asking for help from a villain? I wondered.
I was afraid that I'd have to wait for hours or longer, and I set a time limit that if I didn't have an answer within two hours I'd have to figure something else out. Instead, her reply came through only a few minutes later.
Phone, or meet in person?
Fuck. I should have thought ahead.
Phone.
I followed it up with my new number and hit send. I pulled the flip phone out of my pocket, put it on the table and waited, staring at it. The clock on its face reminded me that I had nine hours to call the Empire.
The tiny screen on the front lit up a fraction of a second before it started ringing. I snatched it up and put to my ear, then stopped with my mouth open.
"I'll help," Tattletale said. "No cost, no favor needed."
A moment ago I couldn't think of a single word, and now I had too many of them crowding for space. Why? Why would you help me? What kind of trap is this?
"How do you know?" I asked instead. How could she possibly know what they'd done? Was she a part of it?
"I hack the PRT pretty regularly, to keep informed about what's going on. You kicked over an anthill breaking out like that, it sent up every flag I have in their system."
"Why would you help me for no cost, though? I would… I would have owed you." I pay the debts I agree to.
"They broke the rules," she explained. "I already told you, that's bad news for everyone . They might be able to fool or confuse the general public, but they can't fool me ." She sounded affronted at the thought that they would even try. I was reminded of the superior attitude I'd gotten off her before.
Enough negotiating, I was on a time limit. I took a deep breath. "I need information. You seem like the person to go to."
"Oh, hon," I bristled at the condescension. "You need more than just information, but that is all I can help you with. Unless you're looking for a more permanent arrangement?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you're looking for a new team we've got an opening here. You agree to join, you'll get the whole package - and remember, we're escape artists. We can hit the Empire, get your dad, and run before they sort their ducks from their geese."
"...That is the weirdest expression I've ever heard," I said, for lack of anything better while my mind whirled. I didn't need a new team, I had one.
I had a team that probably wouldn't be allowed to take me back.
"Something my mom used to say. You're thinking about the Wards right now, wondering if you'll be able to rejoin them after all of this."
I pushed away the feeling that was putting a lump in my throat. "Thought you weren't psychic."
"It's not a hard guess to make. Want me to guess what happens to you?"
"I can't trust anything you say, you'll lie to get me to join your team. I'm not a villain, you know. I don't hurt people."
"Good, neither do we," she was grinning, I could tell. "At least, we try not to. I'll tell you anyway.
"Say everything goes well. You go to the Empire, you get your dad back and get away clean. Then you take him to the PRT, the only people who you trust to protect him. Lazarus… Taylor. How many of the Empire would you kill to get your dad back? How many would you maim? Who will see it happen? Who gets away? How many cameras saw you in action? Everybody knows your name, your face. After this, they'll know your powers and how utterly terrifying it is to have a Master cape who can't die. You know that, right? In your training, what was the protocol for a Master rating above five?"
"I think that's classified," I said mechanically, my mouth almost too dry to talk.
"The protocol is to focus on the Master first. Take out the Master and the minions fall, but they can't do that to you... I got off track a little but my point is, they can't afford to take you back. They'll lean on your goodwill and your father, and they'll send you someplace far away. A Simurgh containment zone, maybe. Depending on what you do to the Empire to get your dad back, maybe they'll even try to put you in prison. I doubt they'll swing for the Birdcage - that would be a hard sell. But you'll never be a Ward again, Lazarus. They can't afford to take you back."
I stood up and started pacing about halfway through her lecture. My free hand was finger-combing my hair, pulling it back from my face as I asked, "What if I went back right now?"
Her tone, which had been confident and passionate, dropped down to almost… gentle. Like someone explaining to a child. I couldn't even find it in myself to take offense anymore. "They'll take you back now, of course. You haven't really done anything yet… aside from a little B and E, and they'll cover that up."
I didn't ask how she knew I'd broken into a house to use their computer; the answer would inevitably be I guessed . She continued, "They'll probably even trust you again someday soon; after all, you did eventually come to your senses and come back to them. But, Taylor… do you think they'll be able to get your dad back? Knowing what you know about the PRT and their image obsession, how much red tape they tie around everyone's hands, do you think they're willing to go far enough?"
No , I thought. To Tattletale I snapped, "You seem to know so much, you tell me."
"You already know. It doesn't matter what I think, only what you do. It's your decision. What do you want , Taylor?"
It was the same thing I'd been saying to myself since Clockblocker's message. Focus on the goal. What do I need to do to get there, and where do I draw the line?
I took a deep breath, one that felt like it reached all the way down to my stomach, and let it out slowly. My heart beat in my chest, pushing Dust and blood through my body. Coryn came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck, her wings over my shoulders like a cloak, her head resting on top of mine.
Tattletale was silent, giving me time to think.
It always comes down to me asking myself what can I live with? Because I know I'm going to have to.
I put the phone back up to my ear. "Your help, not your team. I might not be able to be a Ward again, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be a villain. Meet me at the Dunkin' Donuts on Lord Street as soon as you can."
"Take me about half an hour," she replied. "Your dad's alive right now, Taylor, I can just about promise you that. Kaiser would have to be stupid to kill him, and this game he's playing is reckless and desperate , but he's not stupid."
My fury roared up again, and again I shoved it away; it wasn't useful right now. Not until I faced Kaiser again.
"After tonight," I said, my tone even and unchanging, "He won't be anything."
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