Amelia, Ch 297- Lily
I took a deep breath. "You're sure about this?" I asked Lisa. She was fretting about my costume, making sure everything looked right. This was an old model of my costume, the one used, and damaged beyond repair, in New Delhi. Then refitted, with less nanoweave and more attention to emphasizing my feminine features and other cosmetics. A sort of dress armor. Although I had to admit it handled better than my combat gear, at the cost of having almost no actual features. It couldn't shunt, I couldn't channel my power for full body invulnerability, and the wings didn't have the ability to generate ammo.
"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Lisa insisted.
"It's a live interview," I reminded her. "If I fuck up, it's out there forever."
"Five second delay," she corrected. "Only to protect names if you slip up. Don't worry, Vickery hand picked this girl for your interviewer. Says she's a natural for this sort of thing, and I've looked at some of her work. She is, if anything, too soft for this. She is the perfect balance of pretty and approachable, and the only hard questions are the ones you've been prepared for. If you gave me a couple weeks I might have found better, but we need this to happen today, if possible. Just remember the right balance of humility and confidence, and it'll be perfect. You're an Endslayer three times over, you can handle a television appearance."
....
"It's great to finally meet you," my interviewer smiled. Lisa was right about the interviewer being approachably pretty. A little taller than me if I weren't in costume, some kind of mixed race that gave her a very light tan and chocolate brown hair and eyes. Very cute, not beautiful. The interview room itself was nothing unusual, a table and chairs done up what would be a cozy kitchen table look, if not for the cameras and crew pointed at us. I don't know who came up with this layout, but these days it was hard to imagine any other kind.
"Pleasure to be here, Miss Vaught," I responded. My armor's retrofit kept my mouth exposed, so they could see my smile, and the sleeker design made my body language easier to read. All at the cost of basically every feature the armor normally came with. "Sorry we couldn't do this sooner."
"Please, call me Erin," she said, smiling as she shook my hand. "I imagine things have been hectic for you, lately."
"Not as bad as it's been for a lot of others," I answered. The fact was it wasn't that bad at all for me, really. With another Endbringer destroyed, Pantheon was mostly in the 'planning' stage, and that wasn't my strength. Elle was still having trouble with her awareness, causing a delay for that as well. "Let's not forget that Leviathan caused tens of thousands of deaths, and billions of dollars in damages."
"Of course," she nodded with an appropriate solemnity. "I was told your organization has been involved with a number of charities for aiding the victims of Endbringer attacks?"
"Yes, of course," I answered. "As you can imagine, Pantheon feels pretty strongly about this. We've been there, ourselves. Losing homes, loved ones, precious mementos of our families, even our city to those monsters. Even in that, we were luckier than most, we had somewhere to go and the resources to support ourselves. Millions of others don't have that. It wasn't just homes and memories for them, it was their livelihoods and their hopes for the future. A lot of that can never be restored, but new futures can be created from the ashes. That's what these charities represent, hope for the future."
Sure, that was rehearsed, but I believed every word of it.
Erin turned toward the camera. "I would like to remind our viewers that if you wish to donate time or resources, you can log on to FEMA dot gov, or Channel twelve news dot com for further information about charities in your region. Food, clothing, and of course money will all be greatly appreciated," She turned back toward me. "I know I'll be visiting when I get home tonight." Lisa was right, she is soft.
"Thank you, Erin," I smiled broadly.
"This isn't the only humanitarian work you've done," she continued. "You've earned something of a reputation as an advocate of the GLBT cause in eastern Europe. Including quite a bit of controversy."
"My parents tell me I was a strong willed child," I chuckled. "I don't think I ever grew out of it. When I see something I know is wrong, I can't help but want to step in and fix the problem."
"Even in countries where you can be arrested for expressing pro-gay sentiments," she added.
"Especially then," I emphasized. I tapped the gay pride sticker on the shoulder of my costume. My real armor had the icon built right into it, but again with the lack of time. "As everyone already knows, my power is one of those needed to open the dimensional gateways. They might hate me for what I am, but they still need me, an openly gay woman, to save them. And, yes, I want them to be aware of that fact."
"Which brings us back to the deaths of Leviathan, the Simurgh, and Wendigo," she spoke. "You've been instrumental in the destruction of three Endbringers, most recently the destruction of Leviathan last week."
"Like I said," I smiled. "I can't not step in to help when I see an opportunity."
"And you're good at it," she agreed. "In fact, we have never before seen video footage of the death of Leviathan to show here today."
She turned her head toward the screen behind us, as the scene started to show itself. Taken from Victoria's viewpoint, it showed the water being forced back. The footage was both blurry and obviously digital enhanced. We couldn't even see Leviathan until the forcefields started going up, illuminating the area in some kind of alien light. I didn't pay much attention to the scene, being far more concerned with my own memories.
....
Leviathan was pinned by the shields. Not too different than the end of the Wendigo fight. In one small way, I almost felt bad about this. In many, many more ways I felt awesome about it. I dived through the silver spheroid, and into the heart of Leviathan. Lisa's estimates of this Endbringer's physiology was that the tail contained his core, so I struck that first, using my larger pair of wings to melt the majority of it in the first swipe, and the rest of it with the second. The lower, smaller, pair of wings simple cut through the body segments.
In the few seconds I remained inside, I watched the Endbringer go still. No movement, no regeneration. It was dead. With careful effort, I carved a large chunk out of the corpse and pulled it out, then took off, breaking through the forcefields yet again. I disintegrated the chunk in full view of the Triumvirate, and more important Victoria and her suit's camera.
The 'heart' of Leviathan destroyed for all to see.
We weren't stupid enough to showboat like that with the real core, of course. Lisa made it clear that the Endbringers were programmed weapons, with a series of restrictions in place to keep them from trying too hard.
The harder we hit, the harder they fought back as restrictions were slowly lifted so that they could use more and more of their full power, and after a point we wouldn't be able to get close enough to finish the job. The first legitimately mortal wound against Leviathan needed to be the killing blow, or the loss of California would have been the least of our problems.
That was a closely guarded secret, known only to a very select few, that we'd never seen an Endbringer actually put real effort into a fight.
....
"That's quite the scene," Erin stated after the clip ended. Less than two minutes, I realized. It felt a lot longer when it was happening. "I don't know if I would have been that brave. You really are a hero."
"It's easy to be brave when you know you can't be touched," I answered, remembering the bits of rehearsal and how I wanted to express my thoughts. "The truth is, I was lucky. It's no secret that what powers one gets are a matter of chance. I won a lottery that gave me a power capable of actually hurting the Endbringers, and because of that I am the one killing them. That, literally, could have happened to anyone."
"I'm afraid I don't know a lot about how powers work," Erin admitted.
"More than that, this was a team effort, all of them were," I added, eager to not talk about the nature of powers overmuch. Nothing happy came from that path. "Gaea, Khepri and Minerva to build the team. Yum Kaax, Tir, Hecate, Dragon and other Tinkers to build this armor." I gave the command that let my wings flex out, and then go back to resting position. I can't name Riley, she'll just have to accept 'others'. "To harness and amplify my powers enough to actually get the job done."
Erin scooted back a little, her eyes wide as she finally recognized just how deadly the armor I wore could be. She overcame it quickly enough, but the minor amount of intimidation would only be a good thing. At least, according to Lisa.
"The other Endslayers, too," I added. "Clotho and Lachesis, and again the Tinkers that built the weapons we used against Simurgh. Shaman and Rosary, for paralyzing Wendigo long enough to finish the job. Sveta and Alexandria for fighting Leviathan to a standstill in the ocean until Eidolon could clear the path I needed. Plus Khepri and Gaea, and again their Tinker tech weapons." I feel like I'm accepting an Oscar or something. Ugh.
"And," I continued. "All those heroes that have been fighting these monsters for almost the last twenty years. Compared to all the work done by all of them? Like I said, I just got lucky enough to have the right power and be in the right place to make use of it."
"Anyone ever tell you that you're a really passionate speaker?" Erin joked.
I smiled, if a little sadly. Sabah used to say that was her favorite thing about me. "It's been mentioned before," I replied. "But, all the luck aside, I'm glad to get the power I did. Maybe I won't be part of the next Endslayer team, but it feels right that I was this time. That I got to be the one to kill Leviathan."
"Why's that?" Erin asked. She had her guesses, of course. She knew at least some of what was coming today.
I reached up to my neck and undid the clasps. The Tinkers didn't have time, or interest for that matter, to automate this for what was essentially a one time use only suit. A quick push and the mask folded upward. By the time I go to bed, everyone on a hundred and twenty three worlds will know my face.
"I have my reasons."
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A/N- Lily's fun. Also, I need to start a database for very minor characters. You have no idea how long I took to dig Erin's name out of the archives.
