[X] You feel Scion's fingers around Victoria's throat. He hasn't sent his blasts from them. You could part your suit. It can't possibly work, taking control of his biology. That might be a much worse idea than wrapping Victoria around you as a shield.
Phantasos did it, you remember. His powers could only kill the living flesh.
Scion could only win, unless he chose to do something stupid. But he is crazy, full of grief. You extend your power into him. His body is terribly, bizarrely human.
You tell it to go to sleep, and he does. You keep touching him, reinforcing that, as he collapses. You don't let it break for a second, as you feel his healing. Victoria looks at you with a sense of wonder and relief.
There's a long pause as you look around the empty, destroyed room. The floor is gone. Victoria carries you down several stories to a hard stone ground. You sit there in the dirt, keeping your hands on Scion.
"So, that worked." Victoria mutters, disbelieving. "Fuck. Just, fuck."
"He deviated." A voice you don't recognize says from behind you. "He could see the paths to victory and avoid the ones that led to his destruction. He chose death, chose to hurt Victoria the most." Victoria is looking scared.
"He failed." You laugh. "We just won."
"No, we didn't." Victoria's voice cracks. "You can't let go. The moment you do, he'll recover."
"So we kill him." You frown. "We have ways. It has to be much easier, now."
"No one can kill him." The strange voice says. "Can't be done. If Victoria had her second trigger event, she would have gained the power to destroy him. Now, Flechette is dead and no one can use the Brain Box to restore her with Cranial in a coma. The magic bullet of the glass bomb would consume you before you left." You chuckle.
"So what, I die here?" You say. This feels ridiculous. Scion is
down. There have to be ways to get around this. Doormaker, Shadow Stalker, Siberian.
"Is Sophie okay?" Victoria asks suddenly. "Madison, the Doctor, Dispatch?"
"They're fine." The voice answers. "Mostly. Sophia is in critical condition in a suspended animation tank. Madison Secunda is severely injured, and Prima refuses to leave her side. The rest of them are alright."
"Who the
fuck is this bullshiter?" You ask.
"The Morrígan." Victoria answers, and she sounds very tired.
"The Simurgh clone?" You sigh. "Yeah, that was always a bad idea."
"So, the plan was to get me to second trigger next to Scion, so I'd get a weapon that would kill him?" Victoria laughs and chokes. "Drive me even crazier for a win?"
"It would have been preferable to losing Amy through your death or her own." The voice says, smooth and annoying.
"So, I die?" You think for a moment. You've faced death before. Usually it's a hot, violent thing. Coil, Noelle, you've probably forgotten some of the times you could have actually died. This feels different.
"So, the plan is I hold him for as long as I can while we figure out something that could really fuck with him?" You sigh. "Or just give people time to run."
"That is the plan we have to move to, though the plan was for Victoria to second trigger. That is why you were instructed not to attempt to fix the situation." You sigh deeply.
"Nothing much can even hold him still. Boosted Victoria, I think some members of the Yangban, or was it the Thanda? I guess something that can shut him down for this long is a big win." It all seems to huge, and you feel so tired. Can you even use your powers if you sleep? You've never tried. Maybe Teacher could show you how, but Teacher and Cranial are dead, right? You can barely think.
"This feels like a really good time for a second trigger." Victoria moans. "Why did you have to bring up the idea?"
"You would have thought of it anyway." Morrígan tells you.
"So, what, that's
it? Amy dies and there's nothing I can do about it? Tell me what to do!" Victoria shouts.
"We are thinking of having Best Girl work on Amy's brain and prepare a system to keep her active and holding Scion until a superior solution can be found." The Morrígan explains. "Worst case, keeping Scion in suspended animation indefinitely would be a victory."
"So I just waste away, watching her tomb for however long it takes for us to find a better idea?" Victoria asks. She sounds heartbroken.
"You could join the spare Panacea. She survived, and your duplicate did not. You will be strangers to each other, but she needs a sister, as would you." Victoria
howls and the pain hits your heart.
"Give. Me. Another. Choice." Victoria hisses.
"I can formulate two." Morrígan answers. "Amy could remove your short term memory, and I could arrange a second trigger event from this material. It would wound you, Victoria. You would be wounded in ways you cannot imagine."
"She's
my Amy. She's my sister, my fiance, my hero, my lover, the best thing that ever happened to me even if she's a rapist sadist who cheats on me." Victoria giggles madly. "Of course I'll go crazy for her."
"You aren't understanding how bad this would be. The trauma would be pressed into your essence, your very core. You suffer a lot. Each time cuts a piece out of you, but you can heal. This would be a wound you could never heal. Your mission in life is being a hero, saving the world, and keeping Amy sane. You will
not make Amy sane. Your worst self will be exposed, Victoria. Imagine your worst day, the cruelest you can be, the stupidest, and imagine that every day, a march of years. You would hurt Amy, and make her a monster. You would be Queens Regent and Consort of a realm, and that realm would be terrible. Amy is a mad woman. Imagine if she had nothing to hold her back, imagine if she seemed sane to you. The city you would build, the force that might inherit the Earth, the Natural Order of Man, would be a nightmare. I
promise it would."
"You're insulting my future wife." Victoria hisses. "Besides, Narwhal's not nuts. The fox faced cunt wouldn't be if Amy didn't fuck her up."
"Oh, it is not the madness it is the problem. It is that Amy loves you, respects you, trusts you. It is your aura and your passion of being her sister and mother and lover. You will be mad, and listen only to mad people. Can you truly imagine anything good coming from two powers so great feeding on each other?"
"I don't want to hurt you." You tell Victoria, shifting the conversation. "I can't do something that fucking
bad to you." Victoria laughs. "Hold on tight."
"What?" You ask, and Victoria lifts your remaining hand to her face, and breaks your little finger.
"OW!" You shriek. You're lucky to keep a hold on Scion, who you have exposed legs wrapped around for the sake of comfort. Actually, you aren't. The genius precog would have stopped it if it was a risk.
"Amy, Amy, Amy. I have fucked you up more than I can imagine. I drove you to two trigger events, broke your hand, dislocated your hip, tormented you every time we touched for years. I can take it for you." Then Victoria kisses your finger to make it all better, and it works. The aura and Scion make it hard to really care about the pain.
"She does break your finger for effect." Baby Simurgh says. "Though considering this is
before her second trigger, you might want to avoid increasing just how crazy she is.
"This is important, and she's had a rough day." You point out. "She did have people she knew crushed to death right in front of her. Almost including me." Victoria is
good at sucking a broken little finger so it feels better. Your suit rushes to make sure you're not in pain already.
"The third option would be to get it over with." The Morrígan says. "If you want it, you could just have portals arrange the death of Scion using the glass weapon on an uninhabited world."
"Why would that be a good idea?" Victoria asks, tragically moving her mouth away from finger sucking.
"If Amy and Scion go into suspended animation, he could be broken out of it. The world will be at risk for as long as this lasts. Simply taking care of the situation now, for the price of a Panacea, would be efficient, if you take that into your calculus." Morrígan explains.
"Cunt has a point." Victoria mutters. "Not that I want you dead. I want you happy and cuddly and healthy." She kisses you.
"Then why'd you break the damn finger." You roll your eyes.
"As you said, hard day. I needed something to cheer me up." Victoria laughs. "Um, cut me
some slack. I've almost died, like, ten times since the rampage started. Don't ask me to think too clearly." She licks your cheek for some reason.
"Besides the obvious 'fuck you cunt' is there anything else?" You ask the woman behind you.
"Once again, it comes down to choice. As it is your life, and you have given the world so much, including me and my brothers life, I give you this choice. Is it better to die to ensure the world's safety, rest and pray for a better tomorrow, or engage in a ruthless crime that ruins the person you love the most to save the world."
"Let me go crazy." Victoria whispers. "After all, I drive you crazy. Return the favor." Her breath is suggestive.
She's
insane. You realize that with a horribly clarity. She is crazy right now, in no condition to make this choice. You probably shouldn't make it either.
Your best chance of an ending with Victoria is carving out a piece of her, impressing
this state on her for the rest of her life. What could be crueler?
Well, breaking her down so completely, and then taking yourself away from her would give it a run for its money.
You want Cranial. You desperately miss your voice of reason. You miss Sophie Hess, your girlfriend, a bully and a bitch who needs you. You miss Madison, maybe the best friend you ever made.
You miss Carol. You need your mother.
"Do you want to talk to anyone?" You ask Victoria. She pauses.
"It's your decision." The words seem to break her. "Just, please don't bring in anyone for advice, okay? I'm your big sister. Just, I can't let someone else be your fucking
top." It's a crazy answer, but it makes you feel warm inside.
"Do you want to decide?" You ask. Victoria is silent for a moment.
"You know my answer, but I can't order this. I can't force you to hurt me. It's your decision." Victoria looks grief stricken at giving up the power to decide.
If Victoria has a second trigger, will she ever willingly give up that kind of choice? You might live exactly like she wants. See who she wants, go to the bathroom when she wants, eat what she wants you to eat. The play is fun, but if it gets so serious...
"There's no words left for how much you are." You tell Victoria. "You're the romance that gave my life meaning."
"How does it end?" Victoria asks.
[X] "You kill Scion." You decide. You can be crazy together.
[X] "Let's hold out hope for a miracle." You tell her. Time to call Best Girl.
[X] "Get yourself a real girlfriend." You sigh. The world is more important than your happy ending. Time to arrange Scion's death, and your own.
