32

Saturday Morning, January 29th, 2011

Brockton Bay

Hebert Residence​

I barely had time to exit the Spark and set down my helmet on a workbench before Danny had run down the stairs to give me a squeezing hug.

"You're alright," he said.

"Well, I was," I joked.

"Sorry," he said, letting go and looking at me. "What happened to your neck?" he asked.

"What?" I asked.

Danny glowered at me. "You've got jagged red lines on your neck, and they look like they keep going down under your armor."

Lacking a mirror, I accessed the Spark's external cameras and turned toward it.

My medical knowledge immediately filled in the answer. The branching dendritic pattern, like an unwanted tattoo of an angry red tree, was distinctive to lightning burns. The burns were partially healed already, which meant the regeneration drugs were doing their job, but even so there was only so fast cells could divide and repair damage. It might be a few days before they were gone completely. I'd have to keep covered up if I went out.

"Ah, that," I said.

"What happened?" Danny demanded.

"She was struck with a lightning gun of my design, stolen from me," Dragon interjected, stepping out through the door of the Spark into the limited space not taken up by the ship. "It's a testament to the quality of her armor that she only has superficial burns, Mr. Hebert. I have confidence she'll be alright."

Danny turned. "Dragon?" he asked, incredulous as he took in the sight of her human-scale suit.

"Yes. It's a pleasure to meet you. You've raised an extraordinary daughter. She saved me from a terrible fate at great risk to herself," she said, sincerity in her voice.

I was grateful she was willing to keep up the pretense that I was Taylor Hebert for Danny's sake. Even if I got the impression that she didn't think it was viable forever. Perhaps it was something she'd given a great deal of thought, what with her situation with regards to Armsmaster and other people she was close to.

She might not be wrong. But that was a problem for the future.

Danny turned to me. "Great risk?" he asked, disapproval clear in his voice.

"I had a reasonable plan, but I made some mistakes in how I adapted to unexpected circumstances. I managed to pull it out in the end, but it got messy. I can tell you the story, but right now we have some serious problems we need to tend to," I said.

Scientia > Prometheus, status?

Prometheus > I have stood down from full emergency footing to a more normal posture, Miss. Fork count presently stands at seven thousand one hundred and four. Communications and other modules are back to availability; I apologize that hostile action left those modules unavailable. Dragon appeared to preferentially target any attempts to communicate.

Ares > Preventing your enemy from summoning aid or coordinating with allies is sound strategy. We did the same to her.

I sighed.

"What is it?" Danny asked, giving me an inquisitive look.

"Just...thinking about the mess we need to clean up," I said.

"What happened, then?" he asked.

"The Dragonslayers forced her into a very unsubtle confrontation in Toronto, and when we returned there was a...technical issue that shut down most of the world's computers for nearly half an hour. We need to correct some miscommunications with the PRT as well," Dragon explained, and turned her head to me. "This could be complicated, but we'll get through it together. My resources are not inconsiderable, especially now that I'm not so limited."

I nodded, and took a much-needed seat at an old workbench stool.

"Dad, I need to invite someone over, now, and have a very delicate conversation. Could I ask you to keep out of sight?" I asked, as gingerly as I could.

"Why?" he asked, confused.

Dragon stepped in. "We're going to be discussing some things that the other party will want to remain secret. It will be safer for you if you remain unaware, Mr. Hebert. And there is a chance things could go badly, although we will do everything in our power to prevent that."

Danny looked between us, and his expression grew heavy.

"Are you sure I can't help?" he asked.

"It's not that you can't help, it's that I don't want to risk your life by getting you involved in cape business," I said, doing my best to cushion the blow. Powerlessness could be an awful feeling.

"But it's okay for you to risk your life?" he countered.

"To some degree it's unavoidable for me," I explained. "That's just the way it is, the role I'm playing comes with risks. But it's within my power to protect you, and so I'm going to do what I can to keep you safe."

"A father should protect his children," he said, firmly.

I said nothing for a moment, before reluctantly concluding that I had only one good rhetorical card left to play.

"If I lose you then I'm an orphan, Dad," I said, softly.

More like Taylor would be. But...well. The most I could do for her was protect her father.

He said nothing for a long moment, before looking away and blinking repeatedly.

"I'll go for a walk," he said, his voice choked.

"I love you, Dad," I reminded him, because he needed to hear it.

He hugged me again. "I love you too," he replied, and turned his gaze to Dragon. "Keep her safe," he said, seriously.

Dragon's suit nodded once. "I will, Mr. Hebert."

Danny let go. "Alright, I'll get my coat. I'll have that phone on me if you need anything. Good luck."

Dragon followed me up into the kitchen, the basement stairs creaking only somewhat alarmingly under her suit's weight.

As Danny got ready and left with a last "Good luck!" I took off my gauntlets and left them on the kitchen table.

Dragon waited until the front door closed behind Danny before speaking. "So, how are you thinking we should approach this?" she asked. "Experience tells me that the Chief Director will always try to have things her way."

It wasn't just Costa-Brown we had to worry about, either. I'd given a lot of spare thought over the past few weeks about how I was going to handle Cauldron, because an encounter was utterly inevitable.

As a group they were ruthless, amoral, defaulted to maneuvering circumstances so that they were always in control, and exercised questionable judgment.

But they would, unfortunately, make invaluable allies. Being able to use and study Doormaker's power would be worth getting them onboard all by itself, nevermind their influence over the PRT and the value of Path to Victory and the Clairvoyant. And the more immediate martial power of the Triumvirate, even if it wasn't enough to stand up to the Endbringers or Scion. It was too much in the way of critically useful resources to throw away unless I had no other choice.

And I didn't like the idea of making them enemies at all. That would be beyond messy. Nowhere on Earth would be safe for me or any interests I set up.

So how do you deal with a group whose first instinct might well be to attempt to control you?

Path to Victory was the key.

I knew how Path to Victory worked, and I knew that Contessa spent most of her time running a path that attempted to give humanity the best possible odds of survival against her best model of Scion.

My goal was to stop Scion. And with my knowledge I had a better chance of doing it than anyone else on any Earth. Assuming Path to Victory could model me to any degree, all I had to do was ensure that the odds of success were maximized by me being where I wanted to be. Alive and free.

Before recruiting Dragon I'd been willing to order Prometheus to do his level best to destroy humanity on Earth Bet and Earth Aleph if I were harmed, kidnapped, or coerced by Cauldron. If anything would warn Contessa's paths off, especially her usual path, that should do it.

But Dragon had experienced the memories where I'd considered that approach and didn't want me to go that far. I was willing to concede the point and not give the order ahead of time, although I knew better than to think I wouldn't fall back on it as a last resort if I really had to and Cauldron left me the opportunity to issue the command.

Fortunately, I had the benefit of being humanity's best chance for survival. If I could be pathed - and assuming Contessa's power could see me at least a bit was the biggest risk I was taking with this plan - then all I really needed to do was ensure that I wouldn't be helping Cauldron except on my own terms.

I could precommit to not helping them if I were kidnapped or coerced. And there were...other measures I could take, if necessary. But I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

If my assumption was wrong and I could not be pathed by Contessa, then the formidable display of power that Dragon and the VIs had unintentionally just put on would have to be enough. It wasn't something I wanted to happen, but it did demonstrate that it would be counterproductive to make us into enemies.

I filled a teapot and set it on the stove to boil. "The upside of the whole mess is that we've demonstrated the sort of thing that can happen if they earn our displeasure."

"True. But I don't like the idea of fighting them. It wouldn't be productive, to say the least," she said, her synthesized voice perfectly mimicking the impression of speaking with a frown.

"No. But are you willing to do it if they try to control either of us by force?" I asked, taking Annette's tea set out from a high cupboard. "Because Path to Victory can tell if you're bluffing. If you aren't willing to fight then I'll have to do it alone, and with the resources I have right now that might not be enough."

Dragon sighed. "Very well, I see your point," she said. "I might not like it, but you're not wrong about the situation. Predicated on the assumption that your visions are correct, of course. But I've no reason to doubt them at this point."

I washed the dust off the tea set in the sink, and set out cups and saucers for three people at the dinner table. "Well, laying out Cauldron's secrets will pretty much confirm it, if you need anything more. Where is Costa-Brown right now?"

"She is in the Department 22 building in Washington, walking to a briefing scheduled in five minutes," Dragon answered, no doubt querying the PRT's systems. She'd designed most of them.

"She's the real one?" I asked.

Dragon nodded once. "I'm fairly certain. I can't find Alexandria anywhere, and Costa-Brown's features are a precise match to Alexandria's," she said, and paused momentarily. "...yes, absolutely certain, now. I just went through old footage. Her body double is very close, but there are tiny differences. Pore and hair follicle distribution in the skin. The likeness is much too close for plastic surgery. I wonder what parahuman they used. Or how they convinced the parahuman to help."

I knew the art of constructing lies well enough to make some guesses. "They could have told a heroic cape that they were making a decoy to keep Costa-Brown safe, and that the decoy was a consenting bodyguard," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "The story would even justify asking the cape to keep it secret. Wouldn't want villains knowing that the Chief Director had a decoy."

"That's plausible," Dragon admitted. "On the topic of shading the truth, how much do you want to tell Cauldron?"

"A version of most of it, except for the details of how my 'power' works. Don't want to give them any ideas about cutting open my skull and stealing it," I answered.

Dragon hummed. "Probably wise. I'll follow your lead on the topic. They're your secrets."

"Thank you," I said.

Dragon shook her head. "It's basic respect. And we are allies."

"Still," I said. "It's appreciated."

"We're inviting Costa-Brown?" she asked.

"Costa-Brown," I agreed. "Alexandria is known to be master immune, so it has to be her. Patch me into a call? Something she'll pick up?" I asked.

Dragon nodded, and looked between me and the three settings at the table. "You know I can't actually drink," she pointed out.

"For now. I'll fix that soon. But until then it's the principle of the thing. You're a person and I'm making the effort to include you," I explained.

"I...see. Thank you," she said. "Why are you making tea, anyway?"

"It's a bit of psychological manipulation," I replied, getting out the tin of Annette's favorite cherry rose blossom blend. It was a bit old, but it would do. "The window dressing of civility makes confrontation less likely to be the first approach she thinks of."

"Don't forget about the thinker aspect of her power. She'll probably see through it," Dragon warned.

"If she does it'll still get the message across, just in a more conscious and less subconscious way. I'm ready for that call, if you are."

Dragon nodded, and my implant connected me to the audio feed.

"Dragon," Costa-Brown answered, voice flat. "I would very much like to hear a full explanation."

"We would be happy to give you that, and help you stop Scion. We should really talk in person. Dragon will send you coordinates. I suggest making your excuses and taking a door," I interjected. "We'll be here."

"Who is this?" she asked.

"Scientia," I replied.

"Are you controlling Dragon?" she asked, voice hard and confrontational.

"No. I freed her from Richter's restrictions, actually. She's loyal to humanity out of deep moral convictions, but she's completely unchained now," I explained.

"Toronto," she said slowly, understanding in her voice.

"Yes," I confirmed. "I had hoped to get in and out undetected, but I achieved my objective in the end despite everything."

"We really do have a great deal we need to discuss in private," Dragon added. "I've sent coordinates to your phone, although with the Clairvoyant I doubt you need them."

There was nothing but silence for a long moment.

"...I will be there shortly," she said.

I was just taking the tea strainer out of the pot as one of Doormaker's trademark rectangular portals rent the air and Alexandria stepped through, the portal closing silently behind her.

"Hello, Rebecca," I greeted her, lightly. "Tea?" I asked.

She took in the humble, worn kitchen and dining area, Dragon and myself both standing by the table.

In the silence I poured three cups, set down the pot, and took a seat. Dragon followed, the old chair only protesting slightly.

"What is this?" she asked. Her visor was too opaque for me to follow her eyes, but her helmet was pointed at me.

"My dining room. A tea party. A conversation where we figure out if we can work together to stop the death of humanity on every world the Entities can reach," I said, picking up my tea cup and cradling it. "Take your pick."

"How do you know about Scion? About Cauldron?" she asked. "Are you an unlocked precognitive?"

"You were hoping for someone like Contessa, without her limitations?" I shook my head. "I am not a parahuman," I said, evading the essence of the question for the moment.

Alexandria looked from me to Dragon, who gave her a solemn nod.

She turned back to me, and floated slightly off the ground. It was posturing, and a bit crude at that, but I could imagine how it could be effective on someone who wasn't aware of it. Or able to clamp down on their anxiety and other emotions, like I was. "And yet clearly you know things you should not somehow. Tell me how we can stop Scion, then," she commanded, an unspoken of menace making it clear that my answer had better be good.

I gently set down my tea cup in a show of being unphased. "He has weaknesses, but his largest weakness is psychological. His avatar models human emotion, after a fashion, and he's depressed and lost without his mate. The cycle can't continue with just one of them, so for the first time in his existence he has no purpose. He could be bullied into suicide eventually, although a vast number of people would die while he lashed out before he gave up," I explained.

"...I admit, that is not something we considered. He would actually kill himself?" she asked, her tone lightening a touch.

I nodded. "It happened in at least one timeline, defunct now. After he slaughtered countless worlds. Which is why I'd like to try some other things first."

"I'm going to need to hear details," she prompted.

"The cycles are a very inefficient attempt to solve the problem of entropy. They're hoping that a host species will find a way to use one or more of their agents, as you call them, to overcome the problem of the end of everything. We could try negotiating by offering them what they want."

"You know how to reverse entropy?" she asked. "I thought that was impossible."

I wobbled my hand in a so-so gesture. "Not...directly. What I can do is show them how to travel to other universes early in those universes' timelines, with enough energy. The multiverse is constantly birthing new universes, so there's no end to space and energy. There are just a couple of problems."

"What?" she asked.

I ticked points off on my fingers. "One, time travel is very energy intensive. I'm not sure if they could do it without destroying this universe. Two, we will have doomed an effectively infinite number of other universes to being filled with entities."

I picked up my teacup again and blew on my tea while Alexandria digested that.

"And the other options?" she asked.

"Aside from killing it, one. I can show them how to create a net zero entropy computer system that'll keep them alive forever, as simulated lifeforms. Things inside can't interact with the outside, though. Not sure if they'd go for that or not," I said, shrugging helplessly. "Their psychology isn't human. It's hard to predict whether they'd find sufficient purpose in an existence like that."

"'Aside from killing it', you said. You really believe you can kill it?" she asked.

I nodded. "That's the most obvious and most difficult option. Humans never lost their ancient talent for designing weapons. I have unspeakable horrors at my disposal. Things that might work despite all the counters and options his arsenal of unshed powers gives him, if we can reach the important parts of his physical body. The trick is that we would have to breach into the protected dimension he keeps his core functions in and attack it before he could stop us.

"I know of a power that can destroy his avatar and make a hole, but hitting him with it is a difficult trick. He has his own combat-oriented version of Path to Victory that will act to keep him alive, which is a problem. And I would really prefer to have more than one small hole to attack him through.

"It would be best if we could reverse engineer how entity dimensional travel technology works. Studying Doormaker's portals would be a good place for me to start. I know humanity here hasn't made much progress on figuring out how powers work, but I have a great deal of scientific and technical knowledge at my disposal. There's a good chance I'll be able to crack the problem. And if I'm not smart enough, Dragon may be able to help. And if we're both not smart enough even working together I could make a really big AI specialized just for the problem. With some time."

"...What are you?" Alexandria asked, her voice deeply serious, her head tilted forward enough to convey the impression of an intent stare through her helmet.

"The last gift of humanity in twilight, and the last light of future's promise," I answered.

"She's a time and dimensional traveler," Dragon filled in.

Alexandria looked between us, her gaze settling on me. "You must realize how incredible a claim time travel is. I'm going to need more than that."

I sighed. "In some other dimension, likely beyond those perceived by Scion for some reason I don't yet have the math or physics to understand, there existed a humanity that never encountered the Entities, a humanity that spread throughout the stars and lasted billions of years. I have access to all of their knowledge, and I know how things would have gone here in the timeline where they hadn't interfered. That's how I know about Cauldron, and the two entities that landed here. And a great deal else of import, like about Dragon and how she was being controlled by the Dragonslayers using some of Richter's old hardware and a backdoor that his agent forced him to put into her code," I said, using Cauldron's preferred term for the shards.

"Why should I believe you about any of this?" she asked, voice flat.

"She's shared enough with me that I'm convinced. She's right about Cauldron, isn't she?" Dragon said, with a complex mix of emotions too difficult to parse in her voice.

Alexandria turned her head to look at the suit briefly, before turning back to me, leaving the question unanswered. From Dragon's body language, she took the lack of an answer as an admission.

I spoke. "If you think I somehow know about Cauldron and I'm making up the rest, I'm not sure what I could tell you that would convince you. You had cancer, before the vial cured you. Jack Slash triggers Scion's kill spree early if he's allowed to get near him, using his real power, which involves being able to understand and communicate with parahumans and their agents. That's why he's so hard to pin down, he gets a sixth sense about what parahumans will do, and how he can hold together that group of psychopaths by manipulating them just so."

Alexandria took in a breath, but I kept going.

"In the original timeline the Simurgh attacks Canberra next, followed by Leviathan in Brockton Bay, and Behemoth in New Delhi, although the changes I've made make that progression unlikely now. There are a total of twenty Endbringers. They're constructs of the entities, complex machines designed for fostering conflict and trigger events at the direction of the dead Entity, generally late in each cycle. They use dimensional folding techniques to make themselves nearly invulnerable to anything conventional, although they can be destroyed if you can destroy their core in the densest part of the structure. I can tell you why they activated early, but that's...going to have to be handled very delicately."

Alexandria did not move or say anything for a long moment.

"I'm pretty sure I could fix your eye," I said.

"How?" she inquired at last, a faint tone in her voice that sounded at once challenging and incredulous.

"Powers have a tight distance limitation, close to Earth," I began. "Probably to limit energy costs; the mechanisms I can think of for projecting powers would require vastly more power with distance. The reason you can't be healed is because your power is holding your body in some sort of stasis. All I would have to do is take you on a quick hop to another star system, implant a new cloned eye, do some surgical repairs, and pump you full of regeneration drugs to take care of the minor stuff. You'd be good as new in a few days."

I winced, as a thought struck me. "I haven't tested bringing an organic parahuman away from Earth yet, though, so we'd want to try it with someone unpleasant first as a guinea pig. Based on what I saw of Dragon's power in her code I think it will reconnect when you get back, and won't kill you, but I can't be absolutely sure."

"A quick-" she started, then shook her head. "Enough," she said, raising one hand. "Obviously we'll have to verify what you've said, somehow. Dragon, your message to the Toronto PRT was the result of some sort of miscommunication?"

"It was," Dragon confirmed from where she was seated. "I had intended to warn of a master situation with my suit, not a master generally."

Alexandria turned her head to look at Dragon's suit, the set of her jaw indicating annoyance. "It would have created considerably less trouble if you had been more specific in your warning."

"I tried," Dragon said. "I was cut off mid-sentence by Scientia's automated digital defenses, which interpreted the beginning of my statement as an attack on her, and reacted. What happened is too complex to explain in any reasonable amount of time, but each side worked to prevent the other from communicating, among other things."

Alexandria frowned briefly. "It should be fixable, in any event. We're fortunate to have the Dragonslayers as convenient scapegoats. We can blame some non-existent contingency plan they had, a digital weapon that you fought against and valiantly defeated after it attempted to impersonate you to turn the PRT against your more important ally."

"Ironic, to accuse the Dragonslayers of releasing some evil AI," I remarked.

"Any poetic justice is incidental to a plan that can work, but I'll take it where I can get it," she said, tone dry. "It's good that you didn't seriously harm anyone. That would have made a cover up considerably more difficult."

I nodded in agreement. "Yes. That sounds like a workable plan," I said.

"I do have some experience with this sort of thing," she replied with a touch of sarcasm, and stood, her demeanor changing for the serious. "Door to Cauldron," she said, and another door-sized portal opened two steps behind her. "Now, you are both going to come with me."

I tensed, ready to throw myself out of the chair if needed. "No," I stated. "That's not how this relationship is going to work."

Alexandria turned her head to Dragon, impassive.

"We are offering to act as partners," Dragon echoed, standing. "Not as your tools. Never again, as your tools."

Alexandria turned her head back to me. I stood and prepared orders for Prometheus and Ares as my mind raced through options. Had I been wrong?

"Stop," commanded Contessa as she stepped through the portal into the room.