4

1.4- Exchange

"Nevertheless, I will keep protecting you with my hands by all means"

-Inerasable Sin

-March 12, 2011-

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For once I'm grateful to my old roommate, his constant bitching about people not properly ventilating their basements kept me from forgetting when I made this small workshop. In hindsight I could've made several smaller workshops instead of an actual base, but too late for that now. The new basement cut around 20 feet below the house. I made it so that I could work with metal in peace and also give Taylor more space for her insects. Rearranging the area beneath the neighborhood was a snap thanks to one of the many stones I had brought. A simple forge, several tables and a few stands are the only things inside at the moment. In addition setting up a set of rails so I can get materials from the main base to here was the best idea ever.

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My hammer hits the heated metal into shape, sweat falls from my brow as I look upon my work and refuse to despair. 12 goddamned prototypes of automail and none are strong enough for my liking. Yet a voice in the back of my head insists that it's enough, no one needs to tank a blow from Glory Girl and survive. Maybe the fact that I had spent the last 4 hours beneath the house on a forge was starting to get to me.

Maybe it was my guilty conscience… After my enhancements Taylor chewed me out, I should've expected something like this, but I honestly thought she would understand the desire to be stronger. "Then again I did die in her arms. " I thought to myself as I used alchemy to dismantle another set of metal and liquefy it into shape. Outside of generally making me stronger (Still no super strength, but I could at least punch above my weight) and giving me a healing factor (The testing of which scared Taylor, in the sense that I chopped my hand off and she watched it grow back within minutes), the process also gave me an unique ability. I could drain heat from anywhere within 10 feet of me. I didn't know how much was my maximum, but I had a feeling that it would be a lot. Especially given how happy my shard felt, it gave me the impression that if push came to shove creating ice from thin air would be possible. I could also transfer that heat to me, so I'm one step closer to being a Disney princess in the sense that the cold won't bother me.

The metal before me is heated into a more malleable state and I raise my hammer again and begin hitting it and cooling it. 

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Time flows both quickly and slowly and I lose myself in my memories. Yesterday I pretended to have a fever, one use of my new power, and Taylor offered to stay with me. So we had power testing at home, nothing dangerous, but also a bit dull overall. That changed when Emily arrived with Danny. Apparently she walked all the way to the Dock Workers Union and met with him. For some odd reason I felt a chill in the air when she met Taylor, though it could've been me pretending to have a fever. Regardless, she wished me well and gave me several tons of homework. Which I managed to do in a few hours, and that contributed to me only sleeping 4 hours. Seriously fuck math in the morning.

In addition to all of that I managed to finish our costumes, both Taylor and I were using black bodysuits, though mine was more really deep blue than pure black, small trimmings of silver aside I looked like a little Skitter. Unfortunately I couldn't convince her to wear a full helmet, but the armored hoodie was a good compromise. I even made it fire resistant, which given her luck is useful at least. Unlike her I had a full helmet, so at the very least we were distinct in that regard. 

The automail before me felt finished, around 20 minutes had passed and my body moved on its own. Though I couldn't really test it unless I decide to amputate a limb, the basic movements could be managed with a simple remote and some electricity. Two things I made, and all I lost was a toaster… It just occurs to me that tinker powers are bullshit, more than normal alchemy is bullshit. I shake my head as I move the stick of the controller, hand flexes, fingers extend, move back the stick, hand closes, fingers retract and form a fist. It is to this that Taylor finds me, knee deep in scrap, with a battery dangerously close to my bare foot.

Part of me hopes she notices the workbench on the other side of the room, it's filled with stuff for our first patrol. Some knives and smoke bombs for both of us, a spare bracer with a stone fitted on it so she has another way to escape, my newly constructed collapsible staff (which houses several circles inside as well as having 2 small stones to aid with any hard transmutation), and the result of her giving me blueprints for 2 way radios, glorified walkie-talkies they may be, but they can take a beating. I also made some zip-ties, just in case we need to hold someone under arrest. Though I could also just bury them up to their necks in cement or gravel. 

Despite my best hopes, she does not in fact notice the results of my early morning work, she only focuses on me messing with the automail.

"Marie," Taylor says with only a hint of worry in her tone, "what are you doing? I thought we agreed on you resting for today."

"This is restful." I reply, though I know that I'm blushing due to me forgetting about the promise to rest, "Anyways Tay, look!" I show her the arm I've been working on, "it's not precisely military grade, but it's close. This should be able to tank a few blows from Glory Girl before folding."

"Why would we even need prosthetics that could tank that much damage?" Taylor asked as I stared at her arm. If it were up to me I'd kill the golden bitch and Lung, but it isn't and I need to make sure that she has options should Canon be unavoidable.

"Better safe than sorry. And well… We never know what we'll be facing," I lied as naturally as I breathed, "So once again, better safe than sorry." I could see that she at the very least agreed with the sentiment, "Besides, in a few days I'm likely to lose alchemy as a speciality, so might as well push myself a bit."

"Marie…" Taylor said with a sigh, "We don't know that for sure." And to be fair, she was right. Despite my earlier comments my shard didn't give me much information even when dreaming, just a countdown. I hoped I was wrong, Alchemy is fun and there's a chance that I could get a useless speciality, like doughnut creation. 

"Leet." I reply with a smirk, because despite my worries, my gut told me I was right and I could certainly trust the thing that got me into trouble many times.

"He's an idiot." Taylor replies with her own smirk, and we'll she's right. The man had a shard that actively screwed him over, but he also wasn't following his shard's desire for data.

"True, but there's a precedent, and besides if I'm wrong then..." My stomach rumbled loudly interrupting me, Taylor looked as if she was about to laugh, "Laugh it up bug queen of the Nile. Are we still doing a patrol tonight?"

"Yes, just up to the docks and back, we're not going too deep into gang territory for now." She replies with a smirk. I smile back at her and ask,

"So, have you decided on a name?" She frowns for a few seconds before saying

"From the ones you gave me, Weaver and Khepri sound tempting." When she says Khepri my eye twitches, curse my fucking brain for telling her that name. 

"Really, no Skitter?" I ask as she approaches me, she shakes her head and says,

"That sounds far too villainous." And I can't disagree. Skitter was a warlord, Weaver was barely any better now that I think back on it. Even so, both were heroic next to Khepri.

"Fine… I think Weaver is a good name for you." I say with a small pout and I place the automail on the nearby bench. She nods and replies with a calm,

"Weaver it is, and speaking of are you sure you don't want to keep the Harlequin name?"

"Yup, I'd have to kill Circus and while they work for any snake, I'm not that type of girl. I'll be Maeve."

"Madb?" She asks fully knowing where the name comes from.

"Too pretentious for my taste and I really don't want to tempt the fairy queen. So Maeve, a princess rather than a queen. Though I'm more of a Puck." I admit freely with a bit of a smile on my face, I see her eyes glinting as she asks in a very innocent sounding tone,

"Really? Why not Tinker Bell?" I stare at her with wide eyes. Oh gods, I walked into that one. 

"Oh fuck you!" I reply with no real heat, I'm laughing my ass off at it, she is as well after a few seconds. With tears born from laughter falling down my cheeks I end up asking,

"Good, now what do we have for lunch?"

I follow her after placing all my automail on the bench, a few small uses of alchemy later and the floor is fully sealed again. Uncle Danny arrives at around 6 in the afternoon, he looks tired but somewhat hopeful. It seems what I did in the docks actually helped the union's case on gang violence. He didn't have to lay off more staff, in fact he hired a few more for extra security. He was actually happy for once, he went to bed and fell asleep after eating dinner with us. 

At around 10 we left the house, after a short debate on whether or not to make a tunnel we decided that leaving through the windows was the better of the options we had. Brockton Bay at night wasn't much different from the day, just more artificial lights and just a bit more drug use. Even so, Taylor wanted to protect her home, so I would do my best to help her. I owed her my life now.

We had managed to run through a few blocks before Taylor stopped, her hand stopped me from going forward and I could hear the tension in her voice as she said, "Marie, get ready, three men, I don't think they're parahuman, one woman, she's… Fuck!" Then she began sprinting, I followed cursing even as I realized what would happen. I could hear the buzzing of insects growing behind me. Thousands of flies, spiders, roaches and beetles flew and crawled past me, the three men screamed when they saw the wave of insects, I quickly clapped my hands and touched the nearby building. 

Hands of concrete and brick flew outwards and grabbed them, one of them pissed their pants as Taylor placed herself between the gang members and the young woman. My mask didn't let me emote, it covered even my eyes, so they didn't notice how my eyes narrowed. They were around 6 feet in height, all three of them and one of them had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm, "Empire…" I muttered even as Taylor turned around and started talking to the girl. I could see that she was a brunette, around 5'6 in height, her shirt was covered in blood, I could barely make out the original color of the shirt. Her face was bruised, and not lightly, I could barely make out if she had her eyes open. Jaw seemed to be swollen shut, and her hands were bloodied. She fought…

I ignored my desire to hurt the goons, I could feel my power begging me to test if I could make them pop like inflated balloons, reduce their bones to primordial soup or even fuse all three of them into a chimera that could only breathe and shit. Taylor was trying to reassure the girl, I drew out some long needles,

"Hey, I'm going to heal you, is that okay?" I manage to say despite my desire to just heal her. She nodded and I placed the needles carefully on her body and face. Alkahestry is better for this type of stuff and thankfully my current knowledge of it allowed me to heal her. I still felt some drain out of it, but I reduced the swelling, cleaned out the wounds, closed off any knicks she had and healed her in general. 

"I.. I… Oh god thanks kid, you saved my life." She says with a thin smile, "So are you wards?"

"Independents. You have a phone?" I asked preempting Taylor's response, the woman looked at me and nodded again, "Cause I left mine at home and while I could spend the night here and hope that an officer arrives, if you could call the police I'd be grateful."

"You bitch!" The bald man with three empire tattoos screamed as the woman got her phone out, "Kaiser will get us out of jail and we'll be back!"

I turned around and saw Taylor's response to that taunt, roaches, lots of them in his mouth. A swarm copy of her rose next to him and said, "Silence." He fainted soon after, the woman kept informing the police about where we were and I took Taylor to the side and asked, "Are we staying and giving our names or are we leaving? If it's the latter I'll knock them out and tie them up." 

She looked at me and her head tilted a bit to the side as if thinking, "I think we should at least stay, just to give our names. But tie them up anyway, to make it easier for them to be taken to jail." I nodded and drew my staff, twirled it around and slammed one of the ends of it to the ground. Light surged from it and the hands turned to ropes, their bodies were fully tied within seconds and I sat next to the woman.

"We'll be off once they're in cuffs." I reassured her, she mouthed a thank you as she kept talking to the police. It took like 15 minutes for them to arrive, the officer that came up to us was a middle aged man, clean shaven at least, his badge was clean and shining on his shirt.

"Miss, I'm officer Henderson of the Brockton Bay Police Department. Would you kindly tell me your cape name?" I almost giggled at the phrase, would you kindly, was burned into my mind as a meme. 

"I am the independent heroine, Maeve. My partner over there goes by Weaver. She was first on the scene, so she'll be able to tell you what happened when she arrived. I only aided in the take down and I performed some very light healing on the victim. The one who is currently unconscious is a professed member of Empire 88, do you want me to place them in cuffs or are you okay with leaving them with rope?" I reply as Taylor is approached by another officer. I wish I could read her body language reliably, she seems calm, but she could be shunting her emotions into the swarm.

"If you can place them in cuffs or zip ties then by all means go ahead." Henderson said as he wrote down what he saw on his little notebook. Didn't know cops actually used those, in my experience it was always the investigators not the first response guys that had to write down everything. At any rate, changing rope to steel was easy given the nearby trash, so with a flash of light they were bound with cuffs instead of concrete and or rope.

I made my way towards Taylor and noticed that there were several cops nearby looking at us nervously, the lady was being interrogated by Henderson and Taylor was still talking to the officer.

"And that's all that happened." She finished saying to the man. I could see that the swarm was still moving nearby, some of them were making a line towards a building that had a clear line of sight to us. I wish I had some binoculars or something to see if there were any snipers nearby, then I heard the loud roar of an engine. That meant either Miss Militia or Armsmaster. Fuck, I hope it's Militia…

The motorcycle was nothing short of a work of art, sleek, armored and probably had guns hidden somewhere. The paint job was about as boring as the owner, whose beard was almost legendary in its own right. Perfectly trimmed, fully armored and a fucking halberd that probably had everything but free Wi-Fi. Arguably the #1 Tinker of America, I could probably take that title if I wanted it. Which thankfully I didn't, I'm comfy being the #2 Tinker of Earth, Dragon will always be #1 in my mind. 

"So you're the parahumans that saved Mrs. Rainer?" Quick, precise, expedient, almost robotic in some ways. All things that define the Halbeard, not that it's bad to be a terminator, far be it for me to throw stones while I live in a glass house.

"Yes." Taylor replies, I keep my mouth shut while looking at Armsmaster, I move closer to them while the police just stare at the capes.

"Who was the one who healed her?" He asked as if he didn't know the answer.

"Glaistig Uaine. She came out of nowhere muttered, fairies and danced off into the night" I replied just to see his reaction, the fairy queen of death is infamous for a reason, he turns his eyes to me, I hope he can see his reflection from my own mask. I can almost sense Taylor wondering where I'm going with this.

"Child, you shouldn't joke around like that." Armsmaster said in an authoritative tone, his shoulders tensed slightly, I wondered who was talking to him. " One way to find out. " I think as I force myself to remember that this man was willing to let Taylor burn. That he was willing to let her be a villain. That he was willing to let her die… I feel fire in my chest, venom in my tongue as I smile and say with the most disdain I can muster. 

"Why not? Now Armsy, you're here and we can go, Mr. Unconscious over there name dropped Kaiser so make sure his cell is extra secure and we'll see each other later." His posture becomes more rigid, I can see Taylor's swarm moving in the back,

"I'm going to have to insist you come with us. Brockton Bay isn't the most secure city in the USA and with healing capabilities it is only a matter of time until the gangs begin targeting you." He states with clear authority, a very significant part of me wants to punch him for it. Another part of me wishes he got his head out of his ass, I smirk behind my mask and tell him,

"How about no. You can insist all you want, but I have no interest in healing your wards or your heroes outside of Endbringer emergencies. I can't trust a leaky boat to sail smoothly. I refuse to work for those that allow snakes to live amongst them. Also, I asked for permission to heal her, so you very literally cannot arrest me." I draw my staff out and he reflexively draws out his halberd, "I'll be patrolling around tonight so see you later Armsy." I manage to say after tapping the ground, a flash of light and both me and Taylor are on the rooftops courtesy of the ground rising to roof height, another tap and the ground returns to normal. The police and Armsmaster stare, mouths agape at my alchemy.

"What the hell, Maeve?" Taylor asks somewhat angrily, I'm honestly surprised she let me take the lead. Then again she might be testing me.

"You want to join the wards?" I ask innocently. She shakes her head as she joins me in running to another rooftop and says,

"But he's Armsmaster!"

"And you're Weaver. Like I said before, unless you join them, I'm not going to. Besides, you noticed that he was being ordered as well?" She nodded, "I don't trust whoever was on the other side, they were trying to make me join by force if necessary. Now did you figure out who our mystery cape was?"

"Not really, I can tell you that they weren't anyone we've met before." She replies only to stop moving, for a few seconds she seems to be concentrating on some then she turns her head towards the east, "There seems to be a break in about a block to the east, we can stop them from escaping, let's go Maeve!" Taylor also shouts at me as she rushes towards the possible action.

"We need phones… and a jetpack." I mutter as I run behind Taylor.

Two break ins, three goddamned drug deals and one cat that jumped out a window and hit me in the face was the sum of our efforts for the night. We managed to get back home at around 3, we changed and I crashed on the couch. Danny seemed to have woken up a bit later because I didn't remember having a blanket. Taylor for some reason decided to crash next to me, for someone who complained about being flat and plain, she makes a great pillow. 

Though I would never tell her that, she might take it the wrong way. Still I looked at the clock and it was still around 5:30 in the morning. Closing my eyes I drifted to sleep, dreamless sleep is the best sleep. The rest of the day was spent tinkering at the base, the amount of mushrooms had expanded to ridiculous sizes but the bounty of stones more than made up for it. Taylor complained due to missing our morning run, but I could tell her heart wasn't into it. After all, I wasn't surrounded by roaches and spiders.

-March 14, 2011-

The music club was loud, in a good way, however I could barely hear myself playing over the others, which was unfortunate since I was trying to learn to play guitar with Emily. She was the patient type of teacher, my hands were clumsily strumming strings as hers expertly played them. I can't believe I butchered Welcome to the Jungle like that for 2 hours. 

"Well at least you have the song more or less down." Emily said with a wry smile. I scoff and reply,

"Please don't lie, I know that I sucked."

"I was worse when I started. I think my dad called it the musical equivalent of drowning one cat while skinning another with a spoon." She smiles as if the memory was a good one,

"Really?" Disbelief colors my response, logically I know everyone socks when starting but I have trouble imagining Emily struggling with the guitar.

"Yup. He also said, ``Keep playing.``"

"Unfortunately I can't follow that advice. I've gotta get home, and start on that history project for Mr. Wallace." 

"Ugh, don't remind me, at least you got post Scion arrival stuff. Meanwhile I get stuck with World War one." Emily complains before snapping her fingers and asking "Marie, if it's not too much trouble, what was that song you were playing before?"

"The one before Welcome to the Jungle? That one was back in black."

"No. The one you played on the violin, when I came in. It sounded soothing, almost like a ballad." She smiled as she saw me blush at the memory.

"Oh that! It's uhm, something I heard from an aleph series." I hastily said despite fully knowing that she was following the tune of Genesis of Aquarion. " She has a really good memory for music. " I find myself thinking as she asks me,

"Oh, do you remember the name?"

"Hmmm… Aqua… something?" I lied, she simply nodded and put away her guitar. "Well? Come on, Marie, I'm taking you to the bus stop."

"I'm not weak, you know." I faux complain at her, she takes it in stride and smiles,

"I know, but you were the one with that awful fever." She replied teasingly, "Besides you would do the same for me." She was right on that account. Damn goodie two shoe habits! A part of my mind I like to ignore screams at me, loudly asking how does she know? While I am curious as well, I realize that some people are better at social things than I am and can read me like a book. The school was mostly empty by the time we left, it was almost haunting, I felt like I was being watched.

It takes a few minutes for us to get to the bus stop, Emily keeps talking all the while. Sometimes it's about the club and the competition in a couple of months, other times it's about the bomb threat in New York, "So they didn't catch the bomber?"

"Nope, it seems our very own Oni Lee managed to help her escape." She replied as she took out her phone. It's a post on PHO, linking to various websites that talked about the recent fight between the ABB and the protectorate. I pick one at random and it's more like a blog talking about how it was like to be caught in a cape fight first hand. The picture of Oni Lee blowing up a caravan while Legend fought Lung to a standstill in the background was rather striking.

"Well shit, that's what three capes the ABB have now?" I say as she hands me her phone so I can read the blog post.

"I think so, Marie." Emily sounds worried and I hug her with one hand to reassure her, "I know your uncle works near Lung's territory so please be careful." 

"I'm always careful." I said finishing my reading of the blog. Part of me wonders if Coil was behind the break out as well, I can't discard the feeling out of hand since the bastard always has a plan or 8. It takes a few more minutes but the bus finally stops near my home, as I leave she waved me goodbye and I headed back home. My heartbeat was increasing, we had another patrol tonight and I was somewhat looking forward to it. 

-11:59 pm-

Taylor was behind me as I ran from rooftop to rooftop, we managed to stop an attempted breaking and entering. I distracted them while Taylor sent a small wave of spiders to tie them up, and this time none of them got any spiders inside their mouths. The police arrived quickly and most tellingly the PRT didn't show up.

" Wonder why? " I thought as the clock struck midnight. Static filled my brain as words became sound, and sound became pain.

[Connection]

My heartbeat stopped, I couldn't breathe. I'm falling, the roof doesn't look soft. In the edge of my vision I see Taylor rushing towards me.

[Exchange]

I can hear Taylor screaming. I want to tell her that I'll be fine.

[Data]

[Data]

[Data]

Ị̵̞̲̖͓͙̭͖̺̝͎̫͐̂́̉̈́͊͛̓̉̐̒̚͘͠ͅ ̴̨͈̱͚̜͖͈̦̠̯̽́̿͌̊̄̑̍̑̾͘͜͠ͅͅḓ̷̨͕̗̳̼̗͓̕ͅǫ̵̝̭̜͕̲̱͓̙̳͉̉͑̅̋͊̀̌͋͆͝n̸̯͔̦̬̦͔̣̑̾̊̐̿́͌̓͘͜͠͠'̶̦̟͖̓́͂̒̈́́͗͝͠ţ̷̨̛̳̻́̇̀͆̏̅̾͒̆̾͊̈́ ̴̘͚̲̦̻̘̱͇̺̔̋̀͝w̴̡̙̟͇̪͍̹̦͓̖̹͚̮͗͋́͑̿̓̓͠a̷̢̧̛͖͇̱̰̭̪͇̦̦͕̿̄̓͒͘n̴͚̝̫̻̣̤̥͊̅͘t̶͎̼̤͖̯̝͑̿̒̐ ̴̮̗̏̌̋̔̈͗̔̄̓̀͂̒t̵̡̡̬̥͉̖͙̳̙̰̹́͜ͅo̸̧̨̝͓͉̙͓͊̎̽́͛̌ ̷̨̮̗͉̮̩̖͘̚͠ḑ̴̜͉̪̺͍̠̠̟̑͆̊͘͜i̶̧̩̗̹̳̬̤͆e̸̡͈͍͈̖̝̭͇͇̣̟̳̊͛̋͂̈́͛̽̒̈͠ͅͅ.̵̧̧͇̝͇̲͖̖̱̩̲̦̫͒̿ Ị̵̞̲̖͓͙̭͖̺̝͎̫͐̂́̉̈́͊͛̓̉̐̒̚͘͠ͅ ̴̨͈̱͚̜͖͈̦̠̯̽́̿͌̊̄̑̍̑̾͘͜͠ͅͅḓ̷̨͕̗̳̼̗͓̕ͅǫ̵̝̭̜͕̲̱͓̙̳͉̉͑̅̋͊̀̌͋͆͝n̸̯͔̦̬̦͔̣̑̾̊̐̿́͌̓͘͜͠͠'̶̦̟͖̓́͂̒̈́́͗͝͠ţ̷̨̛̳̻́̇̀͆̏̅̾͒̆̾͊̈́ ̴̘͚̲̦̻̘̱͇̺̔̋̀͝w̴̡̙̟͇̪͍̹̦͓̖̹͚̮͗͋́͑̿̓̓͠a̷̢̧̛͖͇̱̰̭̪͇̦̦͕̿̄̓͒͘n̴͚̝̫̻̣̤̥͊̅͘t̶͎̼̤͖̯̝͑̿̒̐ ̴̮̗̏̌̋̔̈͗̔̄̓̀͂̒t̵̡̡̬̥͉̖͙̳̙̰̹́͜ͅo̸̧̨̝͓͉̙͓͊̎̽́͛̌ ̷̨̮̗͉̮̩̖͘̚͠ḑ̴̜͉̪̺͍̠̠̟̑͆̊͘͜i̶̧̩̗̹̳̬̤͆e̸̡͈͍͈̖̝̭͇͇̣̟̳̊͛̋͂̈́͛̽̒̈͠ͅͅ.̵̧̧͇̝͇̲͖̖̱̩̲̦̫͒̿ Ị̵̞̲̖͓͙̭͖̺̝͎̫͐̂́̉̈́͊͛̓̉̐̒̚͘͠ͅ ̴̨͈̱͚̜͖͈̦̠̯̽́̿͌̊̄̑̍̑̾͘͜͠ͅͅḓ̷̨͕̗̳̼̗͓̕ͅǫ̵̝̭̜͕̲̱͓̙̳͉̉͑̅̋͊̀̌͋͆͝n̸̯͔̦̬̦͔̣̑̾̊̐̿́͌̓͘͜͠͠'̶̦̟͖̓́͂̒̈́́͗͝͠ţ̷̨̛̳̻́̇̀͆̏̅̾͒̆̾͊̈́ ̴̘͚̲̦̻̘̱͇̺̔̋̀͝w̴̡̙̟͇̪͍̹̦͓̖̹͚̮͗͋́͑̿̓̓͠a̷̢̧̛͖͇̱̰̭̪͇̦̦͕̿̄̓͒͘n̴͚̝̫̻̣̤̥͊̅͘t̶͎̼̤͖̯̝͑̿̒̐ ̴̮̗̏̌̋̔̈͗̔̄̓̀͂̒t̵̡̡̬̥͉̖͙̳̙̰̹́͜ͅo̸̧̨̝͓͉̙͓͊̎̽́͛̌ ̷̨̮̗͉̮̩̖͘̚͠ḑ̴̜͉̪̺͍̠̠̟̑͆̊͘͜i̶̧̩̗̹̳̬̤͆e̸̡͈͍͈̖̝̭͇͇̣̟̳̊͛̋͂̈́͛̽̒̈͠ͅͅ.̵̧̧͇̝͇̲͖̖̱̩̲̦̫͒̿

I see the beach before me, the waves crashing gently upon the shore. I can feel the life all around me shiver in anticipation. A moon rises from the east and another from the west, the sun scorches the water and I scream as I feel my skin boil, yet I cannot faint. I'm not allowed to, the voices all around me begin to sing. It has no rhythm. It has no sense, yet in the back of my mind I know this beat. My eyes feel dry as I look up to the sky, the twin moons glow a deep blue on blue as the sun continues to lash me with pain, I scream and no sound comes out. I see the moons. I see myself. I see Marie. I SEE!!!

A golden path…

[Update Complete]

-Chapter 1, Exchange. Fin-

Interlude A

-March 15, 2011, 12:00 a.m-

Dinah Alcott woke up with a scream on her throat and a pain in her head. Her power, or curse if anyone bothered to believe her or even ask her about it, was almost screaming in pain in her head. It was excruciating, imagine someone pouring molten lead into your head, that was around the level of pain she felt. Which was a marked improvement over how it felt when she overused her power. That was more like being eaten alive by a million ants from the inside out.

Leaving her room in an almost drunken walk she managed to get to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen and swallowed some headache pills, she also put an ice pack on her head. The cold seeped into her brain as she asked herself, " What happened? "

Oddly enough her power didn't even try to give her an answer, not at first at least, instead it just twisted inside her brain. A flash of pain came and with it an answer.

[98.3% chance of future changing]

" That's odd. So my old predictions have become irrelevant? " She asked her power, it responded quickly afterwards.

[99.9% of previous predictions becoming erroneous] The pain she felt was growing and in spite of her fear of more pain, she asked,

" Chance of me getting kidnapped "

[90% unless F̶̨̖͚̗̥̏ͅą̷̬͕͆́̑̾ǐ̴̙͇̇̐̽̌̚͠ŕ̸̘̜̣̼͓̰̀̂͒̈́̚i̷̲̓͗̂͝e̴̖͍̪̓̿͗̓͠s̶̢̖̘̠̘̍̀͊̕ get involved]

Upon hearing that Dinah tasted blood in her mouth, it was a noise that came from within her brain. She could feel her arms shaking as she asked once again,

" Chances of meeting one before getting kidnapped? " She regrets it almost immediately. Her shard goes into overdrive, her body twitches as everything that isn't required to live is basically turned off in order for the question to be answered.

[Soup.8.964793%#9@5392!5$38$2&@%$@926yi%i$i5r8j$ftfuih%u5y8gdru8g5u4d78j%uy4e^t444*$48]

Dinah wanted to scream, yet found herself unable to do so as her power continued to screech. It was like someone was stabbing her brain with a pitchfork while scratching a chalkboard with nails an answer came after a solid minute of agony,

[Cannot be observed.]

Dinah cried tears of blood when hearing this. Yet a single thought full of hope rushed through her mind.

" A blindspot. " 

Interlude Alcott, Fin.

Notes:

Author's notes:

As always thank you all for reading, I hope that this was enjoyable for you tobread. Leave comments and kudos if you liked it.