For the next two days, things remained quiet. Elise received a text from Lucas giving her a time and location for the meeting. It would occur at a warehouse, thankfully at night so that Elise could go in costume. He mentioned that Sila refused to go and Stray was not responding to texts. Strangely, Synapse was also silent, so it seemed that only Lucas, Prometheus, and Elise would attend.

Shudder was still upset, and spoke little to Elise during this time. Elise tried to find words to comfort her, but what could she say that wouldn’t amount to a patronizing equivalent to “let this be a lesson to you”? Shudder needed to learn that Tlön was not the altruistic savior she imagined, but saying that directly for the hundredth time when Shudder was already hurting would do nothing but drive her away. So she let her temporary roommate have her space.

People started to take notice of Nova Legion’s absence. She saw several threads online of people wondering where they were, though it hadn’t quite blossomed into public worry. Whisper, however, noticed that STRIX hadn’t released any sort of announcement about their absence, and felt suspicion at the fact that they’d vanished on a multiple-day mission when tension in Fairfield was so high.

On the day of the meeting, Elise found an envelope on her door as she returned from work. She opened it to discover a message from Snapshot to Shudder.

I’ve found the answer was all it read, along with a time and address. It was at the same time as the meeting with Valkyrie.

Elise’s first thought was to give it to Shudder, but the part of her that was Whisper roared at her not to. Snapshot was one of the Norns. It could be a deception, or an effort to recruit Shudder. It occurred to Elise that it was not usually wise to ignore information from Snapshot, however, especially since she was investigating the psionic wave detector. It was possible that she’d discovered something important. Whisper insisted on not telling Shudder, preferring to go himself. It was true that Snapshot was flighty when it came to changes to meeting arrangements, but he was on friendly terms with her. It would mean missing Valkyrie, but Lucas didn’t need him for that. He knew what questions to ask.

So, when the sun was down, Whisper made his way to the address on the message. When he arrived, he was surprised to discover that it was a house. Snapshot almost always held meetings in public places, often crowded ones where she could quickly disappear. Suspicious, he kept to the shadows and circled the house, looking for signs of a trap. However, it seemed like an ordinary two-story suburban home.

Tentatively, he knocked on the door.

 

---

 

With word that Elise couldn’t make it, the meeting party was down to two, Lucas and Adam. Not exactly an impressive front to present, so Lucas decided to hope that Valkyrie would see them as less of a threat, and be looser with her secrets.

Having scouted the warehouse ahead of time, Lucas and Adam were able to portal in directly. They waited in the open, knowing that hiding would only raise Valkyrie’s suspicions. However, Lucas felt uncomfortably exposed. It was nearly pitch black and Valkyrie’s cyborgs would certainly be able to see in the dark and attack from almost any direction. He tried to take comfort in the fact that Adam seemed entirely at ease, but Adam was the kind of person who always assumed things would go right. Eventually, Lucas settled on keeping a small portal to a streetlamp open, giving them some light.

Eventually, the warehouse’s lights came on and, with a series of footsteps that seemed to echo through the room, Valkyrie made her appearance.

“Hello, Lucas, Adam. I understand you’ve reconsidered my offer.”

“It occurred to us that your plans may not be as malevolent as we first thought,” Lucas replied.

Valkyrie smiled. “Very wise. You’re right. I’m not the bad guy. I simply want to protect the world from universal threats.”

“Then can you tell us what you’re planning?” Lucas asked.

“I might as well,” Valkyrie said. She looked at Adam. “After all, you provided the solution.”

Adam frowned. “I did?”

“The nanite sample that was extracted from you,” Valkyrie explained. “It’s capable of much more than converting flesh into metal. By reprogramming them and dispersing them throughout the world, any number of possible solutions are presented to us.”

“You mean, like, killing anyone you decide is a threat?” Lucas asked darkly.

Valkyrie was unshaken by the accusation. “If necessary. Or shutting off their powers or rendering them unconscious. This is a new discovery, and we’re still learning its capabilities. Dr. Hunt was talented, but even she had limits.”

“Had?” Adam asked.

Valkyrie nodded. “Thank you for reporting her. Brilliant as she was, there’s no room for bigotry when it comes to developing world-changing technology. Fortunately, we already had an ideal replacement in the wings.”

Lucas ventured a guess. “Dr. Tlön?”

“There’s no need to worry. She is being kept under constant surveillance.”

“I don’t like the idea of someone like her having access to that technology at all,” Lucas said.

Valkyrie gave him a sad look. “I don’t like the idea of anyone having it. But I have little other choice now.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Adam said. “If all you needed was my nanites, why build a cyborg army?”

“Because a war between Arachne and STRIX is unavoidable,” Valkyrie replied. “I can see the future, and I intend to ensure that STRIX is victorious. And…” she hesitated, a distant look on her face. “...there was another plan, but it’s too late for that now.”

“What do you mean?” Lucas asked.

Her gaze drifted down, looking at the floor. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. A few hours ago, the situation changed greatly.”

 

---

 

When it came time for the meeting, Shudder made her way to the warehouse. Elise hadn’t kept the location a secret, apparently thinking she could convince Shudder to join in. Or course, Shudder had no intention to do something so foolish. Anyone who attended the meeting would be left with two choices, either join Valkyrie or be arrested or killed then and there. But maybe something could be learned by observing the meeting from the outside.

As she crouched behind a dumpster within view of the warehouse’s entrance, she considered the fact that she wasn’t sure what she could learn that would possibly give her any sort of advantage. Valkyrie had an army, advanced military tech, and the ability to see the future. Meanwhile, Shudder had nothing but herself. Her allies were divided and her capabilities were so outclassed by Valkyrie’s that they weren’t even worth mentioning. Still, she decided, she would never learn anything if she just gave up. It was better to try.

Not that she even knew right from wrong anymore. Doc had lied to her, tricked her into helping kill people. Lucas was a coward who was willing to sacrifice others to save his own skin. Elise had fought endlessly to stop Tlön, but was unwilling to commit to fighting Valkyrie. Maybe it really wasn’t worth fighting to protect the criminals Valkyrie was kidnapping. Maybe the collateral damage from a war with Arachne would be less than the cost of allowing Arachne to stay. Maybe by fighting Valkyrie, Shudder had placed herself into Whisper’s role, fighting against someone who would make the world a better place.

Except that was a world with no room for people like Quetzal, Bodkin or Gremlin. Or Hedge.

Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of a fleet of police cars. They had the sleek sports car design of the ones Shudder had seen at the clinic, and they were escorting a huge armored truck. Aside from drawing her baton, Shudder remained still, hiding in the shadows as they pulled to a stop some distance from the warehouse. Car doors opened, letting out dozens of cyborgs, most of whom milled about while a few rocketed up into the sky on with boosters built into backs or legs. Shudder recognized one of the cyborgs, first by his patchwork coat, then by the remains of his original face. Hedge was part of Valkyrie’s army now.

A cyborg with a feline design who moved with animal-like fluidity pulled open the back of the armored truck, allowing Valkyrie herself to step out. Valkyrie exchanged some words with a few of her underlings, then started walking, making her way to the warehouse alone. It seemed she wouldn’t be immediately ambushing the others.

When Valkyrie disappeared through the building’s doors Shudder turned her attention back to the convoy. She almost yelped in surprise when she saw that the feline cyborg was helping another woman step out.

Dr. Tlön.

All of Shudder’s doubts and confusion seemed to melt away. Doc was here. Lucas’ revelations and the things she’d learned in the storage unit no longer mattered. Doc would make sense of it. She was the only person who had ever been able to make sense of the world.

Too dazed to consider what she was doing, Shudder stood and began walking towards the police cars. She still gripped her baton, but her arms remained limp at her sides as she moved forward, eyes locked on Tlön. She had only made it a few steps when the cyborgs noticed her and guns and arm cannons were pointed, but Tlön waved them down. There was a tense quiet which stretched on way too long as Shudder closed the distance between herself and her mentor.

Dr. Tlön offered a pleased smile. “I was planning to send some of the Einherjar to find you, but it seems you found me first. Well done, Shudder.”

“You’re really here,” Shudder breathed, her voice little more than a whisper. She noticed that Tlön had lost some weight. Her once-round cheeks were now sunken and emaciated. Singularity had not taken good care of her. She desperately wanted to hug her, but Doc had never cared for physical contact.

“A fortunate turn of events,” Tlön replied. “Valkyrie believes I can be of use to her, so I’ve been granted a measure of freedom.”

“What does she want with you?”

Tlön sat down on the step leading out of the truck and gestured for Shudder to sit next to her. “Valkyrie’s primary concern is creating a system to detect and prevent global-scale superpowered threats. Her team has made great strides in developing the mechanical components of this system, but they lack a human component. A finger on the button, so to speak.”

Shudder felt a stab of terror. “You’re not really going to go along with it, are you?”

“This isn’t the place to speak of that,” Doc replied. Shudder winced inwardly, remembering that they were surrounded by Valkyrie’s army. “All I can ask is that you trust me to ensure that at the end of this, the world is in a better place.”

It was vague, but this was Doc. Of course Shudder trusted her. She nodded.

“Good. Do you remember the cache I told you about? In the storage center?”

“I went there recently,” Shudder admitted. Guilt kept her from looking in the doctor’s eyes.

“I see. Do you recall finding a flash drive there?”

Beneath her costume, Shudder could feel it pressing against her chest. She nodded.

“Good. I need you to bring that to me. As soon as we leave, go and fetch it. I will have one of the Einherjar contact you soon and escort you to the base. Do not mention the flash drive to anyone.”

From the tone, that seemed to include the Einherjar.

“Doc, when I visited the cache, I learned some stuff. And…” She swallowed. “I saw what you wrote about me.”

“What did I write?” Tlön asked. “You’ll have to refresh my memory.”

“You said I was vulnerable and easily influenced. And that being trans is deviant.”

Tlön’s expressions were always subtle, but Shudder could see the recognition in her eyes. “Ah, of course. Those were my initial observations. Back then you were vulnerable and easily influenced. That is part of the reason I chose to take you in. I’m not an impulsive woman, Shudder. I didn’t befriend you because I thought I could trick you into helping me. I did it because I could see that you needed help. That if I didn’t intervene, you would likely end up dead.”

“But you needed me to build Orbis.”

“I needed your power to build Orbis. I could have performed my research nearly as easily with you as a captive. But I cared for you. As for being trans, well, it is a deviation from an established norm. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Was that all ‘deviant’ meant? Shudder had only ever heard it used in negative ways. If all it meant was ‘different,’ then that completely changed Tlön’s journal entry.

“Then why didn’t you tell me that you’re magic?”

There was a shift in Tlön’s expression—subtle enough that Shudder imagined no one else would recognize it—to what Shudder thought of as her ‘gentle’ look.

“There are details about my past which I chose to keep from you because they risked upsetting you. I didn’t plan to hide the truth forever, but our time was limited and I couldn’t afford additional complications.”

“So you’re really a Norn? Along with Valkyrie and Snapshot?”

“That’s one template used to describe us. Urd, Verdandi and Skuld. Past, present and future. Personally, I always preferred another.”

Shudder remembered the lists of trios Sam had mentioned. “Which one?”

“Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.”

Shudder let out a long laugh, which seemed to relax some part of her that had been tense for the last two years. “It’s good to hear your voice again.”

Doc smiled. “It’s good to hear yours, too.”

Tears welled up in Shudder’s eyes. Words of affection like those were a rarity. But, of course, these sentimental feelings couldn’t last long while another question plagued Shudder’s mind.

“All those experts you consulted. Did you kill them?”

Tlön let out a sigh. “I probably killed most of them, yes. My talent for drawing knowledge from the minds of others is meant to be used in small amounts. Drawing an entire field’s worth of expertise from a single person places an immense strain on both their body and mind. I made an effort to only choose those who had hurt those around them—it seems there is no shortage of academics with allegations of misconduct—but there were times where I had to select someone who seemed to be perfectly innocent. I couldn’t…”

She hesitated. For the first time since Shudder had known her, she seemed to be at a loss for words. Shudder stared at her mentor, whose lip quivered an infinitesimal amount before she seemed to collect herself.

“I needed to help the world, Shudder, but there wasn’t time. The future is Miriam’s domain, not mine, but I’m not entirely without foresight. Years ago, before we met, I peered into the future and saw how little time I had to complete Orbis Tertius.”

 

---

 

No one answered Whisper’s knock.

He knocked again and still received no answer. Something was definitely wrong. He phased through the door and into what he assumed was Snapshot’s living room. The darkness did nothing to hide the room from Whisper’s eyes, though he was surprised at how old-fashioned it all was. Antique furniture, a cuckoo clock, a collection of gnome figurines all seemed fit for an old lady’s home. Of course, with her ever-changing appearance, Snapshot’s age was impossible to guess.

He passed through room after room, finding nothing out of the ordinary. There was a kitchen, a bedroom, even a small office, or perhaps more of a library. Bookshelves full of fiction lined the walls, but there was nothing to suggest that Snapshot lived here.

With everything else ruled out, Whisper pulled open the door to the basement and saw a red light somewhere below. Making his way down, he saw that the basement had been split into two rooms. The first room was a second office. It was full of old photography equipment arranged neatly on shelves, with a desk halfway between the stairs and the second room. The half-open door to the second room was the source of red light. A darkroom.

Bracing himself for what he was now certain he would find, he made his way into the darkroom. There, face down amidst scattered ruined photographs, was Snapshot’s body. Turning her over, Whisper discovered that she had been stabbed in the chest and left to bleed on the floor. She was already cold.

Elise wanted to investigate further, but Whisper refused. Anyone who could find and kill Snapshot was extremely dangerous, so he retreated back into the office and made for the stairs. However he paused as he passed the desk, catching sight of a camera bag. It seemed likely that Snapshot’s favorite camera had some supernatural traits, so on an impulse he grabbed and made his way out of the house.

 

---

 

“Snapshot is dead,” Valkyrie announced.

Lucas felt a lurch. That was not something he had expected to hear. He tried to find his bearings and understand what that meant. Was this good news or bad?

“Does that mean you’re dying too?” he asked.

Valkyrie nodded. “Samantha and I have a few days left at most. That may be enough time to secure the future of humanity, but we could use your assistance.”

So in the end it hardly changed anything. Valkyrie’s plan would still be enacted and Lucas needed to decide whether to join her or try to stop her.

“Can’t you bring her back?” Adam asked. “Turn her into one of your cyborgs?”

“I need to get to someone soon after their death to take their soul,” Valkyrie explained. “And even if that weren’t the case, it doesn’t work the same for Norns.”

“Come on, you can’t give up. There has to be a magic solution.” Adam looked at Lucas. “It’s a magic problem, so there’s got to be a magic solution, right? A loophole or something.”

Lucas stared at Adam, surprised. He cared so much about saving the life of an enemy. Maybe the reason he was so popular in the media was more than just his incredible feats.

“I think if there was a way out, one of the Norns would have found it ages ago,” Lucas said.

“They say we exist to guide the world,” Valkyrie added, “and that if we intervene directly, that we’re doomed to failure. We’d always considered that a superstition, but looking back on our lives, it’s hard to ignore the pattern. However, with my death, the Einherjar will be all that’s left to complete my plan. Perhaps they’ll find more success without me.”

“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea, Lucas,” Adam said. “I mean, I wish there was some time to think about the implications, but she’s right about Omega stuff, isn’t she?”

Lucas locked his eyes on Valkyrie’s. “We can’t join you until you come clean about everything. Why did you steal the psionic tech? And the Seraphinite?”

Valkyrie looked taken aback, her artificial brow wrinkled in confusion. “What do you mean? We obtained our psionic tech legally, through STRIX. And…what do you know about the Seraphinite?”

Maybe the guess about the psionic tech was wrong, but there was no doubt about the Seraphinite. “You took it from Shudder.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did you see me take it?”

Lucas looked at Adam, who shook his head. “I was unconscious.”

“How curious,” Valkyrie said. “I’ll have to ask her about it when I meet her officially. For now, however, I’ll leave you to consider what I’ve told you. If you decide to join me, Adam knows how to get into contact.”

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving Lucas to ponder the questions that lingered behind.

 

---

 

“I’m dying,” Dr. Tlön said. “I have a few days left, at most.”

The sense of being lost, from which Shudder had all-too-briefly been relieved, returned in an instant. With it came panic, a desperate need to keep her restored hope from being shattered once again.

“You’re dying? Why are you dying?”

Doc’s voice had a quiet despair, but there was no spike in her fear. “I’m not sure how much you’ve learned about my power, but it’s tied to two other women. We can’t exist without each other. One of them just died.”

Shudder knew that the next words that came to her made no sense, but she couldn’t resist saying them. “But that’s not fair! I just got you back. You can’t die.” She desperately searched for a solution. “Isn’t the future changeable?”

“The future is mutable, which makes it difficult to read. That’s why I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when or how it would happen. It may have been prevented entirely had we succeeded with Orbis. But now that Amelia is dead, it can’t be avoided.”

She placed a hand on Shudder’s shoulder, which tingled with the rare physical contact. “I’m grateful. I thought it would happen in Singularity. Instead, I’ve been given a final chance to make the world a better place. And I get to spend some of my final moments with you.”

As Shudder wiped the tears from her face, she remembered the flash drive. “Is there enough time to…do what you’re going to do?”

“We don’t have enough time to gather the resources to build a full-scale Orbis. However, Valkyrie has the equipment I need to build the equivalent to our test model.”

One of the steps to building Orbis Tertius had been designing a device that could deliver the personality-altering psionic wave produced by the Orbis program to a single test subject. Tlön and Shudder had used this version of several of Fairfield’s wealthy citizens, who had promptly begun donating large portions of their fortunes to charity.

“Valkyrie’s plans for Orbis aren’t as disastrous as you might imagine,” Tlön continued. “She is producing a nanite network that will give an individual nearly absolute power over the lives of everyone on the planet, but she plans to ensure that anyone with access to this network can be trusted with it. Thus, the network’s interface will be connected to this new Orbis device, ensuring that anyone who accesses it will do it with only the interests of others in mind.”

“But there are all kinds of pitfalls with that,” Shudder protested. “What if someone finds another way to control the nanites? And even with Orbis’ influence, can we really be sure the user will be responsible?”

Doc held up a hand. “There’s no need to worry. I have everything under control. I don’t plan to allow Valkyrie’s scheme to proceed unchanged, especially not when she’s given me the opportunity to set the world on a better path. I may not have the resources to save the world all at once anymore, but I can start with a city.”

It was easy enough to piece together what she meant. Instead of building an Orbis that only affected one person at a time, she would build one large enough to hit the entire city. But that didn’t make any sense. Doc had always said that Orbis would only truly work if it hit the entire world. A single city wouldn’t be enough to change the systems of oppression that starved and imprisoned people, it would only create a new group of kindhearted people ripe for exploitation. Shudder wished she could ask more questions, but Valkyrie was already exiting the warehouse.

“I’ll get you the drive,” she said.

They stood as Valkyrie reached them. “How did it go?” Tlön asked.

“As well as can be expected,” Valkyrie replied. She gave Shudder a smile. “It seems your protege found you. Will she be joining us?”

“She needs to collect some possessions,” Tlön replied. “We’ll send an Einherjar to retrieve her tomorrow, if you can spare one.”

“I think that can be managed. I’ll have some questions for her, myself, tomorrow.”

Tlön looked at Shudder one last time. “I will see you soon, Shudder.”

Shudder tried to think of a response. There was so much she wanted to say about how much she’d missed her mentor, about Tutamaqui and everything she’d lost, and about her doubts about Orbis Tertius, but there was no time to go into any of that. So she remained silent as everyone packed into their vehicles and drove away, leaving her in the darkness.

There was so much to process. Snapshot had told her that Tlön would need her protection, but how could she protect her from a seemingly inevitable death? Had she already failed? She hated herself for knowing she couldn’t fix things. And she hated herself even more for not giving Tlön the flash drive. Why hadn’t she? It would have been easy to slip it into Doc’s hand without the Einherjar noticing.

As she contemplated, a shadow separated itself from the darkness. Surprised, Shudder quickly drew her baton before noticing the telltale shape of Stray’s catlike ears. His other features soon became clear as he approached. Any relief quickly vanished when she saw the scowl on his face.

“Unbelievable, Shudder. After everything you said at the meeting, you turn around and team up with Valkyrie at the first chance you get?”

Shudder tightened her grip on her baton. “I’m not working with Valkyrie.”

“No, you’re working with Tlön, which is even worse,” Stray spat.

What was the point in arguing with him? Even if he’d heard every word of the conversation, there was no chance he could have parsed Tlön’s meaning. “It’s not like you can stop me.”

“I can, actually. Easily.” He held up his phone. “I now have video proof of Valkyrie’s identity and the fact that she and Tlön are plotting to build another Orbis.”

Shudder lunged at Stray, but he slid backwards, avoiding her. She swung her baton, just catching him on the wrist as he dodged, but he held tight to the phone.

“It’s no use,” he said. “It’s already backed up. Even if you break my phone, I’ll have that video in front of Tomahawk’s eyes within the hour.”

He caught her baton in his free hand as she swung again and, having quickly secreted away his phone, pulled her closer to punch her in the stomach. She wove her leg around one of his and pulled, tripping him and forcing him to release the baton to land roughly on the ground.

“Not so easy when you’re up against someone who can keep fighting with dampened powers, is it?” she asked. She was so focused on the fight that the fact that she couldn’t sense his fear hardly registered.

Stray twisted his body in a strange sort of kip-up and was on his feet in an instant, punching and kicking even faster than Whisper ever had. Still, without Whisper’s unpredictable solidity, Shudder found it easier to keep up with Stray and exchanged a baton to the elbow for a punch to the jaw and an elbow to the nose for a kick to the chest before Stray broke away.

“What’s your endgame here?” he asked, wiping the blood from his nose. “Are you going to kidnap me and keep me tied up in Elise’s apartment?”

“If I have to,” Shudder replied. “I’ll do anything to protect her.”

“Figures. Too bad this fight is just for funsies. You’ve already lost.”

Shudder refused to let her apprehension show in her voice. “Is that so?”

Stray nodded knowingly. “Yeah. Because to win, all I have to do…is this!”

He turned and fled. Shudder took chase but found that even at her full sprint, he easily stayed ahead of her. As the gap between them grew, she wondered whether his speed was enough to count as a superpower. Rounding a corner, she found that he had halted to climb onto a motorcycle. She pushed herself harder as he started the engine, and finally leapt forward just as he took off, leaving her landing roughly on the pavement.

What could she do now? Was there a way to warn Valkyrie that the STRIX base was no longer safe? She could call Adam, she supposed. Maybe he had a way to quickly get in touch with her.

But maybe it was better if she didn’t. After all, Valkyrie couldn’t be trusted with the power she was seeking, certainly not with the way she treated criminals as disposable. And she was holding Tlön prisoner, even if she was somewhat less a prisoner than she had been at Singularity. Maybe the chaos of arresting Valkyrie would give Tlön the chance to escape.

However, that was a stretch, she had to admit. It was something else that was holding her back from warning Valkyrie.

She just wished she could figure out what it was.