Tessa and the Entity had found themselves led into a nearby basement, arriving in a windowless white room with a table and a few metal chairs to sit on. The agent who’d led them down left as soon as they were seated. He’d given no real instructions beyond that they should wait.

So they waited. Tessa had become rather used to waiting at this point, after all. She had questions she wanted to ask the Entity. To ask Garcelle. But it felt wrong to ask those here. 

Though, if she thought about it, their home was probably going to be covered in listening devices by the time they got home. So she wasn’t sure if they’d have privacy even when they got back. Still, they could be interrupted at any moment. So she would wait.

At long last, the door opened, Tessa perking up, only to see an agent carrying a box of doughnuts and a couple of peach juices from Ronnie’s. The woman put those down, apologising that the negotiations with the Americans were taking longer than expected.

“Wait, we have to wait here until the negotiations are over? Couldn’t that take weeks?” Tessa asked the agent.

“Oh, no. Not the full negotiations. Just to get them to stand down for the moment,” the woman explained, before excusing herself.

Tessa grumbled, but grabbed her drink and pulled out a maple doughnut.

The Entity leaned in, looking at the assorted fried dough goodness in the box. Its eyes seemed downright mystified. Tessa raised an eyebrow, watching it look over the options.

“Rainbow sprinkle,” it said at last, reaching out and grabbing the doughnut in question.

It took a bite and let out a soft moan of joy.

“Yep. You always had a sweet tooth,” Tessa said, scooting her chair over to lean against her girlfriend.

“Sugar is the building block to terrestrial life,” the Entity replied. “What is not to like?”

Tessa gave it a kiss on the cheek, whispering ‘love you mon amour’, before the door opened again.

Agent Lee walked in, closing the door behind him, then pausing to fix his tie. Even though it had looked perfectly fine before.

“That was quicker than I expected,” Tessa said, sitting back up.

“It moved up to the political level,” Agent Lee replied, before sitting down across the table from them.

He looked down at the drinks, seeing the one still sitting in the carrying tray. Then he looked up at the Entity.

“Will you be drinking that?” he asked.

“Is it tasty?” the Entity replied.

“Yes,” Tessa said.

“Ah. Then I shall.”

The Entity reached over, grabbing the drink. Agent Lee looked mildly disappointed, but cleared his throat and moved on. He produced two forms, each several pages stapled together.

“These are for your debriefings. They are a general non-disclosure agreement for issues involving aliens. While it is clear there will be no hiding that the Entity in the body of Garcelle Lefèvre is of extraterrestrial origin, we would like to avoid certain details becoming public. Information on previous American studies of the Entity for starters. Oh, and discussion about alien civilizations, of course.”

Tessa blinked. “Alien… civilizations?”

Agent Lee stared at her from behind his sunglasses, before turning to the Entity, tilting his head.

“She did not ask about them, so I had seen no reason to discuss them,” the Entity replied.

“Ah,” the agent replied softly.

“There’s alien civilizations!? Like… and Earth is in contact with them?” Tessa asked. “I… I just thought you were from some sort of… natural process, I guess? What—ho—I… I don’t even know where to start with asking questions.”

Agent Lee cleared his throat. “Well, our paperwork would not prevent you two discussing matters amongst yourselves later, though, the less you know the fewer secrets you would have to maintain.”

“I guess that’s true,” Tessa mumbled, before something struck her. “Are you an alien?”

“Pardon?” Agent Lee replied.

“Well, you’re sort of… odd? There’s nothing wrong with being odd, but, if you work with aliens and you’re odd, I thought there might have… been a… a chance?” she trailed off.

Agent Lee took a moment to process that. “As far as I know, I am not an alien, but… hmm, I suppose I could theoretically be a sleeper agent. It may be best for me to undergo a medical examination. I have had other people consider me somewhat odd.”

“Uh…” Tessa said, looking to the Entity for help.

Only to notice her girlfriend was in a little world of bliss as she ate her second doughnut. 

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” Agent Lee said, ignoring that Garcelle was starting to float up off of her chair. “It would have been quite the oversight on my part as a member of the alien monitoring taskforce to not have checked that.”

“N—no problem?” Tessa replied.

“Now then, you do still have to sign these release forms, but, if you have any questions about specifics, feel free to ask,” he said.

---

Tessa’s head was still spinning a little from the amount of legal writing she’d had to read to get released from custody. At least they’d been nice enough to give her a drive home. 

Garcelle floated around the apartment, hunting for listening devices while Tessa marvelled that they’d fixed the door so quickly. The Entity eventually returned with a small collection of devices, which it was… eating as it floated over to check on her. Tessa headed straight for the couch, needing to sit down. She tried to ignore the crunching noise from the electronics being chewed.

“Alien civilizations,” Tessa mumbled, shaking her head. “I had no idea…”

“Mhm…” the Entity replied, nodding slightly as it ate the last device.

“That’s all you’re going to say? ‘Mhm’?”

The Entity shrugged. “It is, over all, an idea as mundane to me as the knowledge that Belgium exists.”

“Can you tell me about them, though?” Tessa asked, shifting on the couch to turn to the Entity.

“Yes… I would prefer not to, though,” the Entity replied, lifting its feet off the ground to curl up in mid air, floating there with only the slightest wobble.

“Why not?” Tessa asked, her mind still racing, wondering about the marvels of the universe.

The Entity’s eyes drifted out towards the window. Tessa watched it for a moment, not quite sure what to do.

Finally, it spoke. “I am a weapon… no, no. It would be more accurate to say that I am a doomsday device. 

It paused, hunting for words. “I… we… I want to pretend previous actions were previous versions of what I am, but I am not sure I can do that. The memories feel too close. All that destruction. All those worlds… It is not quite the same as my human memories, but…”

Tessa could only blink at first, not quite sure what to say.

“You don’t have to…” she started, before realising she wasn’t quite sure what to say. 

Did she have an argument to support her position beyond not wanting to see her girlfriend hurting? She very much had her doubts. 

“There is such greed and hatred out there,” the Entity said. “I had thought there was no truth to the idea of love… and I hadn’t wanted to lose your love, once I found it. I didn’t want you to know what I’ve done… but you deserve the truth.”

Tessa found herself standing up. She couldn’t leave her girlfriend hurting like that, even if it seemed to be drifting away from it’s human side. From the part that was Garcelle. It was still all the new reality of who she loved, and so Tessa hurried over and hugged it. Holding it tight against herself, even as odd energy rippled off the alien being and send tingles through Tessa.

“You’re definitely a new person. You’re not just… whatever it was of you that did those things. You’re also Garcelle. And—and… I don’t know, did the other part of you have hosts before?” Tessa asked.

The Entity looked at her with confusion in those glowing red eyes.

Tessa gently placed her hands on the Entity’s cheeks. “Then maybe the love and compassion from those previous hosts is also building up. Maybe the part of you that’s a doomsday device is a minority now. Maybe you can be who and what you want to be now.”

A smile slowly grew across the Entity’s face, and hope spread into those inhuman eyes. “I… I don’t remember them. I don’t know if I have anything of them… but I would like to think I do. That I have something of them. It is a very comforting sentiment.”

---

Tessa was still curious about the civilizations out there in the galaxy. Who wouldn’t be? But she was going to respect her girlfriend’s boundaries.

Besides, they had something else to worry about: the Entity trying to learn how to act like a normal person.

Yes, Garcelle’s memories were helping, but they were still swirling a little, leaving it unsure of many specifics. And so the Entity had decided… sitcoms and slice of life anime were good study material to understand human social interactions.

Tessa didn’t quite agree, but she had to accept that they were still better than nothing.

Right now, though, she found the Entity going through Garcelle’s mycology textbooks.

“Are you planning to go back to researching?” Tessa asked, feeling quite surprised.

“Agent Lee said we could go back to our ordinary lives. So, yes?” it replied.

“I… so you’re still interested in mycology?” 

“Possibly,” the Entity said. “I sort of am a mycology… and I do not know what else to do.”

Tessa had to admit that was fair. Inertia was generally easy to go with, and the Entity hadn’t had a lot of time as its current self to work out if it had other interests and goals.

Besides snuggling up to Tessa, which it started doing by floating after her, still holding a textbook in its lap. 

---

Dr. Montgomery sat in the back of the car with General Adams, listening to the mustachioed man’s angry lecture. He was busy being worried about his own career. He was a useful superior when things were going well, liking to bend rules in a self serving manner, but when things went poorly he lashed out.

“I would like to point out that we’re trying to secure the future of this nation in a galaxy of possible enemies,” Dr. Montgomery said while he took a moment to breathe.

“I’d prefer to serve the country without risking my own neck any more than necessary, though,” he muttered. “I had the president on my back today after your little stunt went sideways.”

“He’s out in eight months anyhow,” she replied.

“They’ve had to leak that alien life exists,” he countered sharply. “There were too many witnesses to what happened in Nova Scotia.”

“We knew it was coming out sooner or later. We’re starting to approach the point where some of our friends will want official diplomatic contact.”

General Adams continued to ramble about his career and the politics of the blowback. Not the real concern, about how their ‘benefactor’ was going to respond. Well, that and the risk the White House might have second thoughts about keeping nukes ready for when the Asset started causing problems. 

It had never been supposed to take that researcher as its permanent host. Garcelle and Dr. Warrens were only supposed to help them figure out how the energy field worked. Once Garcelle been taken as a host, Selma had been ready to observe her, to let her go further than the technician in Nevada had. But the plan had been to take her out of the picture, and use the surviving spores to use on a better host. 

They had a few patriotic volunteers ready to be a super soldier. Maybe most of them were a bit optimistic on just how much control they’d have, but a mad dog they could keep on a short leash was what Dr. Montgomery’s team were really after. Something that would show Beijing and Moscow who was in charge once and for all, and let humanity step onto the Galactic stage unified under American management.

But General Adams had only ever seen personal benefit in it, and was getting cold feet. Sure, Selma had been drawn by the science, the ability to test things she’d never get to work with otherwise, but she also saw the big picture. Saw that this would decide the future of humanity.

“I’m pulling the plug,” the General said. “We’re just going to convince Ottawa to kill that thing, somehow. Then we’ll bury it in Greenland or something, under a mile of concrete.”

Dr. Montgomery nodded. “I was worried you’d say that.”

“I’ll try not to have it hurt you too much, Selma, but keeping this project open is going to make too many enemies,” he replied.

Ignoring him, Dr. Montgomery pulled out her phone, pressing one of her contacts. The number rang twice. Then the car lurched.

“W-what?” General Adams said, looking around and seeing that they were driving off of the main road. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know, sir,” the driver replied. “The car is driving on its own… I can’t do anything.”

“What’s that supposed to—” the general started to say, before realising they’d slipped into a back alley. 

That was followed by discovering the car was being pulled off into the air. 

“The Benefactor would like to discuss your cancellation plans,” Dr. Montgomery said.

“Is this a kidnapping!?” the general asked, seeing that they were now floating somewhere above Arlington.

“Something like that,” she replied.