Spite took a running leap off the roof. Maxine hadn't known which way to go, but Penumbra certainly did. Together, they had never been this driven. Gone was their elegance as they jumped from roof to roof, crashed into glass and steel, claws gouging chunks of concrete where they landed. 

 

The whole city had felt that… Thing. That voice. Whoever was behind that didn't care, didn't care a single bit about the damage they had caused. Below her in the streets she could hear sirens. All over the city people were hurting. She knew it. People on stairs, the elderly, people with disabilities, infants. Something like this would have hundreds, thousands of victims and casualties. Not to mention the traffic accidents they would have caused. They didn't care about being seen in broad daylight as she scaled an office building, trying not to rain down glass below. 

 

They approached the football stadium and already something was off. There were metal constructions, radar dishes, propped along the rim. But the really odd part was the fact that somehow, someone had built a big stone tower at the center of it. That had definitely not been there before. They were pretty sure. 

 

—-

 

Landing on the rim of the cauldron they surveyed the scene. The whole field had been upturned. Every dish on the edge of the stadium had thick, black cable running down to the Tower, an ugly, blocky, splotched brown thing. They all converged on the tower, but Spite had already lost interest. They had noticed the bodies. Tasted the sickening sweetness of rot on the wind. The stadium was littered with dozens of them. Most by the entrances, many as if they'd fought or simply dropped dead. Others just lay around, like wind-up toys that had run out, discarded by a petulant, distracted child. 

 

They scanned the tower again. At the top sat the child, looking directly at them. They snarled. 

 

“You're here. Good.”

 

Who are you?

 

“I'm… I haven't decided yet.”

 

“I like the term God-King.”

 

So you're an asshole 

 

The voice in their head chuckled. There was something a little hysterical about that laugh. It wasn't quite right, like someone having once heard a laugh and approaching it from the wrong direction. A laugh that said “I'm supposed to laugh here”. 

 

“Come here, creature. I have need of you.”

 

They felt as if someone had lodged a fishhook in their brain, pulling them forward. Their legs began to move but they retained enough composure to slam their claws into the ground. 

 

Tell us what you want. Maybe you walk away from this alive. 

 

“You do not tell me what to do!”

 

In the distance, they saw the figure stand up. 

 

—-

 

This was wrong! They weren't obeying him! He saw the creature in the distance. When he'd first touched their dual minds he'd instantly known they were his quarry, but only in seeing human and… Alien? He reckoned?... Melded together in a form of pure dumb force and energy did he understand why these two had shared a body as symbiotically as they did. 

 

Perhaps together, he mused, together they were stronger. If he couldn't isolate the two minds, perhaps they could stand up to his one. Well, maybe they would have. No matter. 

 

He turned and twisted a dial. The device in his skull hummed pleasantly, like a bee he'd kept in a jar as a child. He pressed the button, and tried again. 

 

—-

 

“COME HERE”

 

The voice bellowed in their head, and found themselves crossing the distance, not as a hunter, like they usually would, but as an eager puppy. 

 

Hold, Penumbra said quietly. This was why. Penny had relinquished control, they understood. Let your enemy think you are weak when you are strong. 

 

They reached the top of the tower in mere moments, and stood before a man in a coat. His clothing looked like it had once been immaculate, expensive. Now it was dirty, unwashed. His hair unkempt, his face unshaven. Bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days. 

 

Who are you 

 

“You can call me king Spree. Kneel.”

 

Their knees buckled and they caught themselves with a groan. He came closer and laid his hand on their head. They felt… Probed. Violated. Spree was going through their mind. Their memories. He was unearthing trauma and discarding it, leaving them to deal with the emotional fallout. And finally, he found what he was looking for, and shouted a triumphant “A-ha!”

 

A ha, Penumbra said. 

 

They swung their arm at his throat while he was distracted. They moved faster than anyone could have anticipated, let alone dodge. She grabbed him by the throat. Her hand wasn't big enough, strong enough, to snap his neck like they'd planned. Her arm was bare. Only hers. 

 

She looked up at him. He smiled down with pure, unadulterated malice as Penumbra sloughed off her in thick ribbons of alien flesh. It coalesced on the ground a single puddle, twitching and vibrating. 

 

“Turns out I have no need for the creature. I can just use you. Look.”

 

He retrieved something from his pocket and stabbed her in the chest. 

 

—-

 

Maxine collapsed. Blood pumped from her heart into her chest cavity and beyond. After a second, she felt the expanding pool touch her face. 

 

“Don't be so dramatic!” Spree said. “Stop gasping for air, for God's sake!”

 

He'd punctuated his last word with a violent kick to her abdomen. 

 

“I really needed that. You'll be fine. Look.”

 

Maxine didn't feel like she could look. All she could see was Penumbra's shape, just outside of reach. But she did feel… Something. She concentrated and realised… She was healing. Without Penumbra. The bleeding stopped. Where the crimson pool touched her skin, it was reabsorbed. Her breathing steadied. 

 

“See? I told you. Your friend is very generous parasite.”

 

“Symbiote,” she mumbled weakly. 

 

“What?”

 

“They're a symbiote.”

 

Daniel Spree rolled his eyes, and knelt down next to her. 

 

“Semantics. But it's shown me other things, too.”

 

He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to his throne. 

 

“Heal me,” he commanded as he sat down.

 

“What I-” 

 

The pressure on her brain was back as he screamed in her mind. Not words but pain. And as quickly as that had come, it had gone. She looked up at him incredulously, then clenched her jaw. 

 

“No.”

 

—-

 

What was happening!? He'd seen the creature’s plan to attack them and foiled it. It was catatonic and without a host, he had discovered, it would stay that way. So why the fuck was this woman still not obeying him?! The rage in him churned and stormed and he resisted the urge to beat her within an inch of her life. He still might, if the mood suited him, but first he needed to fix this. 

 

He reached out. Visualised the shape of her mind, all shitty colours flying around. It was… Hard to read. The black thing she'd been entwined with had left traces, not just physically but also on her psyche. He couldn't read her. Never matter. He could recognise the autonomy part of a human mind instantly now, and with a flashing white thought, he severed her sense of identity, her free will, and her memories. 

 

---

 

Rue saw them from above. She was sitting on a glowing blue motorcycle and looked down a set of binoculars. Victoria was just outside the stadium, just about touching down. After she'd recovered they didn't waste a second, hurrying after her. They arrived when Penumbra fell at Maxine's feet. 

 

“What do we do, V? I don't know who this guy is but he just no-selled Penny.”

 

Victoria patted her on the back. “So did you. Maybe he can do something like you can. Just… Let me get down, and then you rush in to the rescue.”

 

Rue nodded and spun her a parachute, and something extra to allow her to help. She was glad for it, because that's when the mystery man stabbed Maxine in the chest. Rue frantically began creating, figuring out what she could best do to help. Then, a memory of a collection hobby from long ago came to the rescue. 

 

—-

 

The girl sat next to him, catatonic, and he probed her mind, unraveling it as he went. It was completely deformed by her exposure to the creature and he tore at the thing, looking for an entrance that would allow him to puppeteer her properly. 

 

He was only slightly distracted by the fact that another woman landed in front of him. Or crashed rather. He was having some trouble understanding what was happening his mind literally elsewhere. It's because of this reason that he didn't quite understand what a mobile suit was, or the significance of Rue standing in front of him piloting a - significantly scaled down - gundam. 

 

Rue didn't say a word, and simply rushed him. 

 

—-

 

She grabbed him by the collar and shattered his nose. She'd moved so fast he was still extricating himself from Maxine's mind when the massive fist had slammed him in the face. He didn't get the chance to react when she tossed him off the tower. She was going to follow up with another attack, but never got the chance. Her body, and will, were no longer hers, and she found herself creating him a suit of armor in mid air. He piloted it awkwardly and crash landed in the rafters, losing his grip on her. He reached out again and found that… How did… 

 

Hovering in the air above him, Rue was now sporting a helmet inside her suit. He couldn't read her, couldn't even sense her. But the suit he'd had her construct for him was… Elegant. He raised himself up using the built in repulsors, and leveled himself eye to with her. 

 

“Who the fuck is this?” He asked himself. 

 

Rue assumed what she hoped was an intimidating fighting stance. “My name i-” 

 

“I did not ask you!” Like a bullet, Spree fired himself at her, hoping to bullrush her and taking off her helmet, closing the distance in no time. 

 

There was a small puff of smoke and fire from her joints, and suddenly, right before he had her face in his hand, she was three feet to the left of him. He barely had the time to look at her, see her smirk, when the boosters in her joints fired again and a massive robotic leg smashed into his back. He flew across the stadium, raising the repulsors to halt himself but it was too little, too late. Again he raised himself from the rubble of the rafters, just in time for Rue to materialise two giant pieces of equipment on her back. He saw something ignite. 

 

“Oh f-” He managed, before a barrage of missiles cascaded into him, every explosion like a punch in the gut. All he could do was shield himself with his hands, until he remembered that this suit was supposed to have some tricks of its own. 

 

A small turret popped up out of his shoulder, and with the speed and focus that only an imaginary construct of an AI could manage, it began to pop the rockets like balloons, slowly pushing the nucleus of explosions back towards Rue. He saw her look panicked as the missiles were making less and less ground until her face was obscured by fire. 

 

“Now,” He thought, and again flew at her, knowing the smoke and light would obscure his approach. He was almost there when she came from below, one leg outstretched, hitting him so hard, so fast, he folded like paper and rocketed upwards. He was losing consciousness and his complete rage at being knocked around by a teenager in a robot suit was the only thing keeping him clear headed enough to think through the headache. She hung in the air and looked at him triumphantly. He sneered and activated the massive repulsor cannon in his chest. She was too late to dodge it completely, managing only barely to avoid being vaporised. 

 

But there was a hole in her construct the size of a beach ball, and her helmet cracked and splintered. She was halfway to constructing a new one when he got a hold of her mind, and she froze. 

 

“Gotcha.”

 

He descended onto the grass awkwardly and commanded Rue to fly down to him with Maxine. Landing on the field next to him, Rue put Max down as gently as her forced actions allowed her, then glared at the man. He looked back with so much disdain she felt like her soul was muddied. 

 

“Take a nap, I might need you later,” he said, flicked her forehead, and she fell backwards, instantly asleep. 

 

“Now, back to work.”

 

He proceeded the not unpleasant task of dissecting Maxine's mind, like solving a puzzle blindfolded. It was a challenge, and he didn't get many of those. He started to hum something to himself, when his translucent helmet clanged. Something had bounced off it. And then another. It was loud. Then, about a thousand more. 

 

Across the field, Victoria stepped towards him with all the rage, fury and determination in the world, holding down the trigger on a massive, weightless machine gun, barrel rotating and spitting blue constructs at him at ten thousand rounds per minute. 

 

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND YOU SON OF A BITCH.”

 

—-

 

“How. Fffucking. Mmany. Of. Yyou. Arre. There!” Daniel raised his arm against the onslaught. The noise was making his headache worse. He couldn't think straight. The impacts from the gun started to hurt as he was shook around inside the construct. 

 

“Time. To. Go.” He exclaimed. He turned his back to the gunfire and woke Rue up. 

 

“You, get us out of here.”

 

The suits were gone but he was now shielded by a wall as he scooped Maxine up. A box formed around them - Daniel enjoyed a lack of imagination when it came to aesthetics - and it flew off, leaving a frustrated Victoria screaming as the weapon in her hands disintegrated. 

 

Not one for kneeling in the grass and despairing at the heavens, she broke into a sprint to follow them, get an idea of where they were going, realising that perhaps, from the top of the tower, she might be able to see them and their destination. She leapt up the stairs three steps at a time and got to the summit, not allowing herself time to be out of breath. And she saw them indeed, heading east out of the city. 

 

She also saw Penumbra, gurgling quietly. She knelt down next to it and touched the swirling purple miasma. 

 

Vvvvvvvicctorrria? The voice sounded distorted, like an amplified guitar played on an untuned radio. 

 

“Yeah. It's me. Let's get y-”

 

Nnnoo. The “signal” was getting stronger by the second. 

 

Wwwe’re ggetting our Max back

 

Penumbra began to run up Victoria’s arm. The sensation was hot and cold at the same time. 

 

“We're getting our Max back,” Victoria nodded. ”And if he gets in the way?”

 

The mask closed itself over her face. The world darkened, but she still saw, sensed everything, more powerful even than before. 

 

Pity 

 

But no Mercy 

 

 

---

 

He landed inside his refurbished cooling tower on the edge of the city. Time for plan b, he thought. He could rebuild the tower. Start somewhere else. Bigger. Better. He had his prize. He ordered Rue to stand guard. 

 

“If anyone comes close, you charge them until one of you isn't standing anymore. 

 

He went back to his work, and it would have been pleasant work but twice now he had been interrupted. Twice he felt like he had gotten close to getting inside her head and twice his entire plan had almost failed. Because of a bunch of millennials. Time passed frantically dissecting and splaying her mind open. Sometimes it was like trying to organise the ripped pages of a book. Then suddenly it was like trying to organise spaghetti. The creature had done a number on her. That was probably why she had the ability to heal people, he thought. If only he could get this damned outer shell to crack. 

 

Never matter, he thought, continuing to cut and slice like a deranged surgeon. He was a very diligent worker. 

 

—-

 

They ran. Victoria could think of nothing but Maxine as they scaled every wall and building in the way, collateral damage something that literally happened to other people. She could not stop. She would not stop. She was barely aware of the difference when she had Penumbra… On? In her? It didn't matter. She and Penny pumped her legs like pistons. Is this how Max felt all the time?

 

No 

 

“No?”

 

I'm helping you move your body. Use it better. Make it stronger. 

 

Penumbra paused. They kept running, leaping across six lanes. 

 

Maxine and I are one. Her legs are my legs. My abilities are her abilities. I am as much Max as she is me. We are Spite. When… When we reach him, get me to her as quickly as possible. We can't be apart. Not anymore. 

 

Victoria nodded with grim determination and kept running. She could see their destination ahead of them. 

 

—-

 

Daniel Spree was sweating. This was much harder than he thought it would be but he thought he finally found something. A corner piece, or perhaps the end of a string to lead him through the labyrinth. He grabbed it triumphantly as Penumbra and Victoria reached the edge of the cooling tower and began to climb, nearly running straight up. 

 

—-

 

V and Penny stood on the edge. Far below them, they saw the man hunched over Max, motionless, hand on her forehead. Between them was a shimmering blue barrier. On it stood Rue. They jumped down, and landed with a loud thud. 

 

“Penny?” Rue said as she charged them. She was wearing some kind of power armor, not nearly as elegant as the suit she'd worn before, and a sword that looked much too big to be practical. 

 

“Why are you helping him?” they bellowed as they narrowly avoided the first attack. Victoria wasn't used to her reflexes kicking in this fast, but she sure was grateful. 

 

“Mind control!” Rue yelled as she backhanded them with her armoured fist, sending them flying. “I'm sorry! I can only try my hardest!”

 

Victoria squinted. 

 

“We will too. See if you can get in close.”

 

“Oh shit!” Rue exclaimed. “Victoria!” She did what she could to resist the mind control, following it to the letter, and charged them recklessly with her sword.

 

They dodged it and this time, she was ready for the second strike. A lot of her martial arts training was coming back and with Penny’s help, she began to block and deflect every blow Rue sent at her. To Rue, this was very different from the first time she'd seen Spite, which now felt like a lifetime ago. Spite had torn through her constructs with animalistic rage. Penumbra and Victoria however were a different creature altogether. Their movements were purposeful and trained, every blow and jab trained a thousand times, simply enhanced by Penny. 

 

Victoria was, all things considered, in her element. Not that she was happy about this, any of this, but she knew how to fight, and fight for someone she loved. She had never been more focused, despite being forced to kick the ass of someone she had grown to care about like a baby sister over the the past weeks. 

 

She'd never fought someone so happy to be about to be defeated. She slammed a fist into the center of the suit and the construct shattered. 

 

“Oh no!” Rue smiled, “I've been defeated.” She fell into her back and had the wind knocked out of her, satisfying Spree’s command. Victoria and Penumbra knelt down next to her. 

 

“You okay?”

 

Rue smiled up at her, about to say something, her expression turning into a surprised “o” when the platform they were standing on dissipated as well, and they began to fall the remaining hundred feet. Rue was not going to survive this.

 

“Nope.” 

 

They grabbed Rue and wrapped themselves around her, landing on their back a few dozen feet from the man and Max. Rue rolled off her, unconscious. She remembered he'd been distracted before and charged him as quietly as she could. Maybe he hadn't even-

 

She was inches away from him when he spun around and Penumbra immediately fell off her. 

 

“Found a new host, have you? This one isn't as resilient,” He said to the purple puddle. “I'm disappointed, really. You got close but in the end the only challenge is cleaning up your mess. Oh well.”

 

Victoria couldn't move. Her first was raised and it was trembling but she couldn't move, like her mind and her body were caught in a vice. He smirked, and handed her the knife. 

 

“If you'll do the honours?”

 

She grabbed it slowly, shaking, as she looked down at the knife, and then him. As she turned it over, pointing it at her chest, he leaned in next to her ear. 

 

“I don't have to do this. You could be unconscious, in a trance-like state. But I want to. I want you to feel this,” He whispered like a snake as she slowly pushed the knife between her ribs. She was crying, but couldn't make a sound. 

 

“If only you'd ghk-”

 

The knife dropped from Victoria's grip and hit the ground with a clang. She turned to the man and saw something protruding from his mouth, but she couldn't make out what. Then, behind him, she saw Max, slowly raising herself up. 

 

Her left arm was extended and as she stood upright, Daniel Spree, with two seconds left to live, felt his feet lose touch with the floor. Maxine's entire left arm was a sharp, bone blade that had been rammed through the base of his skull and came out the front. Her face was all grime and tears and pain and rage. She said nothing, and flung him aside. As her arm became arm-shaped again, Victoria wondered why she was feeling cold, and looked down to find that there was, well, a lot of blood dribbling from her chest. Max ran over to her. 

 

“No no no no no no Victoria, this isn't happening-”

 

You can help her. 

 

Max was panicking, trying to keep the wound closed, so it was taking her a minute to realise what Penumbra had said. Now that they were together again, she felt more like herself, but it was taking a second. 

 

“How? How?!”

 

You can heal yourself. Heal her.

 

It wasn't going to be that simple, was it? She placed her hands on Victoria's chest - God. There was so much blood - and forced herself to concentrate. She couldn't feel V’s body the way she could her own but… Maybe she could?

 

She bent the strands of her nervous system, pushed them out through the palm of her hands, into V, and “healed” them in place there. Suddenly, she felt it. The pain in Victoria's chest. She felt it and pulled at it. Forced it close, knit the flesh and muscle back together as she healed Victoria’s heart and pumped new blood into her love. 

 

Victoria and Max both calmed down, Max kneeling next to V who squeezed her hand weakly. 

 

Victoria was still weak, looking up at Maxine with love and admiration and gratitude. “Babe. Look what you can do.” 

 

“You came for me,” Max smiled, crying. “You saved me.”

 

V smirked. “Of course I did. It's how we met, right.”

 

Maxine laughed, tears streaming down her face. “I love you, Victoria. So fucking much.”

 

“I love you too, Maxine. Now kiss me, you dork.”

 

She pulled V in close and kissed her, the taste of blood and tears lost in a daze. Neither cared. The world did not exist, until Victoria coughed and suddenly it had to again. Rue woke up too, saw them sitting there, and limped over. The landing had bruised her ribs. Breathing was hard.

 

She saw the scene before her, the man dead off to the side and Maxine cradling a smiling Victoria who seemed covered in blood but otherwise fine. 

 

“What… Who... Who was that?” She looked at the corpse carefully, wary it might rise back up somehow and come back to haunt them. 

 

Max didn't even look. “Who cares.” She couldn't stop looking at Victoria. 

 

“I… I can take you to the apartment…” Rue coughed. 

 

“Can you get yourself there?”

 

Rue nodded with a soft smile. 

 

“Then don't worry,” Max said. “I've got her.”

 

Rue took off as Maxine carefully lifted the still-weak Victoria off the ground, cradling her in her arms. “My big strong princess,” V smiled and leaned her head against Maxine's chest. Max looked down at her and smiled as a ripping sound, creaking, like old wood, sounded. Victoria looked up at her girlfriend as she unfurled two massive, white-feathered wings, and lifted them up and out of hell. 

 

You dramatic bitch.