Numb, she returned to the office that looked out on the lot.  Dragon’s face displayed on a computer screen to the left of the door.  The computer chair was unoccupied.

“That’s it?” Carol asked.

For now, anyway. Maybe at some point we’ll find out how the meeting between Amy and Marquis went – she must’ve known that would happen when she volunteered – and, if we’re lucky, the Birdcage may be compromised at some point.

(Yeah, I may not be theorizing on that as actively as I once did, but it’s still very much a possibility. Especially considering that the Birdcage is an attractive target to Endbringers, and that the apocalyptic threat is likely to cause a lot of destruction worldwide.)

“She’ll be transported there and confined for the remainder of her life, barring exceptional circumstance.”

Exceptional circumstance! You know, like the apocalypse.

Carol nodded.  “Two daughters gone in the blink of an eye.”

Oh yeah, now she’s your daughter again. Now that you recognize her as another victim.

“Your husband decided not to come?”

“He exchanged words with her in her cell this morning.  He decided it was more important to accompany Victoria to Pennsylvania.”

Wait, what?

What’s in Pennsylvania?

She couldn’t forgive Amy, not ever, not in the slightest.  But she was sorry.

Amy swallowed hard and stepped back, then stepped up into the truck.

😦

Carol watched in silence as the doors automatically shut and locked, and remained rooted in place as the truck pulled out of the parking lot and disappeared down the road.

Goodbye, Amy.

Well.

At least she’ll be reunited with her other family this way.

“I’m sorry,” the digitized voice spoke.

Digitized? Dragon?

Or is it just that it’s coming from a phone or video or something?

Carol watched Amy through the window.

Amy seemed to have changed, transformed.  Could Carol interpret that as a burden being lifted?  Relief?  Even if it was only because the very worst had come to pass, and there was nothing left for Amy to agonize over?

Wait, fuck, is it Dragon, talking to Carol because they’ve arrested Amy for what she did to Victoria?

Don’t you fucking dare send her to the Birdcage.

There was shame, of course, horrific guilt.  That much was obvious.  The girl couldn’t meet anyone’s gaze.

“Everyone’s sorry,” Carol spoke, her voice hollow.

Or maybe it’s Amy talking, digitized to prevent powers like Paige’s from affecting the visitors.

“You were saying something about that before,”  Dragon said.  “Are you-?”

Ah, no, I was right the first time.

Brandish clenched her fists.

“I lost track.  I forgot how to change her back.”

Well, fuck.

A caricature.  A twisted reflection of how Amy saw Victoria, the swan curve of the nape of the neck, the delicate hands, and countless other features, repeated over and over again throughout.  It might even have been something objectively beautiful, had it not been warped by desperation and loneliness and panic.  As overwhelming as the image and the situation had been in Amy’s mind, Victoria was now equally imposing, in a sense.  No longer able to move under her own power, her flesh spilled over from the edge of the mattress and onto the floor.

Art.

She’s a coddamn sculpture of the beauty Amy saw in her.

Bonesaw would approve. This, this right here, is why she could relate to Amy.

And you know what? I’m sure Victoria is happy like this. Because Amy wanted her to be, and made it so.

She didn’t move as Amy’s spoke from behind her.  “Please, let me explain.”

I don’t have high hopes for Carol accepting the explanation, but hopefully Amy gives it anyway while Carol’s stunned.

Brandish couldn’t bring herself to move or speak.  Amy seemed to take that silence as assent.

“I wanted to see her smile again.  To have someone hug me before I left forever.  So you wouldn’t have to worry about me anymore.  I- I told myself I’d leave after.  Victoria wouldn’t remember.  It would be a way for me to get closure.  Then I’d go and spend the rest of my life healing people.  Sacrifice my life.  I don’t know.  As payment.”

Is Victoria permanently, unnaturally smiling now?

Lady Photon had made her way upstairs.  She entered the room and stopped just in front of Brandish.  Her hands went to her mouth.  Her words were a whispered, “Oh God.”

Except everything suggests something much worse. Much more… Bonesaw-y.

Amy kept talking, her voice strangely monotone after her earlier emotion, as if she were a recording.  Maybe she was, after a fashion, all of the excuses and arguments she’d planned spilling from her mouth.  “I wanted her to be happy.  I could adjust.  Tweak, expand, change things to serve more than one purpose.  I had the extra material from the cocoon.

The cocoon that was made of stray animals. How is that different from using bugs as extra materials?

When I was done, I started undoing everything, all the mental and physical changes.  I got so tired, and so scared, so lonely, so I thought we’d take another break, before I was completely finished.  I changed more things.  More stuff I had to fix.  And days passed.  I-“

Oh jeez. How much did she change, ultimately?

Is Victoria even the same person anymore, with the mind changes?