A third option would be Taylor becoming a solo hero (or less likely, villain), but that seems unlikely, especially with how much Taylor craves company.

“Why?”  I had a growing suspicion as to why, helped by her glance to my restraints.  If they were arresting me, they couldn’t have me agree to any deals or plea bargains while I was drugged up, or it would be thrown out of court.  I was pretty sure.  One semester of a law class didn’t exactly leave me an expert.

Hm.

Maybe we’re looking at a Shadow Stalker type deal here.

I feel like this is a good spot to put some of the thoughts from further back in my mind over the course of the last few paragraphs into words:

What if Taylor does end up as a Ward? It’d be a quite legitimate way to continue the story. It’d allow Taylor to see (and Wildbow to show) some of the game of capes from that side of things too. She’d also end up getting to know her fellow – surviving – Wards better, too, including Clockblocker and (I think) Weld.

Honestly, I’m not sure which way I’d like it to go more. Going back to the remaining Undersiders has the benefit of continuing the thing with Taylor being a villain who originally meant to be a hero, and allowing her to mend her relationships, but her ties to them have been cut rather dramatically – with Brian’s rejection and the loss of Tattletale, among other things – and we lost my favorite Undersider.

…and besides, this event is one that by all means should cause a change to the status quo.

I think I might like Taylor becoming a Ward or otherwise part of a hero team.

“Ow,” I muttered, as one line of pain drew itself from my hip to my ankle.

“I’ve got to test your nerves as I re-establish the connections, but I’m too tired to do it all with my power, and I can’t dope you up with endorphins because Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Legend will be coming to talk to you in a bit, and I’ve been told you need your head one hundred percent clear for that.  So some of this is going to hurt.”

…

Well that’s an intriguing tidbit. Unless they’re going to everyone (which would take quite some time), it seems the higher-ups have taken some interest in Taylor. Not entirely undeserved, after her actions at the shelter, though I don’t know how much they’d know about that at this point.

There’s also a chance Armmaster told the other two about his previous encounters with Taylor, and about her supposed undercover recon mission. It’ll be interesting to see what Legend has to say about that if he did.

“Wait, what?  Why do I need my head clear to talk to them?  Why are they talking to me?”

“Mmm.  I can feel your emotions in your body, hormones and altered chemical balances.  You’re scared.”

Yeah… First she’s been worried that she’s getting arrested, and now the leader of the organization that would do the arresting wants to talk to her in person?

I’m more optimistic about it, but I understand why Taylor would be a bit concerned.

“Damn right, I’m scared – ouch.  Fuck, that stung.”  My leg jerked.

“It’s going to happen any time my concentration slips.  Best to stay quiet.”

Heh. I can’t tell if Pan’s being sincere here or she just wants Taylor to shut the fuck up already.

“Broken arm, broken spine, fractured ribs, small perforations in colon, kidney and liver, some internal bleeding.  This will take a minute.”

Lots of nasty stuff right there.

I nodded.  It was more severe than I’d thought.  That unsettled me some.

Yeah, I’m no medical professional but I’m fairly sure at least three of those things are potentially lethal if left unchecked.

A part of me wanted to apologize for what had happened at the bank robbery, but the tone of our earlier conversation made it feel like I’d be trying to dissuade her from doing something malicious with her power.

Fair enough.

Relief overwhelmed me as sensations began returning to my legs.  They were quick, like being shocked, but they ranged from hot to cold to the unfamiliar, running from my abdomen to the tips of my toes, tracing every internal area of my legs.

Yay! You can have sex with boys “the natural way” again! Eh, Taylor? 😉

I mean, unless that’s the one thing Panacea decides to mess with.

She fumbled with my mask for a second.

“Lower,” I informed her, “The mask and body part of the costume overlap just above the collarbone.”

Useful information.

She found it, separated the two, and touched a fingertip to my throat, like she was taking my pulse.

The pain left in an instant.  My breathing became easier, and I felt a steady pressure deep in my broken arm.

😀

“You have a brain injury that’s not fully healed.”

“Bakuda’s fault.”

She still has traces of that concussion, huh? It’s been a while.

Granted, I’m no expert on concussions. For all I know, this could be normal.

“Hm.  Outside the scope of my abilities.”

Hrm, you sure about that? I seem to recall something from Interlude 2 about you not wanting to mess with brains even though you technically can.

Ominous, but I wasn’t ready to put too much stake in what she told me, and what she might be leaving out.

“Okay,” my voice was stronger, without the crippling pressure in my chest and back.

It’s seriously very nice to see Taylor feeling better. 🙂

“Microfracture in your shoulder, nerve damage to your left hand, reduced fine dexterity.”

“Really?  I hadn’t noticed.”

It’s not like she’s been using the left hand much since the arm injury.

“It’s there.  I’m not going to bother with that, either.”

“Wasn’t expecting you to.”  Couldn’t let her ruffle me.

I guess that’s fair. If Panacea stopped to deal with every little thing wrong with every patient’s body, she’d never get anything done.

Especially when the patients also distract her with moral philosophy.

It wasn’t really a choice.  A long, hard road to recovery, possibly with no recovery at all, fraught with any potential health complications that the universe decided to hand my way, or healing for a broken back, with the potential health complications that Panacea decided to give me?

Yeah, I think this is a pretty clear decision.

I mean, whatever she deigned to inflict on me would be calculated to make me miserable, if she went that far, but at least then I’d have someone to hate.

Hehe.

“Please,” I spoke, “Use your power.”

She nodded at the PRT uniform, who left the enclosure.  Then she approached the side of the bed.

Nice.

So judging by the comment about Taylor’s suit covering her skin, I guess this means Taylor will have to find some that she can bare.

“I’m going to have to move some of your mask aside, to touch your skin.”

“Permission granted,” I spoke, “Though I’ve been wondering since the bank robbery – why didn’t you reach up and touch my scalp?”

Huh? Was Taylor’s scalp exposed at some point in the robbery? I don’t remember that.

“No comment.”

Ah.  Something about hair, maybe?

Hm. Or maybe something about not actually wanting to follow through on the sorts of threats she came with.

A weakness in her power.  Maybe it was mucked up or confused by ‘dead’ tissue?

But yeah, this is also a possibility, and given the track record, Taylor’s probably right.

“Then you’re either ignorant, deluded or you have a very twisted perspective.”

“Maybe.”

I for one think intent matters a lot. That’s the crux of this, I suppose: Amy is following a philosophy of intent whereas Taylor follows a philosophy of consequence.

She went on, “Don’t really care which it is.  If you’re going to call yourself a good person,” she paused, shook her head a little, “Then don’t waste my time.  Give me an answer, one way or another, so I can get on with helping people.”

Yeeah, a debate over what makes someone a good person is very much not what Panacea came here for.

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Are you a decent person, Amy?”

Amy is… I’d say she’s good-hearted but vicious if crossed. What remains to be seen is whether she holds a grudge enough to stay vicious weeks after the crossing.

She gave me an offended look.

“I envy you, that it’s so easy for you to think of things in terms of black and white.  I’d like to think I’m a good person, believe it or not.  

Actually… this might be something Taylor needed to be called out on. She has been thinking of a lot of things in black and white. It was only thanks to her time with the Undersiders that it seemed to occur to her that villains aren’t necessarily bad people, that heroes aren’t necessarily good people, and that there are different degrees of badness.

And hell, just look at her encounter with Mr. Gladly last chapter. He did one thing that Taylor saw as a betrayal, and because of that, Taylor was almost ready to let him die.

Or the Dinah Alcott situation. Taylor left the Undersiders because she realized they weren’t willing to put themselves at risk to save Dinah – none of them making that decision out of malice – thus making most of them plummet into the “bad person” category in her view.

This is a world of gray and black morality, and that line does not quite follow the line between hero and villain.

Everything I’ve done, I did because I thought it was right at the time.  In hindsight, some of the ends didn’t justify the means, and sometimes there were unforseen consequences.”  Like Dinah.  “But I don’t think of myself as a bad person.”

That realization in the middle there is important. If Taylor takes this to heart and applies it to herself and the Undersiders, they might be able to get past their differences.

“That’s not reassuring.”

“It’s not meant to be reassuring.  I suppose maybe you’ll just have to either trust in the fact that I’m a decent person or refuse my help,” she shrugged, glaring at me,

She may not be helping her case, but at least she’s being honest. Putting all the cards on the table for the patient who’s about to make an important decision regarding consent is important.

“There’s a kind of poetry to this.  Like, a thief fears being stolen from the most, a scumbag… well, you get the drift.

Heh.

The more horrible a human being you are, the more you’ll agonize over what I might have done to you, with a time delay of minutes, hours, days, years.

Honestly, I have a feeling that this knowledge is revenge enough for Panacea. The seed of insecurity that gets Taylor to worry about Pan for years after the fact.

That said, she’s wrong. Sure, being a horrible person can give you some imagination as to what she might’ve done, but there are definitely more horrible people in this story who wouldn’t think about it nearly as much as Taylor would.

Yet if you’re a decent person, you’ll be more inclined to think better of me.”

I suppose this part might be accurate, though.