My leg bounced on the spot with anxiety and anticipation.  Jack was up to something and I was sitting there.

Hey, be patient. Because you are a patient. Patient zero for the city’s cure.

I tried to distract myself with a change of subject, “Where did you get the material for what you did for Glory Girl?  That sarcophagus thing.  You have to use living material, so…”

Yeah, damn good question.

“They weren’t human.”

“That’s not that reassuring.”

“I used pheromones to lure stray cats, dogs and rats to us, then I knit them together.  Victoria didn’t have enough body fat to stay warm, and she was wearing out faster than I could get her nutrition.”

…I see.

“She’s going to return to normal, though?”

“Just a little more time.  I have to ensure she’s totally together inside the cocoon, then disconnect her from it, and make sure she reaches a physical equilibrium afterward.  Once I know she’ll recover…” she trailed off.

“Amy-”

Right, there’s that whole thing about leaving to consider.

If you really want to leave your family, Amy, I’m sure there’s one that will have you. They’re called the Undersiders.

“Go.  You’re done.  Go after Jack.”

I hesitated.  There was a look in her eyes, dark.  She wasn’t meeting my gaze.

She doesn’t want to talk about that part.

I turned and ran.  Atlas was waiting on the rooftop as I ascended the stairs.

Too much time lost.  My body was a counter-agent for Bonesaw’s prion generators, but I had to find Jack and Bonesaw.  I could scout the area with my bugs, vaguely sense the areas they’d traveled by seeing what spots murdered my bugs on contact, but I still had to track their movements.

Time for a chase to the city limits?

“The parasites will replace existing parasites over time, and they’ll die if it gets cold, now.  Or if you raise your blood alcohol content.  Get drunk after a week or two to clear them from your system, and don’t drink tainted water.

Drunk Taylor sounds like an interesting experience. Powers/magic mixed with alcohol lead to fun results sometimes.

If everyone clears them from their systems, the miasma’s effects will be gone by the end of winter.”

That long, huh. Well, still. Better than dying in hours.

“They’re probably what she seeded all over the area, before using the catalyst.”

“I’d believe it.”

“And the damage, can you reverse it?”

“The minor damage, yeah.  But I can’t do anything for the people with more serious brain lesions unless I attend to them directly.  There’s other healers out there, I know they’re not as good, but maybe they can do something to fix that.”

Othala might actually be able to help, especially since she can heal multiple people at once. (Brian wasn’t able to while borrowing her power because the power reduction made it only last a few seconds per touch.)

I nodded.

Precious seconds passed.

“Let me know the second I can go,” I said.  “Jack’s going to attack, or pull something.”

“If we’re lucky it’ll be a muscle.”

“Trying to engineer a large-scale solution to help as many people as soon as possible.  The parasites will leave your body through your sweat, spit and urine, and enter the local water supply to override the others, and anyone you cure will cure others in a sort of reverse-epidemic.

That’s.

Weird but effective.

I have to make sure this is engineered right, or nobody’s going to get cured.  If I screw it up, it could be worse than what Bonesaw did.”

It’s a sensitive business.

“This is bad.  Every second is time you’re suffering more permanent damage.”

“That’s not a huge priority.  I’m more worried about Jack, and all the others who got hit harder by this stuff than I did.”

Quite a lot of those out there.

“It’s a parasite that’s producing the improperly folded proteins.  I can stop it, and I think I can make them create a counter-agent that counteracts the proteins and promotes healing in the brain.  Can’t make them fix the lesions, but I can promote plasticity in the brain and new connections to old information.”

Sounds much better than nothing.

Still sounds like Taylor will have permanently lost some of the memories, though. Maybe other functions of the brain too.

What if she regains most of it but still doesn’t remember her mother?

Her voice was so quiet I barely heard it.

But I could remember the others; I remembered Tattletale and Brian.  Rachel.  I could remember Alec and Aisha.  The dogs.  Our enemies.  My dad.  My mom’s face popped into my mind’s eye and I could feel a relief as I let go of an anxiety that I hadn’t been consciously aware of.

Phew. 🙂

“They’re just rules.”  Where was Jack?

“They’re the only thing holding me together.”

He’s getting away.  This stupid girl.

Please don’t snap at her, Taylor. Though she really does need to take a moment to consider the consequences here.

“You were willing to die if he took you hostage.  I’m asking you to sacrifice yourself in a lesser way.  Fall apart if you have to.  But undo what Bonesaw’s started.”

I…

Yeah. This is a fairly good way to sell this. Not entirely healthy, maybe, but hopefully effective.

“This is worse than dying,” she said, her voice quiet.

Jeez, how Lawful can you get.

“Ask yourself if it’s worse than the slow, degenerative death of thousands and the potential end of the world.”

She stared at me.

Kinda pales in comparison if you ask me.

But yeah, Amy, if you refuse this completely, that’ll be the most selfish thing you’ve done throughout the story. More so than what you did to Victoria, even.

Even as she looked at me, aghast, I felt something awaken in my mind, barriers crumbling.

Good on you, Amy. 🙂

“Fix me,” I gasped.  I couldn’t tell where Jack was, and I was hurting enough that I couldn’t think to strategize.  He hadn’t followed.  “Fast!”

She touched my forehead, and I could feel the cuts knitting together.

Thank you. Now if you can fix the miasma damage, that’d be nice, but convincing you might take longer than we’ve got.

But there was another injury that wasn’t mending.

“The red miasma took away my ability to recognize people.  I don’t know anything about the people I’m fighting.  Fix my brain.”

“I don’t- I can’t.”

You really don’t have much choice at this point, Amy.

There are people who need you to do this.

“If you don’t fix me, Jack could win, and billions could die.  If you don’t cure whatever it is that Bonesaw’s done with this miasma, I and tens of thousands of others could die of a degenerative brain disease.”

Seriously, Amy, I totally get your reluctance, but it really matters now.

“You don’t understand.  I can’t cure brain damage.”

Still going with that lie?

I do suppose she doesn’t have any experience with it.

My heart fell.

“I- my- the last time I did it, the last time I broke my rules, everything fell apart.  You’re asking me to do the exact same thing Jack was.  To break my rules again.”

The difference is Taylor’s asking you to do it for good.

I tried to get my feet under me, but it was slow and awkward as I was unable to use my hands.  I had to wrap my arms around my head to shield my face against the continued flurry of slashes. Jack had a knife in each hand now, and he wasn’t giving me a half second between cuts, if that.

Wow.

Watch out for Jack sticking his hand out to cut you from the side.

My forearms and hands didn’t cover enough of my head.  I could feel the cuts nicking my ears, slashing through my hair by my temple.  A few slashes made their way through gaps between my arms and fingers.

Oww. This is clearly unsustainable.

Blindly, I rushed for the classroom.  Needed a second to breathe, to think, before I was whittled down to a bleeding ruin.  I could hear footsteps behind me.  I felt a hand seize my shoulder.

Jack? Or Amy?

I whirled and knocked it away, felt another knife slash crossing the back of my head.

But if the knife slash is coming from the back after she whirled around to knock the hand away…

I had blood in my eyes, my ears were a bloody ruin, and cuts burned like fire around my scalp and neck.

A shout.  Not Jack’s.  I heard it again, the same words, but I couldn’t make them out.  There was blood in my ears.

Amy, we need you over here. Badly.

I stumbled into the classroom, and Panacea was at my side in a moment.

There you are. 🙂

He’s trying to distract me.

Yeah, and also get you talking about things you’ve done that might be offputting to Amy.

I scampered along the length of the hallway, keeping low enough that I wouldn’t be visible from the window while I moved to the point just beyond the effects of the bug-killing cloud.  I could send bugs after Bonesaw and the sister -Victoria, was it?- but Bonesaw would still have that cloud of smoke around her.

Yeah, you should probably just let Victoria handle that side of the fight for now.

I doubted my ability to achieve anything on that front.

“There’s always some guilt related to family.  Tell me, what would your mother think, to see you on an average day?

Dude.

You made her not remember that.

Or can’t you remember her with the miasma?  I’d almost forgotten.”

Oh, okay, he pretended not to realize that so he could make a jab about the lack of memory with the miasma.

…I think. He might be telling the truth here, but it just comes across so smug, I have a hard time believing he didn’t set that line up for himself.

Even if I couldn’t remember her face, who she was, or even where she was, I could feel a pang of regret that knotted in my gut.

or even where she was

ouch

I grit my teeth to remind myself to keep from opening my mouth and grasped the cords that my bugs had threaded together.  I looped them around Atlas’ horn, and then I ran down the hallway, still keeping low.

…what is she doing? Is she making a web to catch him in?

“I had bad information.  Cherish has her uses, but she was never going to be a long-term member of the group.  The people who can are truly special.  Bonesaw, Siberian, me.  Perhaps Mannequin, but it’s hard to say.  He’s not terribly social, but he’s been with us for some time.”

Hm. Still doesn’t seem to be aware of Mannequin’s fate.

I stayed silent.  I could hear his voice changing in volume as he spoke.  Was he moving?

Hrm.

There were two doors leading into the classroom.  Was he moving toward one, aiming to leap out and strike at me?  I glanced down the length of the hall.  Bathroom, janitorial closet, another bathroom, storage room… it made sense that there wouldn’t be other classrooms adjacent to a music room with minimal soundproofing.

That does sound reasonable, yeah.

“You two have your differences, of course.  Amelia, you’re burdened by guilt, as you’re burdened by your rules and so much else.  I’d like you to think again about how nice it would be to be free-”

Nah, Jack, I think the ship has sailed. And not the fandom-related kind of ship.

“No,” Amelia’s interruption was curt, almost defensive.

“Alas.  Well, while I’m interpreting you two, I’d say Skitter is driven by guilt.

That does seem like a good way to describe the difference between them. Taylor takes guilt and uses it as motivation to carry on. Amy’s guilt causes her to shut down and withdraw.

What makes you feel so guilty, bug girl?”

A lot of things she shouldn’t feel guilty about.