“No,” Amy said, as if that was that.

She glanced at me.  “Thank you for bringing her to me so I could help her.  Um.  I don’t want it to be a nasty surprise, so you should know I didn’t give the bugs I designed any proper digestive systems.  They’ll starve to death before the week’s over, but the Nine will be gone by then.  If they aren’t, we’re all fucked anyways, aren’t we?”

Well, shit.

Does that include Atlas?

It probably includes Atlas.

I looked down at Atlas, then back to her.  I clenched my fists.  “I’m using them to help people.”

“For now, sure.  In the future?  I couldn’t be sure.  So I put a time limit on them.  Let’s go, Victoria.”

Yeah… I kinda saw something like this coming, though I’m not sure how clear I’ve been about it. Amy’s just not the type to be willing to give villains permanent benefits.

“Hey!”  I shouted.  My swarm stirred around me as the pair turned to walk away.

What’cha gonna do? You can’t really attack them all that well if you were to go for that. You shouldn’t, anyway. That’d be rude.

“No,” Tattletale said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“But she-”

“She’s not thinking straight.  We’ve all been there.  You don’t want to start a fight.  We’ve got other enemies to focus on without making more.”

Lisa’s right. Besides, Amy’s done a lot to help them, even if it turns out it’s just temporary.

I was pissed off enough that I wanted to hit someone.  I couldn’t even articulate the entirety of why I was so angry.  I’d gone out of my way to be nice to her, to empathize, to save her sister, and save both of their lives.  And this was how she repaid me?  A slap in the face, a final gesture to make her distrust for me as blatant as possible?

Fair enough, but I honestly think she was telling the truth about saying that so it didn’t become a nasty surprise when it happened.

I also think some of Taylor’s anger is because she’s started bonding with Atlas and doesn’t want to lose him.

“I’m trying to fix this!”  Amy raised her voice.  “Why are you making this a thing?  Why do you even care?”

Tattletale shrugged.  “I talked about it with Grue, Bitch and Regent.  We were considering offering you a place on the team.”

I have reason to believe she won’t take it (either that or the askers have been sneaky in a way I approve of), but still: Hell yeah!

Also, did she not talk about it with Imp, or is Imp forgotten right now?

I looked at Tattletale in surprise.  I glanced at Bitch.  Even her?

Huh, yeah.

To be fair, Lisa never said the three of them all agreed. Even if Lisa was the kind of liar that stuck to technical truths (like I thought she might early on), what she said wouldn’t actually mean she successfully convinced any of the others.

Amy scowled, “As if.  You’re such hypocrites.  Regent mind controls people all the time!”

In before someone, most likely Regent, points out that technically, it’s body control.

“Regent mind controls the monsters, the bad guys,” I said.

“Taking advantage of bad people for selfish ends.”

Well, yeah…

Though, uh, does Taylor know about the people at Regent’s base?

“What you’re doing is selfish,” Tattletale cut in.  “You think you’re doing it for her, but you’re only doing it to soothe your own guilt.”

I suppose that would be the core of the “lying to yourself” Lisa mentioned earlier.

She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression.  “Burned that bridge.  But I’m sixteen now, I can get a job somewhere, start making a real difference with my power.”

I guess sixteen is the age limit on those rules and regulations, in spite of the Wards’ limit being eighteen.

Also apparently Amy’s birthday is in the latter half of the year. Marquis, when given the year but not a date, thought she’d be seventeen, which suggests she hasn’t had her birthday yet this year.

“And the last thing you’ll do for your family is this?  Hypnotizing your sister when she’s already mad at you for assaulting her and fucking with her head?”  Tattletale asked.

Right. Probably not the best parting gift.

“The last thing I’m going to do is fix her.”

Yes, good.

“A means to an end.”  I stepped forward a little. “Trust me when I say I’ve been down that road.  I don’t recommend it.”

Hm? I’m not sure what Taylor is talking about here.

“You don’t understand.”

“Wasn’t it only a little while ago that you admitted you couldn’t figure out what you needed to do to put things right?  You asked me to make the call.”

Oh yeah. Is that still standing?

“Because you had the experience in making calls on morality in dangerous situations, situations where I can’t even think straight,” Amy said.

…you know things have changed between them when Amy defers to Taylor for calls on morality.

Her voice hardened a little, “But I have the impression that you don’t have that same expertise when it comes to family.”

Oof. That’s gonna sting.

Hey, I wonder how Danny’s doing.

I thought of my dad, and it sat heavily enough in my mind’s eye that I couldn’t formulate a response.

Grue formulated one for me.  “You’re one to talk.”

Yeeah.

She hugged her arms against her body.  There were tears in her eyes.

“You need to fix her mind now.  For you, not for her.  Maybe she’ll forgive you at a later date, when she’s thinking clearly again,” Tattletale said.  “Maybe then she can approach you, you two can start interacting again, you rebuild that trust over months or years, and you can finish healing her body when she gives you her permission.”

Honestly, yeah. Yeah, I’m with Lisa here.

“Or I can fix her now, undo what I did and then walk away forever, because I don’t deserve forgiveness and she shouldn’t have to live like this because- because a wrong I committed fucked with her focus or made her too aggressive or-”

Lisa’s approach is way healthier on all fronts.

And this is not your fault, Amy. Seriously.

Hell, if the focus/aggression thing was as much of a problem as you seem to be making it in your head, she shouldn’t even have been allowed to fight in the first place.

“It wasn’t like that,” I said.  “She didn’t have time to react.  I was watching.  These injuries Crawler inflicted were not your fault.”

Thank you, Taylor. 🙂

Now tell yourself that about a couple of the things you’re blaming yourself for.

These two really do have a lot in common sometimes.

“Yeah, of course,” I told her.  I began calling a swarm to me.  I’d already exhausted the surrounding area of most, and the ones I hadn’t already called forth were buried in the deepest recesses and most awkward areas, where it was so inefficient and time-consuming to bring them to me that I’d left them where they were.

Well, at least it’s something.

It took some time to bring them to the area.

“How was the battle going?”  Grue asked.

Are we in for more chat while the bugs arrive? I’d be down for that.

“The heroes seemed to be managing, but I don’t know how things are going to turn out,” I said.  I looked at Shatterbird, who floated above us.  “We could use her help.”

A little risky, since the heroes might not immediately recall that Shatterbird is under Undersider control, or be sure that she still is, or will stay so. But if they can get past that hurdle, she could do a lot of good.

Though Regent has to stay close to her to maintain control, doesn’t he. So he’d have to go near the battle himself, which means he’d be at risk of getting Crawlered. And if he got taken out, Shatterbird might break free and fuck everything up.

“Don’t trust myself to control her if she’s too far away,” Regent spoke.

I made a face.  “Right.  But she could carry you?”

To get there, perhaps, but it’s probably a bad idea to stay that way during combat.

“She almost dropped me once before.  It’s pretty hard to hold on to someone, especially without the leverage you have when you’re on the ground.”

True enough. Taylor should understand, she’s been on the held side of that arrangement before.

The first bugs were arriving in front of Amy.  She began dissolving them into their constituent parts and pressing them into Glory Girl’s abdomen.  When she raised her hand, they were gone.

Nice.

She held her hand out for more to gather while keeping one hand on Glory Girl.

Minutes passed before Amy stood and wiped her bloody hands on her pants.  “Done as much as I can.”

Thank you.

I’m guessing she didn’t fix the brain thing, though, which Lisa might press her on further.