“No.  It’s not-”  Bitch stood abruptly, and Bastard yipped.

It’s not what? Fake?

“Rachel,” Lisa tried, but Bitch turned away.

“There’s one way we could try to find out,” I said.

Interrogating Cherish?

Bitch turned at me and glared.  There was a viciousness in the look that I couldn’t blame entirely on her grudge against me or the current conversation.

Come on, Rachel, Taylor’s throwing you a bone here.

No dog pun intended, but if a doggy brain were to make her like to chew on metaphorical bones, that’s a bonus.

Just like Brian, there was a minefield there.  I couldn’t hope to guess at what would press her buttons.

Yeah, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can help you much. I’m a cat person.

“No,” Bitch clenched her fist, and I could see her dogs responding to her body language, tensing.  “Don’t buy it.”

…why not?

Is it that you wanted there to be someone who actually could relate to your animal-like mind, even if it was Siberian?

“Why not?”  Lisa asked, her voice gentle.

“What she said made too much sense.  She said things and she understood.  I’m fucked up.  I know I’m fucked up.

Maybe she’s actually like that, regardless of how real her body is. But conversely, maybe she’s just really good at acting.

Maybe she’s Maybelline.

Not good at dealing with people.  But I could deal with her.  I understood her.”

This would require quite a solid understanding of Rachel to act, though. I’m inclined to believe Rachel’s right, that it’s not entirely an act.

“That doesn’t mean she didn’t lie, Rachel,” Lisa said.  “It only means she understood you well enough to know how to deceive you.”

The question then is how? She’d been following Rachel, spying, yes, but a lot of it doesn’t really spell itself out without watching for a long time.

Cherish may be key to it, I suppose.

BLAG.

Brian nodded.

“He got the ability to grant healing from Othala.  Regeneration from Crawler.  But who was the shadowy figure he used to pulverize Burnscar?”

*waves hand in air* Ooh, ooh, I know, pick me!

“You’re thinking Siberian,” I said.

Lisa nodded.  “Sure.  What if she’s like Genesis?  Or Crusader?  What if Siberian has a very real, vulnerable human body somewhere nearby, always has, and the body she’s using is a projection?  Maybe it’s something even Jack doesn’t know.”

Yesss!

And Brian, having used a fraction of this power, ought to have an idea of how it works. For instance, does she assume direct control of the duplicate?

That gave us pause.  An in.  A way to stop the unstoppable beast-woman.

People have been trying to do this for a very long time, and you may be the first to figure out how to do it.

It’s a little concerning that it’s been figured out this early in the Arc, though.

“Like?” Trickster asked, as he found a seat on the arm of the chair Sundancer was sitting in.

Lisa said, “Brian’s new powers.  He was copying powers from the people who were in the darkness, yeah?”

Wait, are you suggesting that Siberian is the monochrome duplicate?

I was joking when I compared that to her!

So the Siberian we’ve been seeing might be the black and white duplicate of her original self, a duplicate which is – as I talked about in regards to Brian’s duplicate having a small fraction of the power – ridiculously powerful.

Perhaps she’s left her true body behind (who knows, maybe the duplicate even turned out to be it’s own person and killed the original Siberian), or perhaps she has to follow her duplicate around in the shadows. If it’s the latter, it might be the key to stopping her, as she has a more vulnerable body to attack, but that still won’t be easy considering that the duplicate can be dissipated and recreated where she needs it.

Either way, this is really cool.

“They didn’t,” Bitch said.

“How can you be sure?”

Maybe because of nuances to Bastard’s behavior?

“He smelled like the forest when I got him.”

While I see the point, they could’ve just put the tracking device in and then had him run wild for a while. They’ve been in town since at least Sentinel, they’ve had plenty of time.

“It would have taken them seconds to stick it in him.  It would mean there was a way to find you.  Find us.”

They already had that when they gave her Bastard, so unless they expected to lose Cherish, there wouldn’t be much reason to do it.

“No.  Doesn’t make sense, what she was talking about.  Being free.  Accepting that we’re animals.”

She wouldn’t put a wireless leash on you, is that what you’re saying?

“I wonder about that,” Lisa said, pulling her feet up so she was sitting cross-legged on the sofa.  “Maybe she was playing you?”

Rachel didn’t seem to even entertain that notion.

“Is she really that smart?” Alec asked.  “Jack is smart.  Bonesaw, Mannequin, sure, to varying degrees.  But Siberian?”

I mean, why not? She behaves ferally and all that, but she’s got a brain. Presumably.

“My instinct?” Lisa shrugged.  “She’s an actor.  Playing up the feral angle, hiding a deeper strategy.  She might even be playing a long con on her team.  Or maybe her intentions are pure but she’s keeping them in the dark about the key stuff.”

Huh…

I wonder if the rest of the team even knows she can talk.

“Siberian,” Bitch finished.

“That’s crazy,” I said.  How long has it been since we had a chance to talk and touch base like this?  “She’s crazy powerful.  Majorly scary.  And she just, what?  Handed you the wolf cub and told you that she’s picking you to be a member of her team… how?”

Well, sort of, yes!

And yeah, it’s certainly been a while. Since Arc 7 or so, I’d say, although some of it probably happened off-screen.

“She told me with words.”

Oh right, the others wouldn’t expect that.

“She doesn’t talk,” Brian spoke up.

“She told me,” Bitch repeated.  “She showed up, I tried to fight her, didn’t work.  She explained, she left.  Left the cub at my place.”

“I tried to fight her” – Taylor and Brian probably aren’t going to be too pleased with that.

Also I feel like she’s leaving out some relevant details here, but if you consider Siberian’s way of communication normal – better than most, even – I suppose it makes sense to put it like this.

The detail that your power works better on wolves might be worth mentioning, though.

I saw Lisa glancing between Bitch and me with a curious look on her face.  When I raised an eyebrow at her, she shook her head a little and then turned to Bitch,

Hm. Maybe Lisa has noticed that Rachel and Taylor are on better speaking terms than usual.

“That’s potentially a problem.  What’s to say Bonesaw or Mannequin didn’t put some sort of tracking device in him?”

…that’s actually a really good point.

I don’t think they’ve done it, especially since they had Cherish at the time, but it’s a good point nonetheless.

But yeah, good luck getting Rachel to leave him behind or something like that.

Also, would a tracking device survive him getting powered up?

We arranged ourselves on the ground floor, Alec and Aisha sitting on the stairs, Lisa and I sitting on the couch, and Brian in the corner by the window, looking distracted.  Bitch seated herself on the floor, her back to the wall, her dogs at her side.

It’s a bit haphazard, but it works.

While we waited for the Travelers to get settled, I asked, “I’ve been meaning to ask.  What is Bastard?”

Oh hey, we’re getting some development on this now. 🙂

“You mean what breed is he?” Aisha asked.

“No,” I said.  I left it at that.

Looks like Taylor has definitely figured out that he’s not a regular dog.

I wonder how much Rachel will be willing to say about how she got him.

“He’s a wolf.”  Bitch scratched the skin at his shoulders, digging deep.

“No shit?” Alec said.

No shit!

“Where do you even find a wolf?” I asked.

Bitch didn’t venture an answer, so Lisa spoke, “She didn’t find him.  He was a gift.  And since it didn’t come from Coil, that means-”

Lisa, you’re being a little bit rude.

“Cool.”

I returned to the stove and started preparing breakfasts.  I served Brian first, then prepared some toast and bacon for Bitch and some scrambled egg for Lisa.  It was almost a relief, having something concrete to do, a way to help, when I didn’t know how to act around Brian.

Very understandable. Keeps you from just standing around awkwardly.

By the time I had Bitch and Lisa served, the Travelers had been roused by the smell of breakfast.

This chapter can just stay true to the synopsis of “the Undersiders and Travelers have a nice breakfast together” until the end. I like this. It’s low-key in a good, relaxing way.

Of course it’s the calm before the storm – that almost goes without saying – but it’s a very nice calm.

I offered them some breakfast, and Ballistic took over at the stove to cook for his team.

So the mental image of Ballistic accidentally launching breakfast through a wall entered my head, and my train of thought drove on down to Ballistic’s trigger event. Not so much what it would be as what would happen after it: He’d probably activate his power by accident and have trouble turning it off, so anything he touched would go flying off immediately. He must’ve made such a mess. 😛