The Second Archon War: Superbia Hominum 10

Superbia Hominum 10: The First Sinner

With Scion’s decree against nuclear weapons at the conclusion of the Third Sino-Japanese War, NORAD became defunct. It was already in the mothballing process after the Endbringers arrived, and Parahumans replaced America’s strategic nuclear arsenal as deterrents. Now the process was complete. All of America’s nuclear arms were destroyed or dismantled. 

That meant the Cheyenne Mountain Complex was unoccupied. And, with Cauldron knowing its Earth Lambda complex was compromised, they had relocated to the most secure facility on the North American continent. Wyatt and a team of Tinkers and Thinkers were still working on improving security and attempting to ensure that a repeat of the Fatui raid would be impossible, but the most important projects that had been salvaged were already setting up and resuming. 

Sitting in an office that once belonged to an Air Force general, Doctor Mother adjusted her lab so that her plants could begin to grow. She’d had to transplant them from the pots that had been smashed in the raid. She hadn’t always been one to cultivate flowers and herbs, but ever since gaining her Dendro Vision Fatoumata had taken to gardening. At first it had just been to gain access to more Dendro Energy, but she’d found she rather enjoyed fresh mint and ginger for her tea. 

The door slid open, and Doctor Mother squinted, reaching for her glasses. Her eyesight had gotten increasingly poor in the past few years. Too much staring at screens and not enough time in the sunlight. “Yes? My next appointment isn’t for-”

“Sorry to bother you, Doctor Mother,” Dr. Meliton's voice said. “But there’s a few things I need you to look over before I approve them.”

Finding her glasses, Fatoumata forced a smile on her lips as she studied her new head researcher, the previous one having been killed in the raid. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Previously, Meliton had been a mousey if plain woman in her late 20s whose most notable feature was that her hair was going green. Now she had a bedraggled, wild look, thanks to the green pinions sprouting from her arms that now ended in yellowed talons, more feathers poking up out of her messy mane of hair, and two legs with backward bending knees that similarly ended in talons. 

Thankfully, her claws on both feet and hands were quite dexterous, and from what Fatoumouta had heard Meliton could now fly thanks to her bones becoming hollow along with her new wings. 

Behind her came a silent, blank-faced man. His features were a little too perfect, his motions slightly stiff and jerky. That made sense, as the man was essentially a bio-android instead of a natural creature. His long sandy hair was pulled back in a bun, and his body was slim and somewhat androgynous. 

“Albedo, give the doctor the reports,” Meliton said, nodding to the man. 

The construct was silent, coming forward and placing a folder on Fatoumata’s desk. She scrutinized ‘Albedo,’ then turned to Dr. Meliton. “So, your experiment was a success then?”

The doctor stiffened, then hesitantly nodded slightly. “Yes…and no. Albedo is alive, but…he’s not the man I was seeking to revive.”

The man in question didn’t seem terribly interested in the conversation, even though it concerned him. He had wandered over to the plants, and was leaning over to peer at them more closely. 

“What is he, then?” Fatoumata asked curiously, weaving a probe of Dendro. “Albedo, come over here.”

“Um, well, he’s…” Meliton stammered, but Albedo had obediently turned to Fatoumata, who took his hand and sent her spell into the man.

What she sensed nearly made her heart stop. Albedo wasn’t a man. True, he wore the flesh of a man, but what was hidden inside…

“He’s a Shard,” Fatoumata said, withdrawing her probe while looking at Albedo in horror. “One of Eden’s. He’s…he’s supposed to be dead!” 

“But he isn’t. That’s, um, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Meliton admitted. “Albedo…well…he’s a completed Shard, it seems. Not just the fragments we normally get. Isn’t that right, Albedo?”

“I am uncertain as to your definition of these words in relation to this vessel,” Albedo said in rather robotic tones. 

Still, Doctor Mother was trying to wrap her brain around just what the implications of this were. “If that’s the case, then we didn’t lose everything when the Tsaritsa betrayed us. We still have one of Eden’s primary shards.”

“Um, yes, well…it’s…sort of…also in me,” Meliton admitted nervously, hiding behind her clipboard. 

“That…explains a few things,” Doctor Mother said, her mind racing as she tried to grasp the implications. If they could figure out what this Shard could do, and continue to replicate it, they’d have a steady source of powers to use. 

“I’ve already tried making a vial from Albedo’s flesh and blood, but it didn’t work properly. The subjects didn’t even die, they just didn’t Trigger at all,” Meliton explained. “So I’m not sure what we can do…”

Albedo had wandered back to the plants again, and was examining one of Doctor Mother’s mint plants. He pointed to it. “This one is dying.”

“Hmm? Yes, I used it earlier to renew myself,” Doctor Mother said, still focused on Meliton. “Not Triggering? We may have to explore new-”

There was a soft glow, and both women turned to see Albedo’s hands glowing with power. Not the power of a parahuman’s powers at work, but elemental energy. He was using Dendro.

“The lifeform is stabilized,” he informed them, his expression still completely devoid of any emotion. 

“That should be impossible,” Doctor Mother gasped, standing and hurrying over to inspect the plant. “How could he- does he have a Vision?” 

“No, I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem to meet any of the criteria anyway, not for a Dendro Vision at least,” Meliton said, coming over and doing a scan with her own Anemo. “Mr. Albedo…can you use Anemo too?”

He nodded, forming a sphere of wind in his hand. “I have access to all seven elements.”

“Wait, all seven?!” both doctors demanded in unison, sharing a startled look. 

“It can’t be Pyro, Geo, and Hydro,” Doctor Mother muttered. There was no way that stupid children’s card game could-

Albedo simply nodded again, producing an amber crystalline construct, a glowing red flame, and a swirling orb of azure. 

“I think…I think I need to take him back to the lab,” Meliton said, sounding somewhat faint. 

“Most likely. Run a thorough analysis. See if you can figure out how he’s generating those other varieties of Elemental Energy and how we can harness them,” Doctor Mother ordered. 

“Come along, Mr. Albedo,” Meliton said, leading her creation away. Doctor Mother watched them go, shaking her head, and getting out a fresh notebook. She had just started to scribble away when the door opened again. 

“Hey, I waited until you weren’t too busy, but we really need to talk. It’s OK, I brought baklava,” Contessa said as she swept in, tossing her hat onto an empty chair and dragging another over after she plopped a fragrant cardboard box full of pastries onto Fatoumata’s desk. 

“I really shouldn’t,” she said, even as she eagerly dipped her hand in to extract a sticky treat. She licked her finger to get a little honey off and smiled. Well, with her Vision, she burned more calories than most anyway. A little stress eating wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

Contessa just munched away for a moment, a far-off look in her eyes, and Fatoumata let her wait. When Contessa had something to share, she would. 

At last, after they’d both polished off two whole pieces, Contessa reached into her jacket and pulled out a bronze knife in a simple leather sheath. “Recognize this?”

“How could I not?” Fatoumata said, accepting the knife from Contessa. “This is what you used to slay Eden.”

“Yep. Check it for Elemental Energy, would you?” Contessa asked. 

Frowning, Fatoumata complied. The knife came from a world without Elemental Energy, in a time before the Archons. Why would it have- She gasped in pain and had to turn off her Elemental Vision, as the Knife had been glowing so brightly she’d nearly been blinded. “What on Earth?!” 

“I named him Theoktónos. It means ‘Godkiller,’” Contessa said breezily. “Thought you’d want to know.”

“I…am not sure I understand. Was…Theotonas?”

“Theoktónos.” 

“Theoktónos, then. Was this knife…always like this?” Fatoumata asked, despite herself, slowly sliding the sheath off. The blade glowed softly with a deadly pale light, and just looking at it…she could feel the weight of its power. 

Cheerily, Contessa shook her head. “Nope! But I haven’t taken him out in years. I had him on me during the attack, and drew him to defend myself. Cut the Witch really badly. Which made me realize something! Of course the weapon that killed a god is powerful!” 

“Fortuna. It was a bronze knife. A poorly made, somewhat dull, bronze knife. It was barely a weapon,” Fatoumata said, shaking her head. And yet…what she held in her hand belied what she knew should have been true. 

“Yes, but he did something important. Weighty. He accomplished the single greatest feat in human history,” Contessa insisted, stabbing the table with her index finger and smearing honey on its polished surface. “And as anyone sensible knows, if something or someone does something that momentous, then the object itself becomes one of power.”

“That’s not…that’s not how things work at all!” Fatoumata said in exasperation.

“Really? Then explain THIS.” Contessa pulled out a scoped rifle, and dumped it on the table. 

“It’s…a gun,” Fatoumata said, still exasperated.

“Look at it! Examine it! FEEL IT!” the Thinker demanded, shoving the gun into Doctor Mother’s arms. 

There wasn’t much examination needed. The gun didn’t glow as brightly as the knife, nor feel as powerful, but…it was a weapon of power. Fatoumata could sense it. And as she examined it, something clicked, and she shoved the gun away from herself, breathing hard. “That! That’s the gun that shot-”

“President Kennedy, yes. I borrowed it from the National Archives earlier. And I don’t plan on giving it back. Just…look at it, Doc! That gun killed a powerful man! And only a powerful weapon could kill such a powerful man. So, now, it is!” Contessa said proudly. 

“But that’s not…That isn’t how…things don’t work that way!” Fatoumata protested, cradling her head in her hands. This defied all logic. And yet…

“You want to test it? I bet a bullet from this could kill a Brute cape that lacked an All-or-Nothing power, no problem. Or at least destroy a tank,” Contessa said, patting the rifle. “It’s an artifact of power. We have to move fast.”

“I…I guess we do,” Doctor Mother said, turning to her computer. She’d have to cross-reference lists of all the weapons that were still around that had been used in assassinations and murders of historical significance. It would probably be quite the long list…if they could find the actual Lance of Longinus…what was she thinking?! That was like the plot to a blockbuster movie, not reality! “Fortuna…”

“Look, it’s like I’ve been telling you. The gods are real. They’re HERE. Heroes, monsters, demons, it’s all real!” Fortuna insisted. “You have to start acting like it, or opportunities are going to slip through your fingers! You’ve ignored the existence of magic for too long. Well, you can DO magic! I can do magic! We have to treat the world the way I see it, not the way you blind uptimers do!”

For a moment, Doctor Mother hesitated. Everything she knew about the world was turning out to be a lie. If she let this foundation of scientific explanations for how the world worked slip away, what would she have left to stand on?

Then she rationalized. For one thing, it was manifestly obvious that even if she didn’t understand how, exactly, this worked, it clearly did. That knife and that gun were more than what they had been only a short time ago. Something had fundamentally changed in how the world worked. 

And, in the old world, they had no hope of defeating Scion and stopping his Cycle. Perhaps in this new one, they had a chance. Not a large one, but…well. 

Doctor Mother was nothing if not an optimist these days. 

“Send out memos to our teams to collect every single weapon of historical significance that we can. As well as the personal effects of any famous and powerful people. George Washington’s effects would be a good place to start. We’ve got to act quickly before others realize this,” Doctor Mother ordered.

“Start with the oldest and most powerful people first. Their weapons and possessions will have the most power. We should probably steal the Shroud of Turin,” Contessa said seriously. 

“Yes. Obviously,” Doctor Mother said, feeling dizzy. “Is it…fake?”

“Doesn’t matter. If it really does have the blood of God’s Son on it, then it will be extremely powerful. Even if enough people just believe it does, it will be a potent weapon,” Contessa said firmly.

“You could just tell me if it’s real or not,” Doctor Mother muttered, feeling utterly overwhelmed.

Contessa eyed her, then went over, picked up her hat, and drew the brim down low. “It’s real. Get it. Quickly.”

“Of course,” Doctor Mother agreed, trying to find her bearings. Had Contessa been lying? She couldn’t even begin to imagine, and it didn’t matter.  She took solace in the phone calls she made and the lists she drew up.

A Shard that had been brought back to life, and could use elemental energy. Weapons of legend and myth, imbued with power. The world was changing. Had changed. They had to catch up. And quickly. 

Across the table, Alexandria eyed Ajaks. That was probably a mistake, Rozalyn was the greater threat thanks to her Thinker and Master abilities. But there was something about the sheer animal charisma that Ajaks brought to the room that drew the eye. 

“So, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Rozlyn asked, smiling at Alexandria. 

“I’m here in my official capacity, but for today, covertly,” Alexandria told them. She was dressed in her cape uniform, though she had it changed recently. Instead of the more practical grey and black, she looked like a gaudy flying American flag in red, white, blue, and gold trim, with the seal of the office of the President on her chest. Technically, she wouldn’t take office for another three weeks, but she didn’t have time to wait on that. 

“So your message said. Now, why are you here?” Ajaks growled, his expression stony. 

Alexandria produced several papers, and passed them over. “As you know, at one point, the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were once the division between East and West?”

Rozlyn accepted the papers, while Ajaks’ expression grew mystified. “Warsaw Pact? NATO? But, these are defunct. Deader than the Soviet Union, curse its name,” Ajaks said, sounding rather perplexed. 

“The Warsaw Pact, yes. It dissolved with the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. NATO, however, still exists. At least on paper. No nation has contributed the proper amount of funds in over a decade, nor have any joint training exercises been held in even longer, but, on paper, NATO as an alliance is alive and well,” Alexandria told them. “And, in case you haven’t noticed, while the USSR is dead, something much more dire has arisen.”

“The Tsaritsa. She’s already annexed Ukraine, to little resistance,” Rozlyn said, her tone calm, but Alexandria could read the tension in her body language no matter how the Azure Witch tried to suppress it. 

“Well she’ll well damn well find some resistance when she tries it on Poland!” Ajaks snarled, smalling his fist on the table so hard the wood splintered. 

“As it should be. And I’m here to offer you membership in NATO. I’ll meet with your President later, but I want your backing when I do it,” Alexandria said. 

Ajaks shook his head. “But, won’t you need the approval of all the other member states?”

“I have it. For Poland, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden. More to come, if we can get the ball rolling in Poland. Everyone recognizes the threat the Tsaritsa presents. We want to be able to announce as many countries are joining NATO at the same time as possible,” Alexandria said firmly. 

Rozlyn’s eyes lit up, but Ajaks threw his head back and laughed. “And so, when she invades, the Protectorate flies to our rescue! Why should we believe you? You flew to hers not long ago.”

“And she rewarded us by killing our people and destroying one of our research facilities, a facility that was to be a joint operation between us. We gave her the hand of peace. Now, we extend our fist in war,” Alexandria declared. “Are you in, or out?” 

“We are in,” Rozlyn said, extending her hand to Alexandria. They exchanged a firm handshake, as Ajaks roared with more laughter. 

“Yes! It will be a GLORIOUS fight! Let us prepare for war!” the big man crowed. 

Alexandria didn’t know about glorious, but she did know one thing.

Never again. Never again would she trust an Archon. And this time, the Tsaritsa would respond to them. Not the other way around. 

Reaching out his hand, Eidolon called for a Blaster power, even as the Behemoth bore down on him. He summoned forth his will and-

Nothing. He tried again, reaching for that power that was always so close. But there was nothing. He’d run dry. 

Screaming, he tried to race forward, tried to warn Hannah, who was firing upon the behemoth with a pistol, her bullets plinking off uselessly. But no sound escaped from his mouth, and it was like he ran through mud. Then, he heard the creaking of wheels, and he looked down.

He was back in his wheelchair. He looked up, seeing the Leviathan, Behemoth, and Simurgh towering over him, as the Twins put their hands to his chair. 

Father. We’ve been waiting for you. We’ll take care of you now. 

With a jolt, Eidolon’s eyes shot open and he gasped for breath, his chest rising and falling. He sat up, calling on his powers. He could feel them. They were still there. He wasn’t on empty yet. 

“David?” Hannah sat up next to him, strands of hair obscuring her face, her eyes clouded with sleep. 

“Nothing. Just a nightmare. I was…I was back in my wheelchair,” David admitted, flopping back onto the pillow.

“Mmph.” Hannah didn’t leave him alone, God bless her. She snuggled up, wrapping her arms around him. He did the same, holding her tight as he tried to fight back the fear. The feeling of being Unworthy. 

“I’m so afraid,” he whispered. “What if…what if my powers do run out? We don’t…we don’t have any more vials ready. I…I’ll be back in the chair. Useless. I can’t do that.”

“You’re not useless,” Hannah told him, squeezing him tightly. “No more than I’m just a scared little girl in that minefield.”

That made David shudder. Hannah’s trigger event had taken place when Turkish soldiers had forced the children of her village at gunpoint to clear a minefield. By walking across it. She’d watched several of her friends blown to bloody bits before it had been her turn, and she’d Triggered. She’d ended the bloodshed by gunning down those men, too late to save her family or most of her friends.

She’d been eleven. No child should have had to go through that. If David had thought his childhood was rough…

They just held one another in the dark of the night, staring up at the ceiling. Eventually, Hannah said, “I don’t think I can go back to sleep. You?”

“No,” Eidolon agreed. “Not like we need to, anyway.”

“Yes, but it’s…nice. I hadn’t slept for…a very long time. Before I met you. You sort of forget, how much you need it. How much it keeps you human. Rest. It seems like a waste, but…we have to have it.”

“We can rest when Scion is dead,” Eidolon said, kissing the top of Hannah’s head before sitting up. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”

They both dressed quickly, neither having to say what kind of clothes to put on. When Eidolon slipped his mask into place, he felt like he could breathe again. This was who he was now. Not that weakling child stuck in a wheelchair. That had been David. He was Eidolon. He was strong. He was Worthy. He had a woman who loved him now. 

He was getting stronger. He would succeed. 

Last, David reached out and picked up the glowing amber gem on his nightstand. Of all the Delusions, the Geo one spoke to him the most strongly. It spoke of promises broken and the world in upheaval. He could understand that. And if he was going to face the Behemoth, he’d need to master this force. 

“Feels sort of sacrilegious, don’t you think?” David commented, turning to Hannah who was checking her own weapon. 

She shrugged, spinning the cylinder. “Not really. I was never much of a Beatles fan. But you saw what this baby can do, and Armory has already assimilated the power. The form matters though.”

John Lennon had been one of David’s personal heroes growing up, and he’d always loved the Beatles himself. Still, he wasn’t a teenager anymore. His girlfriend not loving his favorite band wasn’t grounds for a breakup. Though it did still feel odd to see her with the weapon that had killed a legend.

“I mean, I’m using a Delusion. One given to us by the Tsaritsa. She said it was the blood of a dead god, which is nonsense, but…”

“If anything could be called an evil god, don’t you think it would be Eden?” Hannah asked somberly, holstering the .38 caliber pistol. 

He grunted, unable to articulate an answer, but the whole thing still felt deeply wrong to him. 

“Where too?” he asked, affixing the Delusion to his right arm. He could feel it biting into him, like it was drinking his blood. That was nonsense, they’d tested the Delusions and they did no such thing, but it still felt wrong somehow. He’d get over it. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d used something evil for good. 

“Let’s check the scanner for anything juicy,” Hannah said, and a helmet slid over her own face as she put a finger to her ear and listened. 

Eidolon did the same, using his Thinker powers to scan multiple bandwidths at once. He was listening to the usual when-

“Repeat, the Nine are at Anchorage Airport, and they’re tearing the place apart! Jesus fucking Christ, we need help now! Our local capes aren’t-”

“The Nine, Anchorage, now!” Hannah said at the same time that Eidolon opened his mouth.

He nodded, and instead said, “Door me, Anchorage International Airport!”

A door swung open in mid-air into a howling blizzard, and they both charged through into screams and blood. A plane, sliced neatly in half, was burning on the tarmac, while another was flipped over with a wing ripped off, bodies piled around it. 

No, not piled. As Eidolon lifted into the air, he saw they spelled out a message. 

Bye, bye, Jack

What was that bastard and his band of maniacs up to this time? 

He barely dodged a blade that came out of nowhere, and below him, Hannah was hard pressed by Shatterbird and Crawler. 

“WHERE IS SHE?!” Jack Slash screamed, drawing another knife and slashing the air. Eidolon managed to take it on a shield he summoned, but only barely. 

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. This ends now,” Eidolon growled, firing back a beam of red hot fire to burn away the cold. 

Jack dodged to the side, frothing at the mouth as he glared at Eidolon. “I know you took her from me! I saw the bodies! SHE LEFT THEM! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER!?” 

Witty repartee wasn’t something Eidolon had any interest in, so he just tried blasting Jack again. Screaming, the man sliced the fire in half somehow, the flung both knives at Eidolon, who was forced to dodge to the side. 

“David! Siberian on me!” Hannah’s voice called, breathy and half panicked. 

Swearing, David spun away, calling for some all or nothing Brute powers. He smashed into the Siberian just before she could lay hands on Hannah, who for all her new powers would have been rendered to bloody chunks before the naked striped woman. 

“Thanks,” Hannah gasped, firing her gun, which didn’t so much as annoy the Siberian. It seemed even a gun that could kill a legend couldn’t break the Siberian’s All or Nothing endurance. Not that it mattered unless they could find and assassinate that bastard Manton, wherever he was. There weren’t many who knew of Cauldron’s greatest failure, and Eidolon needed to keep it that way.

Eidolon forgot about offence: he’d need to burn to many valuable powers in order to pop the Siberian this time and banish the projection for a time. Instead, he gritted his teeth and kept his Geo barriers intact enough to weather the storm. To his horror, the shields failed faster than he could put them up, and in mere seconds he had only a single amber wall between himself and death as he stared into the eyes of a mad killer.

Then, something more horrific than he could have imagined happened: The Siberian spoke.

“Where is Riley?” the woman purred. Her voice was higher pitched than Eidolon would have thought. He’d have imagined something animalistic and deep This was melodic and soothing, almost like a trained singer. 

“I…what? You mean Bonesaw?” he said, blinking in astonishment. He hadn’t thought the Siberian was even sentient, let alone capable of speech. He’d thought she was pure Id, Manton’s desire for wonton destruction made manifest. 

“Yes. Did you take her? I don’t think the Protectorate did, but Jack is being unreasonable,” the Siberian said with an almost girlish giggle. 

“No. I would have simply killed her,” Eidolon admitted. 

“Hmm. She’s been having dreams. Visions. She didn’t tell the others, but she did tell me. Dreams of ice. That’s why we came here. But the blue eyes she spoke of, and that haunting song… I think that girl’s been led astray,” the Siberian mused. She suddenly turned, leaping away.

“What?! Fuck off, you big ugly bitch! Hey! PUT ME DOWN!” Jack raged as the Siberian scooped him up, then ran off into the snowstorm. Eidolon stood there, panting for a moment, as the sounds of battle faded, and the Nine vanished.

“Let them go!” Hannah said, landing by him. “Bonesaw’s on a plane! One headed for the Bering Strait!” 

“The Siberian spoke to me. Said Bonesaw was having Visions of Ice, blue eye, and a song,” Eidolon said, lifting off again.

“The Siberian did what?! Nevermind. We have to get to that plane,” Hannah said, and the two of them took off into the howling wind. 

It didn’t take long to find the correct channel for the plane in distress, as there was a little girl’s voice, singing in what sounded like Russian. 

Spi moya radost' usni

Spi, moya rádost', usní.

V dóme pogásli ogní,

Ptíchki pritíkhli v sádu,

Rýbki usnúli v prudu.

Mésyats na nébe blestít,

Mésyats v okóshko glyadít.

Glazki skorée somkní,

Spi, moya rádost', usní

“A nursery rhyme?” Eidolon muttered, translating the song for himself. “What the hell?”

“Flight AS-082, turn back immediately! You are heading for Russian airspace,” Miss Militia said over the radio. 

The song paused, and then there was a girlish giggle. “Is that you, Miss Militia? Don’t worry, it’s OK! I’ve been invited! She’s calling me…calling me home! I have to go to her…”

A further chill ran down Eidolon’s spine. The Tsaritsa. It had to be the Tsaritsa. But how? How was she calling to Bonesaw? They’d never met, and the girl spent most of her time in the lower 48, thousands of miles from New Moscow. How?!

“Bonesaw, if you do not immediately turn that flight around, we will bring you down,” Miss Militia said grimly. “We will intercept in less than ten minutes.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that. You see…I haven’t made any of my adorable creations on this flight yet! But I could~! I have all my tools with me! Isn’t that right, Mary?”

“P-please!” a woman’s voice gasped. “Please save us! She’s got monsters with her! She’s going to-AAAAA!” The scream cut off in a wet noice, and Eidolon gritted his teeth.

“Oopsie! Oh dearie me, what a mess! Guess I’ll have to turn her into one of my masterworks! But don’t worry, there’s lots of other people, like Mary’s son, Daniel! Isn’t that right, Daniel?”

The only sound was the crying of a young boy, which just enraged Eidolon and pressed him to more speed. 

“So, I wouldn’t try anything, Miss Militia. You tell Jack he can fuck right off. I’m not going back, or to the Bird Cage,” Bonesaw said, all the playfulness vanishing from her voice. “I’m going to Her. She called me. She LOVES me! I’ll have a real family, and no one can stop me! Not you, or anyone!”

Eidolon shared a look with Miss Militia as they flew, but she could only shrug helplessly. 

“We can bring the plane down. To stop her…it might be worth all those lives,” Hannah said quietly. “But if there’s any other option…”

“We’ll find it. Come on, first we need to get eyeballs on that plane. They’re still over an hour from the Russian border,” Eidolon said, and they zoomed off. 

Soon, they had eyes on the plane, but Eidolon was able to see inside with a few quick power selections, and it wasn’t good. There were fourteen horrors on that plane, including the one that Bonesaw was working on from the corpse of Mary Lewis, who she’d brutally murdered on the radio call. There were also 168 still living passengers aboard, along with the frightened crew. Bonesaw had gone back to crooning over the radio in Russian, while the plane continued on towards Russian Airspace. 

“Whatever happens, we can’t let the Tsaritsa get her hands on Bonesaw. It would be a disaster. If they get within 100 miles of the border, we bring it down. Even if it means everyone on that plane dies,” Eidolon said quietly.

Miss Militia nodded, though from her posture Eidolon could tell she felt as sick as he did at the thought. But the prospect of the Tsaritsa having her hands on a bio-tinker of that caliber…it was a worst-case scenario. 

The choice, however, was taken out of their hands 200 miles from the border, when a fiery demon rose up out of the Alaskan wilderness and attacked the both of them. 

“HARBINGER!” Eidolon roared, moving to intercept as Miss Militia opened fire on the plane. Before her bullets could strike, a bubble surrounded the plane, and a figure dressed in an ornate costume alighted on the top of the plane. 

The Dancer and the Servant. Here, in the United States. This was an act of war. An incredibly blatant one. 

I am afraid that dearest Riley has received a casting call. She is wanted in Moscow. And you shall not interfere, the Dancer’s voice echoed in Eidolon’s mind, even as he grappled with the snarling demon they called Servant. 

“You came for me!” Bonesaw’s voice squealed over the radio. “You really came for me! You do love me!” 

Of course, dear one. You shall be my beloved Little Sister. The Tsarista eagerly awaits you. Now, return to me, my Beloved Servant. We must away.

“NO!” Eidolon raged, even as the Servant summoned a burning shield and slipped away from his grasp. A blizzard, even greater than the one they’d escaped at the airport, blew up around them. 

WHY, PHANTOM OF THE MASK. HAVE YOU COME TO SERVE ME AS WELL? 

“NO!” Eidolon screamed his defiance into the wind. “NEVER!” 

TSK. TSK. SOON. SOON, YOU WILL BE BEREFT OF ALL OTHER LOVE. ALL OTHER POWER. WHEN THAT DAY COMES, KNOW THAT I SHALL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. AND THE POWER THAT AWAITS YOU IS LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER WIELDED BEFORE.

The storm protected the airplane all the way into Russian Airspace. Eidolon got on the horn with Alexandria, demanding to be allowed to pursue and shoot it down. 

“No. We’re not ready. Not yet. But we will be. Be patient,” she told him, her tones frosty. “Come in. We need to debrief on these new powers the Tsaritsa is displaying.”

“Fuck off!” Hannah shouted. “Becky, we HAD her! They’re getting away! This is an act of war! We have to respond!” 

“Miss Militia! You WILL follow orders, and you WILL return to base. We won’t forget this. We won’t forgive. But we will strike at the time and place of our choosing! Not theirs!” Alexandria snapped. 

“Yes ma’am,” Hannah grumbled, and Eidolon reluctantly echoed her. 

For now, Eidolon just felt like he was still trapped in that damned wheelchair as the Tsaritsa’s words echoed in his ears. 

Author’s Note:

It’s time.