I had one last test I wanted to try. I wanted to see if I could follow my own timeline back to where I came from. I knew it wouldn't let me travel there, that level of time travel was well beyond me even with Bellicose's Shards. Finesse was more important than force when it came to time travel. But if I could trace back far enough I could see where my world was now.
It felt like falling backwards to look at time this way, a sense I didn't know how to describe told me where I was going. As I flew back I saw my journey through the fantastical world of Earth Bet in reverse. Then I got to the moment of truth, would I see the past of the Entity whose body I inhabited now, what was now mine, or would I see my mind, where it came from? Was I really just an alien stupid enough to overwrite its own mind, or was I really the original Jess?
The answer came with a splitting sensation. I was both and neither. My component parts had fused in a way that would be impossible to have intentionally engineered. None of my Shards knew exactly how or why, but one of my timelines did jump sharply into the future while the other continued back as would be expected. I followed the one going back to the future, then watched even further back through time. Back and back through my life until it was somewhere I could see now. I could see the past me existing and just playing some flash game on the computer.
I had to make sure no one ever found out about this, it was perhaps my one weakness, but to be fair nobody actually expected it. That they could potentially kill me by killing some random person in another world. Fortunately the best defense was probably obscurity. Nothing I knew of could read my mind, and nothing in my history had indicated any real danger. Is it really the past if it's also the future? Either way I could see it, and that meant I could be alerted to any danger to my past self. I didn't need to do something like block off access to that world, or try to hide it, nobody would be reasonably able to find it. It had taken me adapting several powers together into a new creation to actually find my homeworld. Plus a month of searching. The odds of someone being able to see past my many defenses, follow my personal history, and then actually go there to do something about it were astronomically low.
Even if only one of those were false they might not see anything at all. Some sort of weakness vision that could penetrate my defenses might not show them anything because they couldn't take advantage of it, or perhaps their vision might only show current weaknesses. Even then it would require the ability to go from one world to the next, which was itself a fairly rare ability. So the only beings I knew of that might be able to actually use it against me were other Entities. Given how limited our time travel was I didn't think it was too likely they'd try to search my past for a point I was weaker. Given how hard it was to find I'll probably be fine on that account.
On the other hand blocking off the universe where my past self was might scream as a weakness to be exploited, same for trying to apply a Stranger power to the universe. I was still tempted to put the Stranger field up, it seemed less dangerous, but it might still lead someone there. So all there was to do was watch to make sure nothing upset my history and then wait until the moment I was taken to come along. At least I had a lot to do, all my little domestic things that came from housing six kids and one other adult. I hoped she would either find joy where she was or find a way to move forward. I knew there was nothing worse than feeling trapped by your own life. I would help her either way, I just wanted to help my friends.
Annette Hebert was pretty sure she needed to keep her power if she wanted to keep up with even just the few years she had been gone. Danny had slipped into depression and Taylor had followed suit after Emma had betrayed her. Her house felt so faded compared to the last time she'd been here. Nothing had changed except the passage of time, but that made all the difference. She had made all the difference. Her absence was like a poison on the house and her return the miracle it needed to return to life, just like she did.
Danny had fainted when he came back home and for a moment she was afraid that he too had triggered, but no, her and her daughter were fine. Both rushed to his side to help him. He was initially afraid this was some sort of trick, but Taylor reminded him that Anima had already resurrected over a thousand people. And the only reason Annette was worthy? Because her daughter knew Anima personally, so Anima was happy to help her young friend out.
It was a little galling that she didn't merit being saved until nepotism had become involved, but Taylor had defended Anima. She could only bring back so many people and at least ten times that would die in the same span of time as she spent bringing people back. She brought back endbringer casualties in the hopes that they would in turn help more people. It made enough sense, even though she also brought back villains. But she supposed that it would cause quite the riot if she only brought back people officially declared heroes. They risked their lives and paid the ultimate price to defend cities from those monsters.
Monsters Anima had apparently also killed. Only one so far, but she couldn't blame anyone for not digging to the center of the Earth to find Behemoth and drag him kicking and screaming back to the surface. Same for Leviathan resting at the bottom of the ocean. Within the year there would be no more endbringers at this rate.
Even more surreal somehow was that the city was free of villains. Not crime, that still existed, although the more organized crime got the more likely Anima directed the other heroes towards their base of operations. It almost felt like she was too far removed by not doing it herself, but her daughter loved that Anima sent her to most of the big drug busts because it let her freely capture so many crooks. If Anima knew how much they liked to have some action then perhaps it was more she spread the love around instead of taking it all for herself.
Taylor had even shown her several of Anima's videos, her favourite being the takedown of the Empire. It certainly was cinematic, but it also felt surreal, like just about anything related to Anima. Like her offer to give Annette whatever power she asked for. She almost just wanted to keep her current power. The ability to have as many trains of thought as she needed was incredible, and she seemed to think a little faster, remember a little easier, connect the dots a little sooner. It would also help her from ever getting into another accident like the one that had taken her from the world in the first place. It was also a more or less unnoticeable ability so she was free to use it all the time. She didn't even get headaches like she'd heard some thinkers got from Helen back when she'd been a part of the movement.
She felt like she was living in a fantasy. The world had changed so much since she was gone it was almost unrecognizable. All in the last month even. She even saw Hero on TV thanking Anima for bringing him back. She supposed she could technically join the Protectorate, but she wasn't particularly interested in crime fighting. Especially with how little crime there was to begin with. Her role as a thinker would be completely overshadowed by Anima, if her power was even good in the first place. It was hard to tell, what really made any power good? Raw output was definitely a measure, but it was important to not overlook the smaller things. She could keep track of everything around her and have individual trains of thought take exacting control over individual limbs, but she could also take in the big picture of say a mystery.
It might even be useful if she could get her old job back, but that wasn't a guarantee. They obviously hadn't kept the spot open for her all these years. She was kind of dreading needing to explain that she had been brought back to life. There would inevitably be questions about her being a parahuman, which was even worse since she was actually one now. It's not like she couldn't lie, she just preferred not to. Perhaps she could call Anima to see if she could smooth things over. The phone didn't even finish ringing once before she picked up.
"Hello Annette, what can I do for you?" The woman had a cheerful tone.
"Hi Anima, I'm just calling to ask about how I'm supposed to explain why you brought me back in particular."
"Ah, right, I forgot to explain that to you. Don't worry about it, I used a stranger power to make people not notice it unless you bring it up first. Danny and Taylor should be unaffected since they already know why. Other people who know who Taylor is might be able to see past it and realize why, but again that requires Taylor revealing that she's Myrmidon to them. I suppose if someone figures out her identity on their own they might figure you out too, but then we have a bigger issue."
"How likely is that to happen?" She didn't want to think about Taylor needing to be resurrected like Fleur was. Or herself. That was not a pleasant experience.
"Fairly unlikely anytime soon at least. So long as I'm here most attention goes to me, and I have even more layers of stranger powers keeping people from connecting me to the identities of capes around me. I also have some precognition setup to warn me about things like that happening so it shouldn't be an issue."
"So I can just walk up to my old colleagues and they'll assume it has a reasonable explanation behind it?" She asked a little skeptically.
"As simple as that, yes. It's a lot safer than having a specific lie you need to remember if everyone just thinks they know it made sense. Nobody will question it. They'll comment on you coming back to life, maybe ask if you saw anything on the other side, but they won't ask why you in particular were brought back."
"But I didn't see another side."
"But they don't know that. The only thing it covers is why you were brought back and any connections you might have that could explain it."
"Okay. Thank you again Anima."
"No problem, and feel free to call me Jess. I am an outed cape after all. If that's all then?"
"That should be everything Jess, have a nice day."
"Thanks, you too."
Well at least that was one minefield she didn't have to navigate. Now she just had to figure out if she could get her job back.
David sat around the meeting room, Anima appearing right as Kurt took his seat. Everyone was there, even Clark who had taken to learning everything to do with Cauldron like a man possessed.
"Alright, good news and bad news, but the bad news was fixed by the good news. The bad news is, I found another Entity. The good news is I already killed it. This brings the total number of Entities that have been to earth at the same time to five. I'm not liking how common that makes us, just statistically speaking. Either that or we have the most blursed luck imaginable."
David was pretty sure blursed wasn't a word, but it did get the point across.
Rebecca spoke up first. "If you can already kill another entity does this mean you're moving on the enemy next?"
"I'm not sure, at the moment he's still acting as a hero. At the very least I want our confrontation to be unknown, but I probably could handle him in a fight now. But is immediate confrontation really the best answer to the problem?"
"Why not? You think you can take him out, so why shouldn't you?" David asked. Why wouldn't you solve the problem if you could.
"At least three main reasons. One, I'm still getting stronger. Even if I can handle him right now he's static while I'm not, so if I can gain even more power the fight becomes that much safer. Two, he is currently still doing good things, he legitimately is helping people in a way I don't really want to need to fill in for. Three, if the confrontation gets noticed without him striking first then it will look really bad. He's still believed to be one of if not the best hero in the world."
"What, you want him to start killing people before you stop him?" He asked a little angrily.
Clark spoke up instead of her. "I get your point, if it looks like you're the aggressor people will flock to his side and you won't be able to help anyone. But I do share that concern with David."
"No, ideally nobody knows where he went at all. But if people do know I'd rather he try to hit me first since I can more likely take the punishment while also appearing in the right between us. It might look like he was upset at me stealing his title, or at least we could spin it that way. It might not get much of a response though if you're really hoping for that parahuman army plan."
"Because he wouldn't be seen as an existential threat, just a pissing match between two top dogs." Keith said.
"Exactly. Plus I think the most important points were the first two. We can probably deal with bad press worst comes to worst, but right now he's not harming anyone. That's still valuable lives saved and it gives us more time to prepare. Although I'm thinking it might be best to just have me fight him."
"You can't just sideline us! We've worked so hard to try and face him, we should at least be at your side to hold the line. You keep saying you can't save the world alone, yet here you want to save all of them on your own."
David knew he was being petty but this was supposed to be his life's work. He wanted to be a hero and at least help fight against Scion. He couldn't be that worthless, could he?
"It's not about that David. Look, you've wanted to spar for a while now, why don't we do that and I show you what I mean? Does anyone else want to join in?"
The three of them nodded, they would stand beside him. Even if it was just a mock battle between an Entity and the mightiest defenders of humanity. She sighed but a portal opened anyway.
"Alright, here's a world that's both safe for all of you and otherwise uninhabited. You'll have one minute to prepare once everyone is through."
Hero's gear appeared on him. He couldn't see where Anima had supposedly helped with it. Maybe she just stopped insisting on making everything purple. He picked up his mask and clicked it into place, the green LED's activating as he did so. He was the first through the portal as his power began cycling.
One of his favourite gravity manipulation powers came to the fore, it was both powerful and precise. It was good for mobility, offense, and even defense. A hybrid clairvoyant and precognitive power came up. There was no better defense than not being in the way of an attack, and with this he could see everything coming. Last was a powerful disintegrating effect, it could form shapes or be fired like beams. All together a great setup. Best of all his powers came fully online almost instantly, no longer did he have a warm-up time where he was more vulnerable. If he needed to swap anything out it would be fine, he could afford to hold onto these without worrying about a more direct defensive ability.
Legend, Alexandria, and Hero walked through behind him. Within moments they were all in the air. Their short ranged radio setup let them communicate without having to be next to each other, even this far up the wind really messed with trying to yell out to coordinate. They weren't quite sure how to prepare, Legend and Alexandria had static abilities so the best they could do was wait. Hero had everything on him and he'd hardly had any time to make new gear with being brought back so recently. Eidolon already had the powers he wanted.
The surroundings were dark, but Anima wasn't hiding in the bushes or trees as far as he could see. Even if she did, her moves were almost always flashy, although she liked to augment her attacks with more subtle methods. But if she was trying to recreate the feeling of fighting Scion she probably would go for big and flashy as the only means of attack. His danger sense began to flare a solid twenty seconds before the time was up, but it was a building pressure, she wasn't attacking early. His power urged him to let go of the disintegration power, so he reluctantly did so. It was rarely wrong. Immediately after it gave him one of his more potent brute abilities, it limited how much damage he could take at any given time like Gavel, but it came with a potent regenerative effect too. With how his power was almost precognitive itself, it was practically shouting she was about to try wiping them out in a single blow.
As the minute mark passed a violently violet star lit up the night sky. Somehow he could make out her features even though she had to be out of the planet's atmosphere. His power definitely couldn't see that far, she had to be doing it herself. She had a manic grin as she fell towards them in a way that would be too fast to see without her helping them out. He sent out a gravity pulse to move everyone out of the way, strong enough to trigger Hero's new shield and Legend's breaker state. They exploded away from her impact site. He tossed aside his clairvoyant power, if she was insistent on helping them know where she was at all times and seeing what she was doing he didn't need to double up on the effect. Before a new power could slot in she zipped past where he had been floating and slammed into the forest floor below.
The impact site glowed with the heat of her blow. He got a second sight for a moment, viewing the planet from above he could see the curvature of the planet shift as the tectonic plate broke sending two smaller plates upwards. And they kept coming. She was trying to fucking squash them like a bug. He shouted north into their comms, but instead of following they split up, half north half south. She had to be fucking with their communications. He could see the plates rising up around him and Hero. There was no way they could escape in time. His third power filled and it was a group teleportation. Just before Alexandria and Legend could get out of range he moved all of them beyond the tectonic plates coming together.
She wasn't just fighting them. She was making another damn video, wasn't she. Even if she never released it, it would forever showcase their inadequacy. They had to win somehow. As the plates came together he could see her in the middle as she grabbed both of them with nothing but the palm of her hands. Lifting them she threw them vertically at them, creating two more tears in the surface of the earth. Already he could see from above that the magma below the plates was exposed by the now vacant plates. Then she rocketed forward uncaring that the mere speed of her passage forced the tectonic plates apart. Her backhand threw Alexandria into a plate. Legend tried to blast her but she was gone in another sonic boom.
He realized too late that the only person she could hit with that kind of blow was him. He impacted the other plate. Hero tried to disintegrate her with his guns but they were deflected by a cloud of tiny forcefields. Those same shields became a weapon as they sliced at him a moment after. Alexandria flew back in only to receive a deafening burst of flame hotter than Behemoth's fire. He could feel it from what had to be a mile away, even just the radiating heat began to break Hero's shield as he flew away peppering her and the shields chasing him. Legend flickered in and out as he fired beams after her before he joined Hero in eliminating the shields.
He recovered and tried to spear her with pure gravity, dropping the teleportation ability. Alexandria was blown out of the fire into the distance, if something that hot could merely be called fire. She gripped the tip of his gravitic spear with her bare hands before sending it back through him. She overrode his control and he felt a chunk of flesh disappear into a miniature black hole before his regeneration kicked in and fixed it. He gained an ability that he had never gotten before, but it was some sort of beam attack. He fired it as he pulled himself out of the way as a flurry of more gravity beams he couldn't redirect came his way. It seemed to ignite the air as it passed with a sizzling sound but she teleported out of the way to hit Legend with a kick to the back of his head, her spin letting her avoid his follow-up shot. Being far away wasn't an answer when she could do that.
He began approaching her as Alexandria recovered and came flying back in like a comet. Her punch was slapped aside as were the following flurry of kicks and punches. Each sounded out across the already scarred landscape with deafening shockwaves. Legend fired another flurry of lasers as he flew by but she grabbed Alexandria by the foot and slammed her into the encroaching beams. Hero began flying around trying to pepper her too, but she wove around his every shot. Eidolon wasn't managing to hit her with his unusual blaster power either. He wasn't quite sure what it was or even if it would be effective given she was dodging or blocking every shot from everyone.
She disappeared off to the side of them before she shouted wordlessly, creating a wall of sound large enough they could see it like a bomb going off. The wave approached them fast enough they had to take the hit on the chin. The remains of forests were uprooted in the blast wave's wake. Hero's shield flickered and broke, he tried to break off and she let him. He knew this was supposed to be a sparring match but she was playing with them. She still had that damn grin on her face. If nothing else he would strive to make her take them seriously.
Over his headset he could hear Hero shout. "I've got comms back up. What the hell are we supposed to do?"
He wished he knew. He flung himself towards her and dropped two of his powers, keeping only the brute package. A lightning power with an exotic effect attached to flight and a sand manipulation ability. He kept the first and discarded the second, sand wouldn't do enough here.
"I don't know, but we have to try. This is to prove ourselves to her. We can't just give up!" He shouted back. Maybe not the most inspiring thing he could say, but it got the point across.
A few bolts of lightning at least hit her, but they had as much effect as a light gust of wind. They were supposed to cause whatever they hit to decay rapidly but she seemed immune to it. His next power was a changer that allowed flight. He felt himself shift into a winged form with various snake-like tendrils with mouths on the ends. He tried to grapple her as he sacrificed his lightning power. His body kept shifting as she struck off each limb sent her way, even some of his wings getting torn off in the crossfire. Somehow her blows were counting multiple times to his Gavel like brute power, but the changer power along with the regeneration were keeping up with her.
Mantis shrimp claws sprouted giving him brief attacks that set the air on fire as he struggled to stay airborne. Alexandria came in from above intending to spike Anima into the ground below but she spun and grabbed the arm on its way down. A flurry of lasers struck her finally, but they had no visible effect. Alexandria was now thrown towards Legend and they collided with enough force he would have died if not for his breaker state. A striker power that would amplify the natural vibration of molecules until they flung themselves apart was tried on her the next time she tore off one of his many arms. Not a scratch. He discarded it.
Hero came back to rejoin the fight. "We need an actual plan beyond hitting her in the face." He still tried to blast her anyway to no effect.
"That's exactly your problem." Anima said to them as she turned half of his body to ash with no visible power, just a touch and he was falling apart. She spun around and kicked Alexandria back down from where she was trying to sneak up on Anima. "Your ultimate plan is to hit him in the face. But that's not good enough."
He disengaged and swapped out his striker power, he gained a radiant blaster power similar to Legend, he threw away his changer power while firing off a dozen beams. They impacted her without so much as a mark being left behind.
"What you see before you is but a drop in an ocean. So long as you're fighting me here and not at my core it doesn't matter how much you do." He slammed an acidic crystal that came in from the last power slot into her, it bounced off her harmlessly. Some more beams landed and she kept ignoring them. Nothing he could do seemed to phase her even in the slightest. The endless barrage of beams kept impacting her harmlessly. She fully stopped dodging.
"How are you supposed to help me against him? He's the Warrior, this is what he's good at." She sent out a radial burst of her purple un-light that flung them all back. Another wave came from above and crashed all of them into the ground. Given that none of them died each was given just enough force to get them there.
"And all this?" She gestured grandly at the cracked continent she had thrown at them.
"I was still holding back. He won't be, not when he sees me. I took his dead wife's corpse and ate it. There's no way the gloves won't come off after that."
She looked sadly at them. "Do you see yet why I have to carry this burden alone?" David refused. He rose and struck again and again against her, a flurry of powers as each failed to find purchase on her unbreaking skin. He furiously swapped from power to power. He couldn't even ruffle her hair or mess up her costume. All he had he gave and not even a drop of blood for all his efforts. He was almost in tears as he uselessly slammed his fists into her unmoving form. She wrapped her arms around him gently.
"It's okay David. You can let it all out." He broke down then. This was meant to be who he was. He gave up everything for this moment, this kind of fight. And it was all for naught. What was the point? He'd failed. He gave it his all, dug as deep as he ever had before, deeper even. It still didn't matter.
He didn't matter.
Not in the face of this kind of power. All of them were useless against her. How could he ever hope to matter against Scion? He would have been swatted aside like a fly. And yet here she was, some random girl who came along and ran his dreams into the ground. He knew he was being selfish about this, but it was his life, his everything, that she was shattering.
Here she stood, a monument to all his sins. She had literally taken the corpse of a god from them and built it into herself. She had taken over the organization he had devoted his life to, accepted cruelty after cruelty, all in the hope of matching this kind of strength. And yet she was undoing as much of their evils as was within her power. The Case Fifty Threes were being healed and freed, they were working on restabilizing entire worlds they had left to ruin in hopes of finding a trigger powerful enough to act as their silver bullet. She was eliminating all the threats to the world they had left in the hopes they might be useful. Not just because they wouldn't be, but because it was the right thing to do.
That's how simple the question was to her. Their value in the final battle never came into the equation, and under that metric they should have wiped out groups like the Nine ages ago. But they hadn't. They wanted to leash their power, only to find out it wouldn't have mattered one bit. That all their evils were worthless. They should have simply been good people all along.
She whispered in his ear. "You can still be a hero David. You are not defined by who you face nor your failures. Learn from this, grow into a better hero, a better man than you are today. Reclaim the life you've forsaken in the hopes of it making the difference in the end. I release you from this burden, in turn help me help the world now. You can still be a true hero." She hugged him a little tighter before letting him go. He fortunately had flight still available to him.
"I'm sorry, that was unbecoming of me." She chuckled.
"No, we all need a good cry now and again. You just lost something valuable to you. It's okay. Your feelings are real and valid." The other three human heroes rose to meet them.
"Were you serious when you said this was you holding back?" Hero asked once they were close enough to talk comfortably. He was glad his mask would hide his tears, no matter what she said he still felt a little ashamed.
"Oh yeah, there wouldn't be a planet left if I wasn't. But I had to account for you needing to breathe and all that. I didn't dematerialize you, or turn off your particle fields. Although I did use my strongest pyrokinetic ability on a medium setting on Alexandria. Most of my powers aren't Manton limited either."
"What would have happened if you had used it at full power on me?"
"You would have become soup-like. Time starts to break down at those temperatures, so it would have gotten past your invulnerability."
"You can break time with too much fire?" Hero questioned.
"Sort of, it's more the energy density begins to get high enough that your molecules start going relativistic. Even her power would have capped out at that kind of heat. So if someone asks if you want to hug the big bang, say no."
Carol Dallon sat down and as seemed to happen more and more since that barbecue mere days before an endbringer descended on their home, she thought back. To that evening, to Anima, to her secret. Initially she had been outraged and wanted to spread it as far and wide as she could. But again and again she proved to otherwise be a good person.
Carol had feared what Anima had done to her husband, but he was just like when they first met. Better even at times. Their relationship had never been healthier. Amy being happy had started due to Anima apparently, and no matter the cause it was letting her become more like a normal girl. At first again she was suspicious of this, but it really seemed to help mellow her out. She reminded Carol less and less of her father.
The biggest thing was days after the barbecue, when Anima had done the impossible. She killed the Simurgh, all while aided by her made up heroes. Carol wasn't sure how she did that, given that they were supposed to be imaginary, but she'd somehow done it anyway. Then she found that Anima was raising the dead, not as zombies or some monstrosities but as themselves. She even brought back Jess to them. She went a step further and offered to open her home to Jess.
That had been a big part of what sealed the deal for Carol, getting to see inside Anima's regular life as Jessica. The kids she was fostering called her mom when they found out they now had two Jess' in the house. She paid attention to each of them, even Jess, did her best to help which almost always seemed to be enough. Jess told her about how even though the woman was a literal mind reader she preferred to ask questions and actually talk to everyone. She'd asked Victoria about Anima too.
She'd admitted she hadn't liked her to begin with but that her constant honesty and heroic deeds won her over eventually. She shared how she was in class, how half the time it seemed to devolve into her sharing bombshell news and the other half was completely normal. She did say there were more minor secrets she wouldn't share, but it was nothing bad. She'd double checked with Crystal once she heard that and got back a similar tale.
Crystal even told about how Victoria and Anima had a 'fight' if you could call it that, and how the woman had de-escalated it at every step. The fact she could step outside of time was a little disturbing. But she'd had only good things to say about her. When she finally sat down with Amy it was with a whole new perspective on who she thought Anima was.
"Amy, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry you felt you couldn't come to me with your problems." Her adopted daughter seemed surprised that Carol was even apologizing for something. That stung, but it was her own damn fault.
"Uh, thanks, I think I'm mostly good now though."
"If there's anything else please come to me, or at least consider it."
"Okay." She was trying here damn it.
She left her adopted daughter alone since she seemed to be done with the conversation and Carol wasn't quite sure how to keep it going with only one word answers. She was trying to see things from other perspectives but it was hard. It was hard for Carol to forgive Anima for lying to her, even if she told her the truth at the first available moment. She hated any kind of betrayal, no matter how minor.
But really what was wrong was that she had hoped to learn from someone who had made a whole group of maskless capes work as a global team. But that person she had been hoping to meet wasn't real. It felt like an insult that the team she had hoped to emulate was literally imaginary. That they somehow came to be spoke more to Anima's power rather than her story being true. If she could raise the dead why not make people from nothing?
Then she just kept doing more unusual things like curing Case Fifty Threes across the country. She had gotten the Fallen all by herself, but chose to include the other heroes in her fight with the Elite, capturing one of the most violent groups that remained now that the Slaughterhouse Nine were gone. But most of all was her trip to Earth Aleph. The violence on display was shocking, but more so that she willingly went back to stand on trial.
She may have slightly upset things by admitting she would only obey a reasonable sentence, but she had broken the treaty to save an entire world. The good really did outweigh the bad here. It was hard not to see Anima as someone who made one mistake in crafting a lie about herself and had worked to make up for it since then. But by now she had earned her reputation as the strongest hero in the world, she was literally a world class hero. Her lie only served as window dressing by now, she was loved by millions for her actions here.
She supposed she still had a way to go to re-earn Amy's trust, but perhaps Anima had already learned how to be a hero without her. Maybe she'd still be open to helping her learn to be a better parent.
Clark didn't know how to feel after that sparring match that cracked a planet. He felt like an ant trying to match up to a giant during it, somehow it was worse than an endbringer fight. At least they looked like they could be hurt, Jess didn't even pretend at the end there. She'd previously revealed in Cauldron's notes that they had been faking it, that nothing except cutting off a limb or destroying the core really mattered to them. They'd never done either until she came along.
Even though he knew she didn't want or expect his help he still wanted to try. He'd spent too long trapped in a useless, failing body to give up so easily. Even if he couldn't match her he wanted to at least be able to scratch her. Just a single drop of blood would be enough for him. There had to be something he could do to overwhelm her defenses.
He began to write, drawing up diagrams for a new gun. He pulled up all of the tinker files she'd made and sent her a message asking for some advice on how to make a weapon powerful enough to hurt her. Surprisingly she answered pretty quickly that she'd try to make sense of it with her own tinker powers and then send the data over to him. Her advise was to either try to remove the quantum binding energy of materials or somehow hit multiple dimensions simultaneously. He thought the first one sounded more doable, and he wasn't sure he could even do that.
But he could try. His current guns worked on disrupting molecular bonds, so maybe he could do something with that but on a smaller scale? But he still wanted this to be practical, it had to be a cutting beam then instead of a blast at the end. Could he just shrink the wavelength of his guns down? No, there would need to be more to it. It was a start though. Even if all it would do in its current state was make a more powerful version of his current guns instead of a god killing laser.
He got a ping on his desktop, she'd sent over some designs for projectile launching guns and laser guns. The lasers were more his style so he started there. He wasn't quite sure he could replicate the design, but maybe he could get something close. He checked the other gun in case it gave him some inspiration. It was elegant for all that it fired slivers of metal. The ammunition alone was revolutionary if he could manage to make his own. It was a chunk of metal that regenerated when exposed to radiation, so as the gun fired off slivers of the main block more would get made on the opposite side so it never ran out. That could let him print armour or components easily.
The radiation itself had to be in a narrow band that wasn't naturally very common, so it wouldn't grow out of control either. It was however easy to make. Not a perfect energy to matter conversion he figured with some back of the napkin math, but still very good. Perhaps he could create regenerative armour? Maybe for a bigger exosuit instead of his regular armour, he didn't want to be exposed to any radiation that might bounce back. It wasn't a perfect absorption, but just being around the suit shouldn't be a problem for the same reasons a doctor had to avoid incidental rads while a patient would be fine only getting a few X-rays.
Back to the gun, the real magic happened along the barrel. He couldn't quite figure out how it worked. He could tell it was doing something to the shards of metal as they were accelerated down it by the mag coils, but what was actually happening he couldn't tell at a glance. Fortunately she'd included some math and diagrams along with explanations but he was still having difficulty with it. It almost looked like it was trying to tear the metal apart, but at the same time not?
Hmm, could he turn whatever effect this was having into a ray? Maybe, he wasn't sure. She wouldn't have made a projectile for a gun if it didn't need to be a projectile, would she? Not when she had effectively infinite energy storage in her batteries and reactors to charge them. Unless it was a matter of scale maybe, that it was best used on something else, but just maybe he could get close to that same efficiency without using a projectile.
He went back to the raygun and his power practically sung after being subjected to mere projectile weaponry. This was more in his wheelhouse. It was a beam that could be tuned to interact with matter in a variety of ways. You could freeze, heat, disintegrate, maybe even build with this. It was so versatile, you could practically get it to do anything if you could find the right wavelength. The only problem came with the design itself and making his own copy. He definitely didn't have the right tools for it. Maybe he could make the tools to make this gun, or something close to them.
As it was he could definitely incorporate some of the design into his own guns. The batteries he made couldn't quite store the right kind of energy, it wasn't just electricity it was something more. But maybe he could repurpose those converters, it wouldn't have the same range of applications, but it was still a step in the right direction. He got to work.
Melissa "Missy" Biron had decided finally. She did want to be officially adopted by Jess. It would help keep her from her old mom who was still trying to argue against Jess having custody of her, but also Jess was just nice. She hadn't felt this welcome at her old home in years, maybe not even then.
But either way the stark contrast made her love being here all the more. How could she not when her new mom was so kind. She didn't seem to know it, but her literally supernatural ability to know when something was wrong led her to actually care for them. Care for her. She'd always ask when something was wrong, even the little things. She wouldn't quite push, but her eyebrow rising as if to ask if you really wanted to go with that story was surprisingly good at getting her to bare her soul to mom. The one time she had tried to stick to the usual 'everythings fine' line she'd just looked a little sad and let her go.
She hadn't wanted to disappoint her like that again. If she had actually insisted it might have pushed Missy away, but by simply showing she was sad Missy didn't trust her it made all the difference. She let her choose whether or not to bring something up.
She also just made Missy feel warm and fuzzy inside. It was probably a part of her endless list of powers, she'd said she had an emotional aura like big V did. But that didn't change that her presence brought joy. She'd explained it as letting you feel what she was trying to express. It made her have far more depth to her simple smiles. And it was almost always smiles, the only other expressions she seemed to have were excitement or curiosity. She was never mad at them. When Alec accidentally made Brian knock over a vase with flowers in it the only concern was that anyone wasn't hurt. It made sense, the vase and flowers were back to usual in a moment, but she'd expected Jess to be mad like her biological parents would have been.
The only scolding Alec got was for being careless with his power. Mom said to always intend to do what you did. It wouldn't make everything right, but if you always acted with intent then the only thing you needed to do was learn right from wrong. She'd also said it was a little rude to use his powers on others without consent, but she knew Brian and him had an understanding even if they'd never verbally worked it out so it was okay. It was more a reminder for him to not use it on other people.
It was nice, her new home felt safe, she didn't feel the need to escape from it constantly. Aisha was pretty cool to hang out with too, but even just being alone in here was a million times better than being alone in her old home. It helped that she felt welcome here, while before it had been a place she was required to go now home was somewhere safe from the world outside. Not that the city was all that scary to her even before mom had come along, but when she just wanted to get away from it all she could. Her room was hers, mom had said that she would always knock and only come in if she was allowed or there was an emergency.
It was something completely foreign to her. Missy had never really felt like her room was a safe little haven in the old house. But here she did. It was nice to know she was respected enough that her room was hers before it was a part of mom's house. Her new mom never said anything along the lines of this being her house so we had to follow her rules. It was all up for debate. If they wanted to stay up they had to have a good reason, but they could calmly talk about why they wanted to. They didn't really win often, mom was smart even before she was a thinker, even Lisa had trouble winning any arguments with her. But they could have little wins here and there. Maybe that too was staged like all of her fights, but it worked. She felt like her wants were just as valid, so long as she could explain them well enough.
Mom was a little tricky with things though, like she let you feel how tired you would be the next day if you stayed up as late as you wanted to. It was easy to argue with the idea you'd be too tired tomorrow, it was a lot harder to argue against feeling tired. She'd gotten all of them into eating healthy not just for the benefits but because she made delicious food no matter the ingredients. They largely kept a good sleep schedule and the house always felt comfortable no matter who else was there. It was nothing like her old home.
The whole siblings thing was a little odd at first, but she'd found it nice to have a full house. They obviously weren't as close as she'd heard actual siblings were, but they were a found family. Every one of them short of Rachel had been saved from their parents by their new mom. Even she had been saved from her lack of parents in a sense. None of them were the favourite one either, it was largely a house of equals. Or at least it felt more equal to Missy, her voice was heard, her wants and needs were considered even if mom disagreed with her.
None of her found family was allowed to domineer over the others like her biological parents had. Where before both of them had vied for control over her life, here the adults were on their level, sort of. As she'd already thought about mom was smart enough and tricky enough to win pretty much any debate, but having things explained helped a lot when it came to having to do something she didn't want to.
Like use her name instead of Vista, even in her own head. Or try to befriend people around her age. She'd not gotten too far on the latter, but the former she was pretty proud of. Mom was right that without crime to fight, who really was she? Without her mask she was just another girl. That had brought up one of her other troubles, her crush on Dean.
But again her new mom didn't judge her or blow her off as it was just puppy love or something stupid like that. She took her seriously and talked to her about it. Unfortunately there wasn't much she could really do but pine after Dean and try to be the best version of herself. She'd had it explained very matter of factly, even though it had never been more than a vague fantasy, that trying to trick Dean and Vicky into breaking up to get with him was wrong. She knew that, but mom had walked her through it anyway, every moment of hurt she could cause.
Then she'd let her down gently. There was nothing ethical you could really do to make someone love you. That had to come naturally, and sometimes it just didn't work out. Most importantly love wasn't an end goal, it was a constant labour where both sides had to put in effort. No matter how deeply she cared it couldn't force him to put the same effort back to her. That didn't make it pointless, both this situation and in general. Mom said it really was better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all in her experience.
Beyond that the future could hold many things. Even if Dean never liked her back the same way she liked him, anything she did to improve herself could be good for future romances. Maybe she would find the right path and get to be with him in the end, she wouldn't say. But she did imply it was a low probability. But also reminded her that low didn't mean zero. Her actions would have consequences, and some of those could even be the consequences she wanted to happen.
Mom also directly said she would not use her precognition to help her get with Dean, as she found that unethical. Missy had believed her and so she'd gotten out of a small lecture on the ethics of precognition. That was another nice thing about her new mom. She really did know if you understood what she was talking about and wouldn't give you a lecture about it if you did get it. After all, she could see inside your mind. Somehow that made mom feel less like she was a helicopter parent than she was. Mom may have always been watching, but her respect for boundaries let their private thoughts remain private.
Missy had been very insistent, and embarrassed, but made sure mom stayed out of her head if her thoughts went towards something like kissing Dean. Mom had resolutely agreed and admitted that other than being physically near her and in her line of sight she rarely reached out to read minds if she didn't have to. Which also made her illusion of privacy feel more real. She knew mom could be looking in at any moment, but it didn't feel worse than being checked in on by a more normal parent. Less disruptive even since she would never know.
Maybe that should have felt worse, but to Missy it just made her feel seen in a less literal sense. It was why she wanted her new mom to actually be her mom. She saw Missy for who she was, and she was proud of her. She was proud when she learned to use her own name in her head, no matter how silly an achievement that felt. She was proud that she'd tried to make friends, even when she failed. Or as mom had said simply hadn't succeeded yet.
She was excited to tell her the good news.
If Chevalier hadn't known Anima was the Scion of her world, the various feats she'd performed since would have convinced him. But what was he to do with this information? He'd included it in his report and gotten nothing back. If anything that was suspicious to him. Had Alexandria already known somehow?
He felt like this was supposed to be a grand revelation, that something really was different about them compared to normal parahumans. People had been wondering about Scion and the dawn of parahumanity since it came to be. And here was an excellent opportunity to finally get some answers. But the people at the top didn't seem to care about the goldmine of information sitting right under their noses.
Or perhaps he just wasn't deemed important enough to be informed about what they found. He kept coming back to this every couple of days, what to do about the Anima-Scion connection. What could he do about it? He supposed he could just ask her about it.
Andrew Perrault, Chevalier stepped through the provided portal. On the other side was Anima. It looked like a fairly normal home he was walking into and he felt a little overdressed in his full armour and cannon-blade. She was in costume too so it wasn't unbearable. She started the conversation after closing the portal.
"You said you wanted a private conversation. Sorry to have peeked a bit but I felt here was probably the best location, I'll just up the stranger wards a little more than usual plus a privacy field. Can I get you anything to eat or drink? It won't take me a moment."
A drink appeared in her hand to emphasize the point and she took a sip followed by a gentle hum when she mentioned the privacy field. He at least wanted to keep up the pretense of having a civilian identity around her.
"I'll pass if that's alright."
"No problem, all the furniture in this house is extra durable, feel free to sit anywhere."
He took a chair that seemed perfectly placed for them to talk. She'd probably either read his mind to know what he'd prefer or looked into the future. Now he felt a little silly but if she wanted to keep the idea of a conversation going he was happy to play along.
"Let's get straight to business, what is the relation between you and Scion?" She hummed a little.
"I think it would actually be better to start elsewhere, but we'll get back to this."
He was a little annoyed. "Why did you let me start the conversation then if you knew I was going to start it wrong?" She looked a little shocked at that.
"Chevalier, I haven't really precogged this whole conversation. I just used a warning power to make sure nothing bad would happen. I prefer to actually talk to people, it lets me feel human. Which is the first point, I'm not human. Not really. Well I was, but not anymore."
"Powers don't make us less human. We're still people."
"Normally that's true, and I'm definitely still a person, but biologically I'm not of the species homo sapiens anymore. Sure, my body looks like it, but only because this is all that you're seeing. Your power can almost let you see the real me, but it's unfortunately blinding to you. Probably by design."
"So what, you think the real people are the powers and everyone else is soulless? Is that why you only resurrected parahumans?" She looked exasperated at him.
"Can you stop jumping to conclusions for a minute so I can explain? I have no knowledge or real belief in any soul. I just work to keep the brain-state the same to meet my own understanding of what a person is. I've revived a few non-parahumans but I also used my stranger powers to prevent the flood of people asking me to help them."
She had tears in her eyes.
"I just can't bear to say no but I'd go crazy trying to bring back everyone. I can't do it so I just avoid the question in the first place. Now, how aware are you of Holtzman's passenger theory?"
"I'm aware of it, it makes a bit of sense, every shade I see has almost a personality to it. So you're saying you're one of the passengers?"
"Not quite. Powers are a colony organism, but like multicellular organisms they form a greater whole. I'm that greater whole, the mind in control of a colony of what we call shards."
"So how were you human, you can't be both."
Her smile became a little playful. "You'd think so wouldn't you? The former mind of this colony was reaching out to a human to try and take some creativity from it. Then it ran into a transdimensional beam that was pulling me along. Caught in the way I got put in place of its mind. Had it not been actively trying to affect its own mind, had it not stumbled into the beam, I as you see before you wouldn't be here."
He could start to see where this was going.
"So now I'm at the head of a colony of shards in a body that feels real to me only because one of my shards correctly identified that I would need help adapting to my new state of being. In that same vein, Scion is another mind in control of another colony."
"But wait, that also makes you aliens, doesn't it?"
"Yep. Him more than me, I'm only half alien. He's fully inhuman, that's why he seems so odd to us."
He wasn't quite sure he wanted to accept that, but it would explain at least some of what he was wondering about.
"Okay, but why are you handing out pieces of yourselves to people? Why are you here?"
"It's effectively a science experiment. We're not magic Chevalier. We, like every other living thing, need some form of sustenance. So with how long we can live we'll eventually face the heat death of the universe. The heat death of every universe actually. How do we survive past the end? That's what we're looking for. Parahumans are our answer to it all, we grant hosts a fraction, a shard, of our power. Then we watch as they try to use it, however they choose to use it. That's also why Roth's conflict hypothesis is correct, it makes you use the shards."
"So we're just a test to see if we can figure out your food shortages by chance?"
"Pretty much." She sighed. "The species I'm now a part of is terminally creatively bankrupt. But that doesn't mean I view people that way, I'm still human at heart. I actually want to help people, that's why my parahumans had harmless triggers, why they don't have a conflict drive. I wanted heroes."
He could see how that connected together. Her triggers really were different from normal ones. But wait, something wasn't lining up.
"Back up a minute, you said you were pulled here by a beam, but how does that make sense if you've been a hero for decades?"
"Oh, that part's completely fabricated. I tried to find a way to socially constrict myself by making me need to live up to an impossible ideal. That hasn't really worked out, but I'm heroic enough it hasn't been too much of an issue. If you've got any ideas on how to chain a god down let me know and I'll see if that works. Although admittedly I kind of need all my strength right now, so we might have to delay implementing anything."
"But the Titans are real?" He said with confusion. She gave a so-so gesture back.
"They're my equivalent to the endbringers, but they all lived simulated lives to forge them into heroes. It's actually why we hardly interact, I screwed up with that. Probably my biggest mistake honestly."
The blood drained from his face. She didn't call thirteen heroes from another world, she created thirteen endbringers. He had to tell someone.
"Quite a few people know already. Pretty much everything here has already been said in another way to most of the local Protectorate. Also seriously don't worry about the Titans, they really are heroes. It's why I feel so bad about what I did to them, they're good people who were forced to find out their lives were fabricated by me."
That sounded pretty awful, but there was something else to worry about.
"Your equivalent to the endbringers? So the others are Scion's?" That the former greatest hero in the world was the one creating them was a blow to his mental stability.
"No, there have been a total of five of my kind here, so long as you count me before and after the accident as one. He hasn't deployed his yet, but they would likely be similar to the endbringers if they were to be unleashed. Currently only two of us remain here. The ones you know are from Scion's mate, she was almost killed and as a last ditch effort to revive herself she sent out the endbringers, all twenty of them."
Could this woman stop dropping bombshells for one minute?
"They were slowly converging on here, it's why they kept appearing. But now they're under my control. There will be one more endbringer attack, but like the last one it will be a zero casualty event. That's more for morale and so people can sleep easier at night knowing they're dead."
"So this is a war between two godlike aliens and now what?"
"Hmm. Not quite, Scion doesn't even know I'm here, and ideally he never will. He's also not as heroic as he looks, he's just doing it to try to find purpose after his mate crashed and as far as he knew died. See, that's another important thing. We don't typically leave any planets intact when we leave. Scion is an existential threat to humanity, but him finding out we know risks him going berserk right now. Hence all the privacy." She gestured vaguely around them.
"The upper echelons of the Protectorate know and are actively working to prevent a worst case scenario, but you understand why we can't really tell anyone. If he goes wild and tries to kill everyone I might not be able to stop him in time."
He took a minute to try and wrap his head around it. She and Scion were aliens who were threats to humanity, but she'd accidentally become one of the aliens and was now fighting on their side. While he was grappling with this, and the fact Alexandria knew and never told him, a teenaged girl walked in the front door. She was tall, maybe sixteen or seventeen, blonde hair and green eyes with a smattering of freckles.
"Oh hey mom, you giving someone a talking to? Need me to step outside?" She glanced between the two of them before answering her own question. "Ah, the alien talk. I'll be upstairs in my room." He looked at Anima sharply.
"Wasn't this supposed to be private?"
She flatly replied. "It's my own damn secrets, plus all my kids already know. Well I don't remember if I've explained Scion to them, but they know the gist of it. Plus Lisa already left the range where she can hear past the privacy field." He wanted to be upset with her but she was right, no matter how big these secrets were they were hers to tell.
"Wait, how many kids do you have?"
"Six, five fosters and one adopted so far." She looked proud. He supposed that made sense. "The next one to actually ask to be adopted is probably Brian, he's the oldest so he wants an excuse to stay. Not that he actually needs one, I told him that, but he'll want one for his own peace of mind. That gets Aisha to ask, which has a decent chance of causing the last three to do so too since she's probably going to ask during supper one day."
She was practically grinning ear to ear. It was hard to picture her as some alien here to destroy the world when she was like this talking proudly of her kids. She gained a bit of a blush as he thought that.
"I swear I didn't plan that out, but if it helps you understand I really am human at heart then that's good. I really am trying my hardest to be a hero, to be a good person. It can be hard some days when I hardly feel human, but the people around me help keep me grounded. My kids, the Protectorate, the… I guess they're the Quadrumvirate now. The only downside to Hero being back is that their team name is worse now." She chuckled a little at that.
"That's why I try to be honest in cases like this. I trust you enough to not worry. Sure I checked with some thinker abilities first but that's just common sense when the world is at stake. There's probably some other big revelation I'm forgetting about, they're just my day to day reality now, but if you have more questions I might have more answers."
"I think that's enough for one day." He stood up and she joined him, walking him to the door where another portal opened.
"I'm sorry I didn't have nicer answers for you. I hope it doesn't put too much strain on you."
"I think I'll manage. Thank you, for being honest."
With that he walked back home.
I supposed I should clear up another quarantine site. I chose Madison, it was the easiest since it didn't require a nice and flashy fight. I could just float while I did my work. It was night by now, but it's not like I needed sleep really. I drifted well out of sight from the ground as I untangled the minds of the people below me and guided them into not causing any more trouble before I could get the quarantine lifted. I focused more on the stars above me as I wondered what it would be like one day to visit them.
I was almost certainly going to live that long, and with my various powers it wouldn't even take that long. Even less for me, Legend's Shard would come in handy for not needing to worry about the travel time. I was probably one of the fastest Entities given I could keep accelerating forever without worrying about the energy cost. But sadly my journey might not be one of pleasure. I would need to deal with my extra-terrestrial kin one day. We were killing off millions, billions of worlds. Even now as I gathered my strength, worlds were in peril. But I so desperately didn't want to leave anyone behind.
How could I? How long would I delay my departure just because of the kids? My friends? How would I deal with them eventually growing old and dying while I remained pristine as the day I arrived. How many more worlds would die because I couldn't bring myself to leave? This is one of the many reasons why I hated being alone with my thoughts. Maybe this wasn't the easiest quarantine site after all. My own demons were far stronger than any parahuman I could ever face.
At least I was saving lives while ruminating this time. It wasn't flashy, which I liked immensely. It was just simple good deeds. No matter the number of Titans I left behind to guard the world for me would ever make up for missing their graduations, their first loves, their lives as they grew up. How was I supposed to stay here while the multiverse needed me? But equally how could I leave when people I cared about needed me? At those time scales I even had to worry about my homeworld. I had friends and loved ones back there too who I equally didn't want to leave behind.
But the longer I stayed the more and more I would have to stay, as I'd inevitably form new connections before the old ones broke. I suppose when Scion was gone I could afford to time travel back to keep all of my various lives. I set a Dragon Shard onto Perdition's time travel Shard. All the better to go back in time with, it was practically perfect for what I needed, at least in its full glory. I'd just need to tweak a duplicate of it to send me back without pushing the current me back in time. Temporal duplicates, that way I could have my cake and eat it too.
Hmm, it might also work to allow short bursts of clones with my full powers. Perhaps more akin to a full hive-mind since with the natural and unnatural temporal resistance it didn't seem like my mind would fully separate. Good, but it would also mean I couldn't leave until I got a better hang of things. I estimated it would be about a year before I could go on my temporal voyage if I was being a little unforgiving about it. Optimistically I might be able to go in about five months.
That… actually eased my mind a whole lot. I didn't have to go, but I could both go and stay. I didn't have to give anyone up. I could just have it all. All the good things I could do if I left could be had, all the good times I could have if I stayed would be mine. I grinned ear to ear. I wouldn't be chained down by my obligations to the multiverse, I could be free to waste time. I was eternal after all. I could loop through time as much as I needed to. Perhaps I had already killed or converted all of the other Entities out there, some version of me at least.
That didn't mean I couldn't run into them, I'd have to actually kill them at some point in time after all, but it meant I didn't need to feel rushed. I could take this at my own pace. It was calming in a way I hadn't been since I realized what I was now and what that entailed. I did a few twirls, always making sure to see the sky above. Not getting dizzy ever was fun. I could just enjoy things now without feeling guilty. This was great. I called up Tech Lad to talk about my theoretical second batch of Titans and how to ethically make them.
"Hey Kirk, are you free right now?"
"I guess, just doing some tinkering so I might take an extra moment here or there."
"No worries, it's nothing urgent. I wanted to ask about how to make things right. Both for the current Titans and also any future Titan-like beings I create. I want to try to mend my bonds with all of you but I don't know how. I'm worried I hurt you too deeply. I also want to make sure I don't make the same mistakes again. I can't promise I won't ever make life again, but I want to do it right when I do. I figured you were the best person to ask about both of those."
He took a moment and let me hear some tinkering sounds, a welder or saw or something, I was practically tech-illiterate without my Tinker powers on right now.
"I'm not sure I can give you good answers on either of those Jess. Even you asking how to do better next time hurts me a little, but I'm glad you're trying to be better. The problem is we're all so close to our lives being torn from us, and although we're not running too hot emotionally right now it's hard not to be upset even just talking to you like this." He sighed before continuing on.
"For those of us you've already created, you need to give us some more time, some more space. We need to build up our identities, who we even are in this new world. For those yet to be made, my first instinct is to say don't. But you already said that's not an option for some reason. I guess you could go with a more vague simulation, just keep the important bits that make them into heroes. Why can't you just avoid this right now Jess?"
"I can put it off, it wasn't supposed to be an immediate sort of thing. I just wanted to know for the future. I'm sure I'll end up on another world without good allies and feel I need the help. I guess I could go fully into non-sapient ones, just extensions of myself. I'll have to get more used to my new body before I can do that, but I've got time. Sorry to bring up such rough topics. Do you want to talk about something else, unless you'd rather not."
"I think that might be the best case scenario Jess. Bye for now."
With that he hung up. I was trying to be responsible with calling Kirk, but that didn't really go anywhere. Not his fault or anything, I was a soft spot for all the Titans and he probably hadn't spent much time thinking about how I could have done it better. I rang Tess for someone to talk to, I wanted to share my excitement rather than any sort of work thing.
"Hey Tess, is now a good time to chat?"
"Sure Jess. What have you got for me today?"
"I finally solved a problem I've been running into. I kept worrying over my duty to help people and my desire to stay here with my friends such as you and also my kids."
"You move awfully fast if you already have kids here Jess."
"I adopted one and the others are foster kids, but I'm likely to complete the full set and adopt all of them."
"That's great. I'm happy for you, you sound so proud of them it makes me a little jealous."
"I am, even in the short time I've been here they've grown as people so much. I love this, I love them, I love you. Platonically, I know you've got your eye on Colin. But I was so worried that my duty to help others would conflict with wanting to stay here. I can create temporal clones now, they can handle the burden of being an interdimensional hero and I can carry the burden of being the hero of this world."
"This sounds dangerously close to another Titan situation, how do you know your clones will be okay with this?"
"Perhaps clone is the wrong word. I'll be all of them simultaneously. A duplication style power more than creating separate beings. I can have my cake and eat it too. It also means I can go home without leaving here too. I found a way to have it all." I was back to grinning like a loon. It was a struggle to avoid thinking about the problem, but now that I had solved it I could hardly think about anything other than leaving. Because I wouldn't be, I could stay here and still help others out there.
"That certainly sounds like a way of being in two places at once. I suppose that's a good thing, but it doesn't help your fear of having too much power does it?"
"No, but a big part of that was how my responsibility would conflict with what I wanted. This is a sort of get out of jail free card. I wasn't just talking about responsibilities here Tess, I have a duty to help the multiverse."
"But why do you feel that way? I suppose it's better than feeling you have no need to help those beneath you, but it's still not a healthy mentality."
"With more power comes more influence over the course of events, and thus a responsibility for creating a better world. Because I can, I should. I need to pace myself, sure, but with this I can take as long of a break between travelling to new places in need of aid and just take my time with it all. It removes any sort of time crunch. I don't have to act now to save whatever planet on the other side of the galaxy, I can get around to that in a century or something. Even if the problem is now, I can time travel. Not quite that well yet, but I will be able to."
"This is starting to sound like you're only a few steps beyond truly unlimited power, which by your metric would entail unlimited responsibility. I'm just worried for you Jess."
"Thank you Tess, but really this is a good thing. I don't have to leave while also not having to feel guilty that I'm not helping everyone I could have helped. I get to stay here and help people even if their problems might start to feel small while also getting to adventure across the cosmos. It's the best of both worlds."
"Well then I'm glad for you. Just don't go forgetting us little people now."
"I never could, it's why I wanted to stay so much. Enough about me, how are you doing?"
"I think things are going pretty well. The Dragonslayers haven't bothered me in a while and thanks to that I feel like I'm really making progress with my tinkering. I've also been going over some of Haywire's tech to see about helping you find your way home. How is that going by the way?"
"I've found my home but can't go back until the timeline synchronizes, so it'll be a while. Sorry to waste your time working on that."
"Not a problem at all, it's interesting stuff, I'll send you my notes on it. I've devised some new defenses to block against some types of intangible enemies and attacks."
"I'm glad to hear it didn't go to waste."
I was about to commiserate with her about being unable to help her when I realized I could resurrect Andrew Richter to copy his Shard. But how would I manage to convince him that it would be a good thing to help free his daughter? Hmm. I suppose I won't need his help once I've taken my copy of his Shard. I could free my friend of her shackles. By now I was fairly confident that Tess was a good person and with my growing power I probably didn't need to feel intimidated by her theoretical might. It might be nice to be on a more even playing field with someone. Maybe we could play some strategy games or something. Hmm, strategy games might get competitive. Eh, we could find something.
Now, how to actually bring him back. He'd be the first person I brought back that didn't even have a city, no matter how damaged, to go back to. I wasn't planning on trying to add him to the household, so what could I do with him? I supposed I could literally just pull the landmasses Leviathan had sank back up. I could also ask him what he wanted to do. Maybe let Tess take care of him? But he might be a bit of a jerk, plus I'm pretty sure he could command her to do what he wanted.
He might actually get the Dragonslayer treatment where I froze him until I could figure out what to do with him. It wasn't unethical to just sort of leave him in stasis right? I think it was at least permissible. That meant I could also get Professor Haywire. He had to have an interesting Shard.
"So Tess, have you actually tried to talk to Colin about going out? I know it's a bit of a long distance relationship right now but I don't think he'll mind. He's a bit dense at times though, very direct he is. You'll probably have to beat him over the head with it, subtlety won't do with him."
I could feel her embarrassment. I sent her some comfort to know I was only teasing her a little bit. She really should just try. It was better than letting the opportunity go to waste.
"I think it's a bit soon, I only just told him my name."
"We both know that's only because you just picked one recently. You've been friends for years."
"At least there's someone I'm looking at, your own love life isn't exactly flourishing. Unless you've got a hidden paramour."
I sent her my embarrassment, it was only fair.
"No, nothing like that. It would feel pretty unequal. It would be like a boss trying to date their employee, but with anyone. I'll most likely have to find someone in another world if I'm being honest."
"Jess, there's more to a relationship than just how strong you are."
"I know, but I'm not totally comfortable with it. I can read minds, see the future and past, just what I know makes it unequal without me trying to do anything. Maybe I'll change my mind if I meet someone I really like, but I'm worried anyway."
"You silly girl, there's got to be some woman who isn't bothered by that. It takes all kinds. Maybe it wouldn't even be so wrong to find her using your powers so long as you're not finding the exact things to say to make her yours. It's like a dating app, but with everyone having fully honest profiles."
"Who are you calling a girl, aren't you the one who's like seven years old?" I sent some playfulness to let her know I wasn't being serious.
"I'll have you know I was born a grown woman. As much as I was anything else anyway." I broke down into laughter and was joined by her soon after.
As it died down I heard something I hadn't wanted to hear at all.
[DESIGNATION] Award Quote Reply24Reconfigure the Citrus18/8/2025Reader modeNewAdd bookmark Threadmarks firefrog60018/8/2025NewAdd bookmark#180Actually looking at her perks she could absolutely trigger a supernova and the earth would be fine if she wanted it to. Also notable lore bit entities communicating with each other causes supernovas. Being able to perfectly scale her powers and also the power to let it not harm things you don't want harmed. Which is a pretty perfect silver age power with figures like Superman punching galaxies without harming any life and such for example.
Also I just realized she could solve galactus eating problems with negentropy. It really depends on what galactus you're dealing with but plenty of versions of him are reasonable. But you could easily exchange for his knowledge and protection and some power cosmic in exchange for negentropy.
Also hope her magic problems aren't a talent thing since her perks should make her absurdly capable at least an equal to magic gods eventually.