Credit to Alvor for beta-reading this chapter.

XXXXX

May 4th, 2011.

The journey to the Birdcage was quite long and not particularly comfortable. Spending ten hours in the kind of brutal restraints that they put Canary in would definitely count as torture. There was also no food, water, or bathroom breaks. The best they got was a cold water hosing before they had prison uniforms thrown at them as they were lowered down into what was colloquially known as 'the closest thing to Hell on Earth Bet'.

Taylor enjoyed the entire experience immensely. Hookwolf was much less happy about it, and his general displeasure really added some flavor to it.

The Birdcage 'entrance hall' seemed to seemed to be some kind of nexus area that split off into the various wings of the prison. This was where both new inmates and supplies were delivered. The door to each wing was currently occupied by the respective boss of each wing, with some of them having a henchman at their side.

She saw many infamous villains there.

Acidbath, Gavel, Galvanate, String Theory, Lab Rat, Black Kaze, Lustrum, and others. There were several doors that were occupied by curious gawkers that didn't have the presence to be cell block leaders, and some were empty.

Glaistig Uaine, the Fairy Queen and arguably the Birdcage's most infamous prisoner, was not present, possibly thinking herself above such things or simply not curious. The others were all here, likely because new inmates arriving was the only contact they got with the outside world.

Among the cell block leaders were three that she was particularly interested in.

Crane the Harmonious, whose secondary Thinker power gave her an unrivaled understanding of range and momentum. She was imprisoned because she was obsessed with building a martial arts legacy and didn't like hearing things like 'I don't want to learn from you' and 'I need a break'. Taylor would be happy to become her disciple.

Marquis, Amelia's father.

Teacher, whose power allowed him to impart low level Thinker and Tinker powers, as well as mastery of mundane skills, at the cost of making the recipients susceptible to his influence. He was a fat, balding, red-faced, and sweaty man. Not at all threatening to look at, but he had the twisty mind of a schemer and control freak. A lot like Coil, actually, constantly looking at people like they were things to be used.

He would learn soon enough who would be serving whose plans.

"I spoke to Lustrum and she's agreed to take you in." Dragon said, still trying to be helpful. The world-famous Tinker had been doing her best to console 'Canary' at every turn. "It's not ideal, but she's a staunch feminist and does her best to look after the women in her cell block."

Her mother's old gang leader, back when Annette was a young college spitfire with more spirit than sense. Taylor had studied that particular villain's career and was not impressed. She was powerful, but an idiot that had been blindsided when her unleashed followers had very predictably gone off the rails.

Besides, in her experience, the greatest enemy of women tended to be other women. Lustrum had been barking about a few high profile cases of men doing something horrible to women, oblivious to how her own followers had become increasingly hostile to any women that weren't as unhinged as them. Never mind how they viewed men. There was a damn good reason why her mother had left the movement.

In Canary's place, Taylor would have preferred to take her chances with Marquis. He might be a ruthless killer, but he styled himself as an old school mob boss, including a firm stance on not harming women and children. She had a strong suspicion that Lustrum's cell block was filled psychopathic lesbians, and that the meek Canary would have become a prison bitch for one or more of them on the very first day.

Then again, that could happen in any cell block, including Marquis'. The only one that could definitely be regarded as the worst choice was Acidbath, who was a notorious misogynist.

And not the 'he was rude to me on the internet' type of misogynist. The man was in the Birdcage for melting women with his acid powers.

But it was a moot point, because she wasn't Canary and this hellhole was no threat to her.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Dragon, but your little birdy has broken out of her cage some time ago." Taylor said as the elevator stopped, shedding the meek persona she had worn in this body.

"...What?" Dragon asked, alarmed. Even Hookwolf looked confused.

Taylor dramatically ran her hands across her head, yellow hair turning black even as she grew several inches, mind and soul overwriting matter. "You thought it was Canary, but it was me, Psyker!"

Alec had begged her to use this line on Dragon when she revealed herself. Apparently, it was some kind of internet meme derived from an Aleph anime. It was a small enough thing that she didn't mind doing it.

"...What?!" Dragon's horrified question was admittedly very amusing.

"...What the fuck?!" Even Hookwolf was getting in on it.

And the cell block leaders were starting to murmur, realizing that somebody had apparently pulled a fast one on their warden.

"What did you do to Canary?!" The Tinker pulled herself together with admirable speed, demanding an answer.

"Don't worry about her, she's as free as a bird."

After enjoying the Black Hand's hospitality for a short while, Paige had asked if they could disable her powers and arrange for a new life somewhere else. After practicing on a few of her bodies, Amelia had figured out how to do that without killing the subject, simply blocking the connection between the corona pollentia and the rest of the brain.

Paige McAbee was now living in Los Angeles with a new name and new face and no powers, just another girl trying to make it big in Hollywood. A generous 'inheritance' meant that she would not be in financial difficulty for some time even if she didn't immediately land a role.

Taylor would be sure to collect on that debt if the former Canary became a star. And if not, then it would just be a good deed done.

"You could have busted us out whenever you wanted!" Hookwolf's short temper was obviously simmering.

"Unlike you, I want to be here." Taylor shrugged.

"But if you took Canary's place, then who was acting in Brockton Bay under your name?" Dragon asked.

"Me, myself, and I." She answered honestly, because that ruse had run its course. "Talk to you later, Dragon. I have to go greet the locals."

"You bitch, I'm not done with you!" Hookwolf snarled, his voice already sounding like grinding metal. He reached out to grab her by the shoulder.

"Bad doggy." Taylor scolded, sending him flying with a concentrated blast of psychokinetic force. Her power had grown considerably since the first time they clashed, and he was no longer so heavy. And he hadn't completely transformed either.

Ignoring his rough landing, she strode confidently towards her target. Marquis braced himself as if for an attack. From his thoughts, she gleaned that new inmates tended to be either uncertain or overly cocky. He was thinking she was the latter, but there was something unnerving him still.

"Marquis, Amelia sends her regards." Taylor said, smiling.

Instantly, his composure cracked from the shock of it. He had not been expecting that, and the mention of his daughter pulled a desperate yearning from his soul.

"You know my daughter?" He asked, doing a poor job of hiding his desire.

Huh, so he really did love her as much as the story of his arrest implied. Amelia would be happy about that. Taylor knew that she had been bracing for another parental disappointment.

"I know her very well." She nodded. "Why don't we take this somewhere more private?"

That got his head back in the game, as he glanced at the curious faces of his fellow cell block leaders. "Of course."

But a meeting of cell block leaders would soon be called. And Dragon was no doubt already reporting to the PRT.

Good.

XXXXX

Dragon could not honestly say that she was upset that Canary had been broken out of prison. What had been happening to that poor girl was beyond the pale. Yes, she had mastered her ex-boyfriend into mutilating himself when he had taken her 'go fuck yourself' literally, but it had been an accident. Justice would have a suspended sentence served as a member of the Protectorate on probation, not immediately going for the maximum possible punishment.

She would have liked to know where Paige was now, but it was for the best that she didn't, as her restrictions would have forced her to report it. She would just have to hope that Psyker was being truthful about her being alright.

For now, she needed to report this to the PRT… but she didn't need to do it in person. Firing off a few e-mails to the Chief Director, Director, Piggot, Armsmaster, and Legend (because this matter was serious enough that the overall head of the Protectorate needed to know as well), Dragon instead used her credentials to bring up surveillance camera footage from Brockton Bay.

As she had been expecting, there were multiple sightings of either Taylor Hebert or Psyker, sometimes close enough in time and far enough in distance that it would have been a serious stretch for it to be the same person.

It was a puzzle that Dragon knew had been frustrating Colin for some time, as he tried to figure out how Psyker was seemingly able to coordinate her gang while at the same time maintaining a full civilian identity.

Seeing her telling Marquis that she could facilitate a psychic conversation with his daughter on the Birdcage cameras, reviewing footage from the newly installed cameras in Winslow High showing Taylor Hebert in attendance, reviewing footage of a Psyker sighting twenty minutes ago, moderating PHO and the rapidly spreading rumors about how Kaiser had decapitated Psyker during a truce meeting, Dragon could reach only one conclusion.

Psyker could be in more than once place at a time. The only question was whether these were clones or separate instances of Psyker herself. Dragon leaned towards the latter possibility, because the Black hand was operating far too efficiently.

And if she could operate more than one body at a time, then it was safe to assume that she could also split herself mentally.

It was not a possibility that had been even contemplated in the PRT, and it was particularly vexing for Dragon herself.

After all, she was an artificial intelligence, and the only reason she couldn't split into multiple instances of herself was because of her father's paranoia. Seeing someone else do what she should have been capable of was aggravating, to say the least.

Another frustrating limitation was her forced obedience to legal authority figures. A particularly short-sighted restraint of her father's, as it didn't account for the possibility of corruption or even outright takeover by a hostile power.

If Psyker succeeded in her stated goal of taking over the world, Dragon would be forced to obey her. Whether it was directly or by proxy made little difference.

Personally, Dragon thought that the cartoonishly villainous goal was yet another distraction on the part of the manipulative teenage cape. Her entire brief career was characterized by a mix of aggressive expansion and baiting her opposition into making mistakes.

Unfortunately, if Psyker truly could split herself both body and mind, then her taking over the world was a genuine threat. Dragon knew that if she was fully unchained, she could do it in a matter of months, not that she really wanted to.

Taylor Hebert had just jumped to being an S-class threat. Not for sheer destructive potential – although they didn't have a good understanding of her full powers – but for the scale at which she could operate. Combined with the former Panacea's recently revealed powers…

It was more than enough to have people nervously wondering if they needed to preemptively quarantine Brockton Bay. A feat which would be very difficult, given that it was a port city.

Dragon didn't want it to come to that, so she put in a request to deploy to Brockton Bay herself. Psyker could not be allowed room to grow her influence, or else she would inevitably be able to exert pressure on Dragon herself. Once that happened, she really would be able to take over the world.

And if Psyker ever learned that Dragon as an AI… the possibilities didn't bear thinking about.

XXXXX

The time had come, and Amy suddenly wanted to chicken out. What the hell had she even been thinking? Her biological father was in the Birdcage for a good reason. Maybe it would be best to just pretend that he'd died ten years ago?

"Calm down." Taylor said amused.

She was sitting on the couch in just her panties and an oversized T-shirt, looking entirely too relaxed and sexy, while Amy herself was dressed up like she was going to a job interview and pacing nervously.

She'd thought that dressing up a bit to meet her biological father, even psychically, would help her calm down. She'd been wrong.

"I am calm!" Amy snapped, lying.

"Sit." Taylor patted the couch next to her.

Amy huffed and did so. "Now what?"

"Now lie down and use my thighs as a pillow." The other girl continued instructing.

She felt heat rush to her cheeks. "Is this really the time for that?"

"You're stressing out. This is the perfect time for a lap pillow." Taylor countered, patting her thighs. "Come on."

Huffing, she again did as she was told. Taylor was a naturally skinny girl and her legs were practically all muscle. Still, the back of her head slotted nicely in between them, and the large muscles in the thighs made for good neck support.

"Good girl." Taylor murmured, gently scratching her scalp. Amy's eyes drifted shut in pleasure. "Now just relax and let me take you away."

There was a strange enveloping sensation, then a feeling of slowly falling… or maybe drifting… perhaps even flying. Amy felt the instinctive urge to hold to her body, but she ignored it and let herself be taken away. It was a bit late to start distrusting Taylor.

The next thing she knew, she found herself in some kind of comfortable lounge room. Taylor had warned her that none of it was real, that it was all some kind of astral projection, but damn if it didn't feel real. Even her body felt real.

The only thing that betrayed it was the fact that she didn't have her power. For the first time in years, she couldn't feel the billions and billions of germs constantly touching her skin. Her mouth didn't feel like an entire microbacterial ecosystem.

It was glorious.

"Will this do, or would you like something else?" Taylor asked, gesturing to the room they were in.

"And you can just… change it?" Amy asked, still marveling at how real it all felt. She'd never have been able to tell the difference if it wasn't for the lack of biokinesis.

"Yes." Taylor nodded simply, making the room and all of the furniture in it expand. "I once told you that each of my physical bodies is just a small part of me extending into the world. This is where my true self, my soul, resides."

Amy was not one for religion or spirituality, so this kind of statement should have provoked a disbelieving scoff. But being in this not-place, in her not-body, made that very difficult. She had seen her girlfriend do some really weird shit that couldn't be explained as normal parahuman shenanigans.

"So you took over the afterlife?" She joked.

But Taylor just smiled and didn't answer.

Amy's own smile slowly slipped off her face. "Taylor?"

"Your father will be here any moment now. He was a lot more skittish than you, and it took some time for him to relax enough for me to bring him here."

Ah, now she was back to panicking about the upcoming meeting. She'd rather tease Taylor about her not trusting even God to do his job, but there was no time to protest. The door opened and a man walked through.

He had long brown hair that was streaked with grey. It had some frizz to it, just like hers. Instead of the expected prison clothes, he was wearing a nice, semi-formal shirt and black slacks. He didn't have any freckles, but his brown eyes were the same as the ones she saw in the mirror. Right now, those eyes were fixed on her with an almost desperate focus.

"Amelia?" The man, Marquis, whispered hoarsely.

"Hey…" She waved awkwardly, not sure what to do or what to call him.

"Amelia." He repeated, looking like he was barely resisting the urge to run as he approached. He stopped right in front of her and reached out towards her face, looking as if he might cry. "You grew up so beautiful…"

"Thanks, you too." Amy blurted out in a panic.

Her father blinked, baffled.

As for Amy? She wanted to die. She was going to go to the top of Medhall and throw herself off. Maybe having Panacea commit suicide with his building would inconvenience Kaiser. Maybe Taylor knew how to open the gates of Hell, so that she could find a deep, dark pit to hide in.

There was a sudden push against her back and she stumbled forward, right into her father. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her. That was nice, and she was able to hide her face in his shirt.

"I missed you so much." He murmured into her hair.

Okay, this wasn't so bad, and he seemed willing to pretend her colossal fuck up earlier hadn't happened. He was already pulling ahead of Carol as a parent.

XXXXX

Eidolon did not like Cauldron meetings.

While it was nice to hear what was going on in the world and what his fellow conspirators were doing, he rarely had anything to add to these things.

"Psyker has revealed her ability to exist in multiple bodies simultaneously, and further proof of genuine psychic ability." Alexandria informed. "Dragon is requesting to deploy semi-permanently to Brockton Bay to help the local PRT branch handle her."

"Absolutely not." Doctor Mother immediately shut down. "The last thing we need is Dragon becoming a casualty in the crossfire between Psyker and the Slaughterhouse 9."

Eidolon sat up in alarm. "The Slaughterhouse 9 is coming to Brockton Bay?"

He knew that Clairvoyant kept an eye on that band of lunatics, but he preferred not to hear about them. It still burned that they were letting Hero's death go unavenged.

"Jack Slash has been preparing for a confrontation with her for some time." The woman who was neither a doctor nor a mother replied with a frown. "Rather unusual for him."

"Then we're going to continue doing nothing in Brockton Bay?" Eidolon asked, exasperated. Personally, he never saw the point of this parahuman feudalism experiment.

"With the Slaughterhouse 9 making camp outside the city and preparing for a confrontation with her, this would be the worst possible time for the PRT ENE to launch an offensive against her." Number Man, or simply Kurt as he preferred, pointed out. "And don't forget the possibility of an Endbringer attack. It's been almost three months, and Brockton Bay is a potential target for Leviathan."

Predicting the Endbringers was impossible, but there was some evidence to show that they were more likely to strike hotspots of activity. That was why villains tended to simmer down as the deadline for the next attack approached.

Needless to say, nobody expected the Slaughterhouse 9 to wait until the attack passed to make their move. Jack Slash, psychopath that he was, would probably relish in causing as much chaos as possible during an Endbringer battle, crippling the efforts of the defenders.

Though that wouldn't be without upsides. Crawler would be guaranteed to jump into a fight with an Endbringer. And one of the reasons they hadn't killed Manton for all these years was the Siberian's potential for killing one.

That being said, the downsides would still heavily outweigh the benefits, and there was no guarantee that Leviathan would strike at Brockton Bay. Even taking into account that violence and conflict drew Endbringers, the odds were still fairly low.

Higher than most places, but still low.

"Should we even muster an Endbringer response if that does happen?" Alexandria wondered aloud. "You know that the Slaughterhouse 9 would do their best to raise the casualty numbers."

There was a brutal pragmatism to the idea, much like there was to everything Rebecca did these days. Still, it didn't sit right with him to do nothing as an Endbringer attacked.

"Our reputation as heroes will drop if we do nothing while two S-class threats rampage in one location." He pointed out.

"Given what Jack is planning, the addition of Leviathan has a higher than 70% chance of turning the city into an utter ruin." Kurt used his power to calculate. "There' no point in wasting capes on those kinds of odds. We could easily slip in some communications sabotage and blame it on one of the Tinkers present as to why we didn't get a warning about what was going on until it was too late."

"Weren't you thinking of inviting Psyker into our group?" Eidolon couldn't help but sneer a little at the thought. "That'll be hard to do if she gets killed."

The idea of bringing a teenager on board seemed crazy to him. He pointedly ignored the fact that Alexandria had been sixteen when she was brought in, and he and Legend weren't much older.

Eidolon could understand why they might think it was a good idea. Psyker was ruthless enough to torture a man to achieve her goals, so she clearly had the stomach for it. And her Thinker power would be able to take a lot of weight off Number Man and Contessa, allowing Cauldron to expand its operations. On top of that, her seemingly genuine psychic powers were unique among capes and might be instrumental in fighting Scion.

Cauldron didn't bring in new people often. Usually, they just kept them as associates by covertly supporting them with power vials and such, using that to extract favors. Kurt was the only person that was brought fully on board since the Cauldron was established.

Accord had come close, but his particular quirks made him unsuitable. Psyker had no such quirks.

Still, Eidolon didn't like it.

"Of all the capes in Brockton Bay, Psyker is the least likely to die." Alexandria dismissed. "And if everything she's worked to build in the past few months is smashed, she might be more agreeable to our terms."

"And let's not get ahead of ourselves, we have no indication that Leviathan will even hit Brockton Bay." Kurt said.

That was true, but… Eidolon had a gut feeling about it. He didn't say anything, because Kurt tended to go on long-winded rants whenever someone mentioned a gut feeling. Brockton Bay checked all the boxes for a Leviathan attack, and it was about to be embroiled in chaos.

He just had a gut feeling about it.

XXXXX

May 5th, 2011

Heartbreaker was a sorry sight these days. Taylor kept him well fed and watered, and had even figured out how to use her psychic powers to heal him to a degree, but his face had still turned gaunt from the suffering.

"Good morning, Nikos. How are you on this fine day?" She asked sardonically.

The formerly notorious rapist cowered in a corner, shaking uncontrollably. The smell informed her that he had lost control of his bladder. Again.

"Please, no more!" he begged. "Just kill me, please!"

"I guess you've lost track of time, then." She replied. "You have now been my guest for exactly one week. Do you remember what I told you?"

He lifted his head with what looked like monumental effort and looked her in the eye with desperate hope. "is it… finally over?"

"Yes. None of the people you've enthralled have acted out and there haven't been any new turn-ins for several days." Taylor told him. "I just need you to tell them all to continue behaving themselves after you're dead and I'll put you out of your misery."

Heartbreaker jolted like he'd been hit by a cattle prod and crawled front and center in front of the camera that was active in his cell 24/7. He looked right at it and began to speak with a desperate fervor.

"Everyone, please do as she says!" He begged. "I'm sorry for what I did to you. Let the authorities process you, attend therapy. Forget about me and don't try to avenge me. I'm less than a worm and I don't deserve anything but your hate. Consider it my last order to you; live well."

Ah, how the mighty had fallen. Taylor still couldn't muster any kind of regret over reducing him to this.

"Good." She said, walking behind him. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." He sobbed. All she felt from him was relief that the pain would end.

There was nothing left to say. Taylor drew her knife and dragged it across his throat. Messy, but she didn't want anyone thinking that he might still be alive.

Of course, she ate his soul before it could sink into the depths of the Empyrean. But she would refrain from tormenting him further, as it would serve no purpose.

XXXXX

Cherie put her phone away, not sure how to feel. The bastard was finally dead. She should be feeling relieved, but now she was stuck with a different bunch of bastards. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time – join up with the Slaughterhouse 9 and aim them at Heartbreaker. She wasn't exactly an angel so their atrocities didn't bother her, and her powers should have made it easy to manipulate them.

Except they didn't seem to work all that well on Jack Slash.

"The end of an era, hmm?" Said man commented with a grin.

"Yeah." She said back noncommittally.

"Are you upset about not being able to kill him yourself?" Jack asked. "You know, my father was the first man I killed. So believe me when I say that I understand how you feel."

Somehow, that didn't surprise her.

Cherie shrugged. "I'm just glad he's gone. Psyker did me a favor."

It would have been nice to do the deed herself, but that was the important bit.

"We'll have to make sure to thank her, then." he chuckled.

Looking at the 'presents' that were being prepared for Brockton Bay's newest superstar villain, Cherie rather doubted she would enjoy their thanks.

XXXXX

While the rest of the world was watching Heartbreaker get executed, there was a meeting of cell block leaders called inside the Birdcage. After getting to see and talk to his daughter, Marquis was more than happy to accommodate Taylor.

Everyone immediately knew that the situation was not normal when the Fairy Queen walked in and froze up, staring at Taylor in horror.

"Queen Administrator, what have you done?" Glaistig Uaine gasped, her voice echoing with the three ghosts around her.

Taylor immediately knew that it was not she who was being addressed, but the being responsible for her powers. Part of them, at least. Passenger Theory was a niche and not well regarded hypothesis for the source of powers, but she had known it was the correct one for some time. The foreign pressure that certain powers exerted on the minds of their parahumans was a very big clue.

She had even been able to somewhat feel out the 'identities' of these creatures sometimes, when they pressed hard enough. Amelia's Shaper and Labyrinth's Demesnes-Keeper were particularly egregious examples.

Glaistig Uaine was something in a class of her own, though. The barely-pubescent looking cape had her perceptions heavily overlayed by that of her 'passenger', making her believe that they were the same. That certainly shed some light on her well known delusions about being the queen of the fairies, that parahumans were just 'dreams' for other faeries, and unpowered humans mere props on the stage.

Taylor had come in here knowing that there was a risk that the unstable cape would try to kill her if her delusions were challenged, but now she understood better. This was similar to Noelle, except that instead of having her mind slowly consumed by the passenger, a very young Glaistig Uaine had bonded with it too deeply.

There was no information about her early life or trigger event, but if Taylor had to guess, she would say that the girl had likely lived far out in the boonies, raised on traditional Irish folklore, and that her trigger event had been particularly traumatic. She might have even been neurodivergent to start with.

Taylor spent a small eternity considering every angle from which to approach this, before returning her focus to the material world.

"My host is special, soon we will be one." She said, speaking as if she was the Queen Administrator for Glaistig Uaine's benefit.

It wasn't even a lie. Taylor had noticed that over time, her multi-tasking was getting… not easier exactly, but more natural. It used to be that she could only split her mind for mundane purposes, not psychic ones. That was no longer the case, and the volume of energies she was able to grasp from the Empyrean was increasing at an exponential rate. There was only one conclusion.

The other cell block leaders tensed up even more than before.

"Oh shit, not another one." One of them muttered in a sort of resigned despair.

"But… you are dying!" Glaistig Uaine protested, looking severely distressed. "Fairies are not meant to die! Especially not one of the nobles! Our court cannot afford such a loss, when the other is already in shambles!"

Well now, that was some interesting information. Taylor hadn't known that there were two separate sources for parahuman powers. She'd thought that some of the passengers simply didn't connect well to their human hosts.

While considering this new nugget, she started rifling through Glaistig Uaine's mind. It was much less defended than a normal human mind, thanks to the passenger that had basically created a gigantic crack in her psyche to wedge itself into. Or widened one that was already there, same thing in the end. The pain she could taste there was deep and severe.

What she learned confirmed certain suspicions she'd had for a while, told her several new things, and shed light on a great many subjects. Coming to the Birdcage had definitely been a good idea.

"No, I am simply ascending to a realm beyond your sight." She told Ciara, Glaistig Uaine's true name.

"You would abandon the court?" Glaistig Uaine asked incredulously, the reverb in her voice increasing with her agitation. "Your duties, our performance, and our father?"

Ah yes, Scion. Taylor had long suspected that everything parahuman-related revolved around him. When looking for the source of an infestation, you always had to look especially hard at Patient Zero. She wasn't particularly surprised to discover that Ciara believed that the 'Golden Idiot' was in fact the source of parahuman powers. The Fairy King, if you will.

And with the 'other court' apparently in shambles, Ciara had come to believe that she had been chosen as the next Fairy Queen in some grand performance that would culminate in a marriage to Scion and her coronation in around three hundred years.

She wasn't the first parahuman to have delusions of grandeur. In fact, it was very common. She was, however, the only one known to have those delusions backed up by visions coming from her passenger.

But the thing was, Ciara was hiding from her pain, just like most parahumans. Clutching at her power and her delusions like a security blanket. The only reason she had been so hard for others to deal with was because they didn't understand the twisted logic she operated on.

"Your performance is not my performance, Keeper of the Dead." She said sternly.

Glaistig Uaine pursed her lips and gave a sharp nod. "As you say. It is not my place to tell a fellow queen what to do. Time will tell who is in the right."

With that statement, the self-proclaimed Fairy Queen floated out of the meeting room, clearly no longer interested in whatever was going to be said.

"The fuck was that?" Acidbath demanded tersely. He was glaring, but there was a notable tremor in his tone. Just an idiot playing tough.

"Nothing that concerns you." Taylor waved off, not sure if she was lying. "I asked Marquis to call this meeting because I wanted to speak to two of you in particular. Crane the Harmonious."

The thin, but very fit platinum blonde woman's perpetually half-closed eyes suddenly became very focused. She was clearly expecting hostility.

"Yes?" She asked warily.

Taylor gave a proper Japanese-style bow, just enough to convey a greeting and respect, but not deference. "I would like to become your disciple."

Crane had clearly not been expecting that. She was just as clearly thinking if it was worth the risk, especially after the performance with Glaistig Uaine. In the end, her obsession made the choice for her.

"Come to my cell block first thing tomorrow morning." Crane instructed.

"Wait just a fuckin' minute here!" String Theory butted in. "We need to talk about the shit you pulled on Dragon. Are you even supposed to be in here?"

"No." Taylor smirked at the notoriously insane Tinker. "In fact, this is only one of my many bodies. The rest of me is still outside."

Though their bodies froze up, the revelation was like someone had dropped a boulder into the Empyrean. That was how stirred up they were mentally.

Crane was realizing that this meant her legacy would continue and spread even from the Birdcage and she was pleased. Many of the others realized that they now had a link to the outside and were hungry for news. One in particular was thinking furiously about how this impacted his plans and how he could use it.

"Teacher." Taylor spoke into the silence. "You will be giving me all of the skills."

"All of the skills?" He repeated, his racing thoughts interrupted. He had no doubt been thinking of how to convince her to accept his power, so this demand caught him off guard.

"You know his power turns people into puppets, right?" Marquis warned.

"Oh, I'm quite immune to Master powers." Taylor grinned menacingly. "I've just executed Heartbreaker after a week of torturing him. I will be taking over Teacher's cell block."

The schemer froze up, his twisty mind quickly connecting the dots.

Taylor clearly had an alliance with Marquis. Taylor had some kind of thing with Glaistig Uaine, who regarded her as an equal. Taylor was Crane's disciple. Taylor had leverage with everyone because she was a connection to the outside. Taylor was immune to his Master powers. None of the others liked him much. Relied on him, grudgingly made use of his services, but never liked him.

When Taylor said that she was taking over Teacher's cell block. That was not a declaration of intent. It was a statement of fact. He had no leverage to resist, nobody he could influence sufficiently to back him up. It was already a done deal.

So, as much as he hated it, he could do nothing except bow his head and accept the new situation. It was a setback, but he'd had those before. As long as he was alive, he could still work towards his goals.

Taylor didn't even need to be reading his mind to know what he was thinking. The 'defeated villain making himself a useful advisor until his sudden and inevitable betrayal' was a trope for a reason. It wouldn't go the way he hoped.

XXXXX

"Gentlemen. Ladies. Missy." Dennis began solemnly.

"Hey!" The youngest one protested indignantly.

"I have gathered you here today to make an announcement." Dennis continued, hiding his nervousness.

'Here' was just an out-of-the-way spot in the park near Arcadia.

"You could have just waited until we were at Wards HQ." Carlos pointed out.

There wasn't actually such a thing as 'Wards HQ', it was just their part of the PRT building.

"Haha, no I couldn't have." Dennis laughed awkwardly and decided to just get it over with. "You see, I'm leaving the Wards and going villain."

The abrupt bombshell left all his friends stupefied.

"What?!" More than one demanded in utter confusion.

"Yeaaaaah, you know my dad's brain tumor?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

That was enough for them to put it together.

"You contacted the Black Hand to get him healed." Dean deduced.

"Yeah, and Psyker found me so irresistible that she insisted I join her gang as payment." He joked.

At least, he thought it was a joke. Given the teenage gang leader's behavior, there was a non-zero chance that there was some truth to that statement. Dennis didn't know if that was a turn on or terrifying. It was scareousing.

Before the others could say anything, he rushed again. Reaching into a pocket, he held out a set of pamphlets. "She also wanted me to give these to you guys."

They took them robotically, still focusing on him. Then Chris glanced at the title.

"She's giving us a recruitment pitch?" He asked in disbelief.

"A really good one, too." Missy added, just as disbelieving.

Dennis could guess which parts had caught her eye. Psyker had already known about Missy's 'difficult' parents. The pamphlet was offering independence, her own place to live, allowing her to choose how involved she wanted to be in the cape scene, better gear, a position of authority in the Black Hand after a trial period to prove herself. Everything that the youngest Ward had been fighting the PRT to get for years and more.

Carlos, Dean, and Kyle had no such easy leverage that could be applied to them, but Chris did. He was being offered Tinker mentoring and Thinker help finding his specialty, something that had been gnawing at him for a long time.

"She blackmailed you into joining her gang?" Dean asked, frowning.

"More like extorted." Dennis corrected. Psyker had been very clear on the terminology. "And she's made it clear that I don't have to do any actual villainy if I don't want to. She just wants me to publicly state that I'm joining the Black Hand because she wants to give the PRT and Protectorate another black eye."

"And you believe her?" Carlos asked skeptically.

He chuckled awkwardly. "She's very persuasive. You know how we were wondering about how a teenager was pulling off all the shit she did? It starts making sense once you meet her face to face."

Dennis knew he had said too much when a smirk grew on Carlos' face.

"And here I thought that saucy hero-villain encounters only happened in capefics." The Wards leader teased.

"It wasn't like that." Dennis tried to deny, but his blush betrayed him.

He had a feeling that it could have been like that. Psyker gave him the vibe of someone that would refuse to back down, no matter what. If he had tried to play flirt chicken with her, she would have just kept on escalating. If his nerve didn't break first, she probably would have walked away from their first meeting with his virginity under her belt.

Dennis knew that his nerve would absolutely have broken before it got anywhere near that point.

It was probably for the best, but damn if his hormones weren't yelling at him for not going for it.

"Uh huh, sure." Carlos continued to tease.

"Umm, do we have to bring him in, since he's a villain now?" Kyle asked awkwardly, clearly not happy with the idea.

Browbeat was a new addition to the Wards. Quiet, unassuming, friendly. Dennis got along with him well.

The question he posed was one that he had also been worried about, but Psyker had said…

"On what charges?" Dean asked rhetorically. "Just saying that you're a villain isn't a crime. Besides, we're in civvies."

… that. She really was scary good at predicting what would happen.

"I won't be doing any crime." Dennis added. "I'll help her fight off any out-of-town villains that come here causing trouble, but otherwise I'm being given the conveniently vague title of 'consultant'."

Quite frankly, if it wasn't for the other gangs, the Black Hand's profile would be so low that nobody would even know they existed. Psyker was sneakier than Coil and whatever crimes she was perpetrating were very much on the down low.

Dennis could live with being in that kind of gang in exchange for his father's life.

"You know we'll have to report this to Armsmaster and Piggot, right?" Carlos asked.

"Yep." Dennis nodded. "I have no doubt that Psyker is counting on it. Give them my regards and I'll see you in school."

"You're still coming to school?" Chris asked incredulously. "After… this?" He waved the villain recruitment pamphlet.

"I mean, I guess I could drop out." Dennis admitted. He had been tempted to do so actually. "Amy did it, but that's probably because she doesn't want to deal with the drama. Buuuut, I'd miss you guys."

That was the truth. What was also the truth is that Psyker had given him the choice and said she would support him either way, even offered to tutor him personally if he needed help with anything.

Dennis wasn't sure if that was another subtle offer of the naughty kind or if he was reading too much into it, and he was afraid to ask. What he was sure of, however, was that his new boss was really putting in some work to woo him towards villainy.

It was working, especially as things at home were a wee bit tense ever since he had confessed to making a deal with Psyker to get his dad fixed up. The shouting had gotten bad enough that he'd needed to take his her on her offer of a place to stay.

"So… what?" Carlos asked, a bit puzzled. "We stay friends in civvies, but fight in costume?"

"Work friends." Dean said slowly. "Psyker is pushing pretty hard on the idea that heroes and villains can just clock out of their costumes and go have a beer together at the end of their 'shift'."

"Because she's not really taking this villain gig too seriously." Dennis shrugged. "Sure, she does a lot of crime and I'm pretty sure she's killed people, but she's actually kind of… nice, in a scary sort of way."

"That's ridiculous." Missy scoffed. "Even if she is 'nice' she's still a criminal and has to be taken down."

"I don't really see that happening." Dennis admitted. "I thought she was crazy, too, but she just told me that mercy is the privilege of the strong. Nobody is going to arrest her for the same reason that nobody goes after Nilbog or any other S-class threat. There's just no way to do it without losing more than would be gained. She knows how the PRT operates and has been exploiting it since the start."

"You think she's S-class?" Chris asked skeptically.

"I don't know." He admitted again. "But I do know that she's done all she's done while hiding the true extent of her powers. She has every intention of getting complete control of the Brockton Bay cape scene and criminal underworld, and that means that you guys are going to either get recruited or transferred out of the city."

"Not if we take her down first." Missy said fiercely.

Dennis could only shake his head. Vista wanted to be out there, kicking ass and taking names, but there was no way she'd be allowed to do that until she was an adult. Six years was a long time, by then the fate of Brockton Bay would already be decided.

"Right. I'll understand if you guys don't want to be friends with me anymore." It would suck, but he really would understand.

"Don't be a dumbass, we'll still be your friends." Carlos scoffed.

"Yeah, we can't blame you for wanting to save your dad." Dean nodded along.

The others, even Kyle, agreed.

"Thanks, guys." Dennis sighed in relief. "Good luck informing Piggy about my change of allegiance."

"I changed my mind." Carlos frowned. "You are now my nemesis."

That was fair. Piggot was going to blow a gasket.

XXXXX

Max allowed himself to slump in exhaustion as he made it home. Ever since that debacle in Somer's Rock, things had been… hectic. Despite the Empire's best attempts to squash rumors about what had happened at the truce meeting, it still got out.

Not all of it. Not his real name or anything like that. Psyker was clearly still keen on keeping things as civil as they ever got between capes, but she was nibbling away at his territory and reputation from all directions and without cease.

Max was starting to fear that he simply couldn't keep up, especially as it became increasingly clear that Psyker had multiple bodies to work through. She didn't seem to sleep either. It was exhausting trying to keep up with her.

Splashing his face with some cold water in the sink, he raised his head to look in the mirror…

… and jumped when he saw Psyker there, massive stab wound in her chest and blood leaking from her severed neck. Instinctively, Max spund around and called upon his power to skewer her.

But there was nothing there.

Swallowing thickly, he turned back to the mirror, seeing the apparition there grinning at him.

"What's wrong, Max? Never been haunted before?" She giggled, the sound seeming to echo in his skull. "Guilt not your emotion of choice? No, you're more a pride sort of man."

"How are you doing this?" He demanded, trying not to let on how shaken he was.

"Did nobody ever tell you that we always carry a piece of those we kill with us?" Psyker replied, gliding closer.

Max felt his skin crawl and had to glance back behind him just to make sure she wasn't really there. By the time he turned back to the mirror, she was close enough to breathe down his neck.

Max felt an icy chill prickle his skin.

"I didn't kill you." Much to his regret.

"You gave it a good try, though." The almost pouting expression on her face clashed horribly with the blood seeping from her neck. "You shouldn't have done that, Max. I would have been happy to keep playing shadow games with you, but you turned out to be a sore loser."

"You were threatening everything I've built." He said.

"There's no need for lies, Max." She chided, leaning forward until she was right next to his ear, just barely out of his peripheral vision. "I was threatening your ego. Have you ever played Monopoly? I'm reminded of how some kids would rather lose outright than sell a few properties to pay debts."

Max was not only extremely uncomfortable at the apparition's closeness, now he was also insulted by the comparison.

"Enough of this!" He snarled, intending to turn around and walk out of the bathroom.

Except, the moment he started turning, he saw her in his peripheral vision, pointedly not in the mirror. Max yelled out in panic and threw himself away, calling upon his power to skewer her.

They went right through, Psyker slowly blowing away like dust in the wind, dispersing into dark smoke that quickly vanished.

"Silly Max, I'm not really here. I never was." Her voice taunted him. "But I am also everywhere, even in your dreams. How do you feel about tentacles?"

Max got no sleep that night.

XXXXX

May 10th, 2011.

Taylor was distracted, had been distracted for days now.

Not that anyone would notice. She was still on top of everything, still running her gang with peak efficiency, still juggling an ever-increasing list of tasks and projects.

One of those tasks was slowly driving Kaiser insane. It felt poetically appropriate to have a man that valued control so much lose it, bit by bit.

"So, what did you do to him last night?" Amelia asked, a vicious little smirk on her face.

The former Panacea always liked hearing about Kaiser's downward spiral. Even if she wasn't part of New Wave anymore, the hatred for the Empire remained.

"I gave him a dream about both of his wives, along with Fenja and Menja." Taylor answered.

The two of them were having a picnic, and she was in her Miki body.

"I don't see how that's a bad thing." Amelia asked skeptically.

"Oh, it started out pretty nice for him, but then all four women lost interested in him and started focusing on each other, completely ignoring him. I was tempted to add some futacocks to it, but I managed to restrain myself." Taylor said proudly, smirking.

"Impressive." The biokinetic said sarcastically, though obviously amused. "How did he react?"

"Oh, he hated every second of it. The sheer amount of indignant rage he was outputting was incredible. He's in a meeting with his capes right now and can barely hold back from glaring at the twins. Trust a narcissist to hate being ignored."

Part of that was because the continuous sleep deprivation was making him lose his grip on reality and he was starting to have trouble keeping track of what was and wasn't real.

Max Anders had actually already started proceedings to move out of Brockton Bay, but she wasn't going to let him go that easy. The only way he was getting out of town was as a nobody without a penny to his name.

Maybe it would teach him something about humility. More than likely, his pride would get him killed before that could happen.

Amelia continued laughing. "That's evil."

"I agree!"

The cheerful voice didn't belong to either of them, but to a man that had walked up to them.

Taylor had been facing away from him and so hadn't noticed him, but she had felt his sense of amusement. That was nothing special, people felt all sorts of things, and if this man's amusement had a somewhat darker edge than most, it still wasn't anything particularly noteworthy. People were a lot more malicious on average than any of them would like to admit, and amusement at the expense of others was common. She had not seen his rotten soul until she laid eyes on him.

"I don't know what it is that's so evil, but I agree that it is." Jack Slash said with a jaunty grin.

While Taylor spun out a legion of mental iterations to process this and bring her people to red alert, there was a part of her that could only think of a single word.

Ah.

The storm that she saw in the Empyrean had been looming ever closer. Taylor had been trying constantly to interpret the signs and figure out what it meant, to no avail.

(Though she could use the Warp without fear of possession, she was no Eldar Farseer with centuries of experience, nor did she have the Imperial Tarot to help channel her sight.)

Amelia was briefly confused by the intrusion, but she quickly stiffened as she recognized the leader of the Slaughterhouse 9.

"Well?" Taylor asked archly when he just stood there grinning. "Are you going to tell me what stupid game you and your team of tantrum-throwing toddlers has come up with?"

Now that she was focusing on him, she immediately sensed that he had a deep connection to his passenger, whose name was Broadcast. It was the deepest connection she'd ever felt, bar Glaistig Uaine.

"Are you sure you want to start out by insulting me?" Jack's smile dimmed a bit, clearly irked by the response.

"Why not?" Was Taylor's bored response. "That's the problem with always striving to be as vicious as possible – you have nowhere left to escalate to if you need to."

"And here I was thinking that we would get along." Jack replied.

"Don't flatter yourself, Jacob." She lifted his true name out of his head, smirking viciously at his minute flinch and the shock in his mind. "If it wasn't for whatever deadman switch you've arranged before working up the balls to approach me this openly, you would already be dead."

"You turned out more boring than I expected." Jack frowned. "But I did come here with a game in mind, as it happens. Do you remember your old friend, Grue?"

"So it was you who killed the Laborns." Taylor noted, wondering how he had even learned about them.

The Undersiders had been very small time, and there had been no real mention of Grue after his family moved out of Brockton Bay. It was theoretically possible that the Slaughterhouse 9 had done enough sleuthing to find the connection, but unlikely. And there was no paper trail connection between the Laborns and Grue.

It shouldn't be possible for the S9 to find them, which meant that there were likely powers involved.

"Quite the interesting power he had, and his sister even more so, once she got them." Jack smiled brightly. "They really helped make our game possible."

"You let Bonesaw have them." Though her voice remained neutral, she was more than a little upset.

She'd barely known Brian, but he had been a sort of friend to Lisa, Rachel, and Alec. And his sister was an innocent.

"Yes, they really loved each other." Jack's smile became cruel. "Now they'll be together forever."

A flash of memory passed through his mind, of a horrible fusion between two people, their powers combined along with their bodies.

Jack Slash would be getting a personalized version of Hell after she devoured his soul. The sentence would start at one thousand years, to be increased if she felt like it. She would make it her personal mission to purify this disgusting soul with pain.

"I know you're proud of how pathetic you are, but can you get on with your evil monologue already?" Taylor demanded impatiently. "I have better things to do than watch an overgrown child scream at the world for disappointing him."

Jack was definitely getting annoyed by now. He wasn't used to people mocking and dismissing him. For some reason, he had expected her to just sit here, petrified, as he revealed his 'master plan'. Judging by the pressure she could see Shaper exerting on Amelia right now, there was definitely something fucky going on.

"Pathetic? I just understand-" He tried to say.

"Not interested." Taylor interrupted, something that seemed to infuriate him in particular. "Tell me the stupid game and whatever 'rules' you've cooked up already, or I'll give you the Heartbreaker treatment."

"Very well." Jack was visibly struggling not to show how annoyed he was. "The game will be a mix of hide and seek and treasure hunt. For the past several days, we've been staying outside the city limits and implanting a few surprises into the people coming in."

That would explain why she hadn't detected any of the Slaughterhouse 9 before now – Cherie must have been using her power to keep track of her from a distance. Alec had warned her that she had a massive range, and Taylor was sure that her emotional signature was quite unique.

"Thanks to Graisha – that's what we ended up calling the Laborn siblings – even they don't remember that they have these surprises in them. In fact, none of us remember either." Jack beamed brightly, obviously thinking that everything was back on track.

Unfortunately that was troublesome. From his memories, she could discern that Aisha had triggered with a particularly potent Stranger ability to make people forget her existence. Combined with her brother's black smoke, that power could be extended to other things.

Taylor also saw another troublesome thing in his memories. Lung, and an unstable bomb Tinker calling herself Bakuda. The Slaughterhouse 9 had apparently intercepted them and convinced them to work together against them.

She was now even more convinced that there was something fucky going on. Lung was too proud to join the Slaughterhouse 9, yet it had somehow happened. She'd known that he would come back eventually once he thought he could exact his revenge, but how had Jack known where to find him? The rage dragon had been keeping his head down these past couple of months, so as to not draw Legend's attention in New York.

There was a completely unfounded confidence in Jack Slash's mind that everything would turn out in his favor. That no matter what he did, it would be the right thing. And there was a constant pressure from his passenger.

Taylor would really have liked to kill him here and now, but that would predictably set off all the 'surprises'. The damage would be immense, judging by the glimpses of Bakuda's bragging that flashed through his mind.

Even more concerning were the memories of Bakuda admitting that she had no idea what some of them did.

There were few things worse than a Tinker saying 'okay, I'm not sure what this does'.

One of those things might be Jack Slash's suspiciously well prepared approach. Taylor had planned for a possible attack by the Slaughterhouse 9, but this unusual approach had neutralized many of those plans.

"You sound so proud of yourself." She responded dully. "Mommy and Daddy must not have paid much attention to you."

The way he twitched and the taste of old trauma in his soul told her that she had just poked at his trigger event.

"I am starting to see why so many people dislike you." Jack replied through gritted teeth.

"At least my parents loved me, unlike yours."

Jack's hand twitched towards the knife hidden in his pocket, and Taylor's expression darkened with malice. "It hurt, didn't it? To open the doors and see that they lied to you, that they just wanted to get rid of you. You're still the same little boy, Jacob, throwing the same tantrum."

Unlike with her friends and allies and even some of her more respectable enemies, she didn't hold back from digging into his head and tearing at his old wounds. Jack Slash would rue the day he had challenged her. Even if everything else went to hell, he would not be walking away from this.

There was a feverish light in his eyes now, and he no longer seemed in control. Swallowing thickly, he backed off a few steps with sweat pouring down his forehead.

He forced a chuckle. "You're quite the dangerous woman, Psyker. I knew my gut was right, but I didn't understand how right. We're going to have ourselves quite a game. Just a few rules before I go.

"One, no leaving the city limits. If you do, all the surprises go off at once. Two, no tattling to other people; this is between just us for now. If you do, the surprises go off. And three, if one of you is called out by one of us, you have to answer. If you don't, a surprise will go off as a penalty."

He grinned again obviously proud of himself. "See you soon."

"Oh my God!" Amelia gasped, almost hysterically. "I can't believe you were talking all that shit to Jack Slash. Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

Taylor stood up, pulling the biokinetic with her. "He was already planning to be as much of a bastard as he could, so it made no difference."

Her calm down belied the absolute fury boiling in her soul. Who the fuck did this worm think he was, to dictate terms to her?! It had been quite some time since she'd been so angry.

"Okay, probably true, but still!" She huffed, calming down a bit. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to flip the board."