I woke up in a chair. Not on my bed, like after the last time I was killed, and not in our living room, before talking to Legend. Which meant I was still alive and unReloaded. After proper examination with my glasses-less eyesight, I figured out I was strapped into a dentist's chair, bright light focused into my eyes instead of the mouth. I managed to rotate my head by a few degrees despite the restraints and side-vision-saw Dad in a similar position in the next chair, or at least a blob that looked like Dad from my side. All according to plan, then.
Bonesaw came into view, wearing an apron splashed with blood and other substances and loaded with medical instruments.
"Nasty people, you've almost killed Uncle Jack! Luckily I was close", she said, cheerfully.
"Hello Riley, big fan, I wanted to talk to you", I said, as cheerfully, trying to mimic her, "Dad, meet Riley I told you so much about; Riley, meet Dad."
"Hello, nice to finally meet you", Dad said, slightly sarcastically. Which meant he was awake and able to talk. Things were looking up.
"Really, you're a fan? What's your name? And why do you call me Riley? That was a real long time ago when I was last called that", she said, while rummaging through a pile of bloodstained instruments.
"I'm the Boss, but you can call me Taylor. I know you well. And I call you Riley because your days as Bonesaw are over, starting today."
"Oh, is that so? Why's that?", she asked, still not looking at me much and picking up the instruments.
"Because Bonesaw was purely Jack's Master power invention, and it's time for you to say goodbye to it and move on to be your own person", I said. Somehow, this made her pause.
"Uncle Jack has never Mastered me!", she cried.
"You're the scientist. You probably can test this claim while he's out, right? I bet you can think of a scientific way to validate this. If I'm lying, you don't lose anything and he won't even know you doubted him. Blame it on me if he does. And if I'm right, think about it?", I said.
"And you want me to let you go of course?" she said.
"Why would I do that? I'd like you to give me my trigger event, actually", I said, trying to smile.
"You what?" Dad said.
"Really?" Bonesaw said, "huh, my spider's readings say you've not lied to me even once." She said, then turned to Dad, "Unlike you, mister, don't think I haven't noticed. That's rude!", then she turned back to me, "Why do you think it would work?"
"I know that for an artist like you it'd be an interesting challenge, and if anybody can do it, it is the scientist in you."
"Oohh, flaterer, fancy! How do you know what I can do? Not many people who really know live to tell", she giggled.
"Oh, I know a lot of things. Tell you what, you make sure we can't run, check up on Jack's power, see if I've lied or mistaken, come back, get me to trigger, and then I'll tell you how I know about you so much. Deal?"
"You know what, I am going to do just that. Don't get up for me!", she singsonged and left the room.
"Taylor, what the fuck?!" Dad cried.
"No swearing!", Bonesaw's head popped back into the room.
"Sorry, Riley, he's too excited to meet you", I said, smiling.
"What the fuck, Taylor", Dad said half-whispering after Bonesaw disappeared again.
"What do you mean? Don't you want to get out of here? Stop antagonizing our nice host", I asked.
"You want her to trigger you? And it's not a lie? Were you Mastered?"
"Not as far as I know, also, AFAIK they don't have any Masters on the roster, besides Jack, right now. I really truly miss my power, and we're stuck here anyway, so, win-win?", I really didn't see the problem. I slowly worked my way to turn my head towards him.
"Did you plan to get captured by her from the start?"
"No, the goal was always Jack, to eliminate his role in the end of the world. And then I planned to run away. Was a long shot from the start. But, we're here, it's a rare opportunity. Riley knows her stuff. By the way, I advise you to tell the truth, we're being listened to and monitored, just saying."
Dad made an O with his mouth and stopped talking. I thought this part was kind of obvious, with the mechanical spiders everywhere around us, including the ones perching on the tops of our chairs. I also thought I mentioned that Bonesaw could trigger people and that maybe I should look for her. Or maybe it was in one of the loops Dad wasn't aware of? When I was trolling Armsmaster about getting powers in the locker. Never mind, I didn't want to mention my ability to Bonesaw at this point, so better not dwell on this.
While we were waiting, I tried to recall what Tattletale had told Bonesaw when she'd just decided to be Riley. When Lisa broke her. I didn't want to break her, but I wanted her free of Jack's influence and maybe helping to fight Scion, if she survived. I definitely didn't want her to revive Jack, which she seemed to have started doing while I was out.
I also wanted to survive, of course, but being tied up in here left very few chances for that if I hadn't turned the tables somehow. And I really wanted my power back. Worst case, I could always Reload and start over, a few days earlier, with the time to come much more prepared. Unless she knocked me out again and killed me in my sleep, of course. Maybe I was being dumb again? Too late now, have to see this through.
After a while, Bonesaw was back. Or was it Riley now? She wasn't as cheerful and playful. She was walking slowly back inside, clearly thinking of something.
"My gosh, you were right," she said. "I never thought to test Uncle Jack for the Master power, but it's there. Very subtle, but very persistent. How did you know?"
"Well, I only tell the people I'm friends with or work with. And my work is to save the world. Jack was about to help make it end soon, so I had to kill him. He'd want the world to end, wouldn't he?", I asked her.
She thought about it. "Yeah, he totally would; you seem to know Jack pretty well too. This is very interesting."
"Yes, so would you like to help me save the world? While I think I can manage it as I am now, with all the things I know, I used to have a power and I was hoping you could help me get it back. What do you say?"
"Gosh, I don't know, I need to ask Sibi and Uncle ... huh. I guess I don't want to ask Uncle Jack about that. It'd be silly."
"Try to think what you would like to do, Riley, not what others would like you to do."
"Oh, so, you mean, you want me to do what you would like? Sneaky sneaky!"
"Nah, I think we can manage without you too. I was not counting on even meeting you today, you know I'm being honest. No pressure, what would Riley want to do?", I replied.
"My art!", she said.
"Art is great, but try to think what your art is, as opposed to Jack's", I guided her.
"You know, it's really hard to tell a difference. I'd have to experiment. Which reminds me...."
She picked up her namesake from the bench, turned it on, and approached me. The whining of the circular saw brought back the memories of our other such meeting.
"Riley, one thing please!", I shouted. She stopped the saw. "Can you please try and keep my hair intact? I really like it."
She scratched her head, put the saw down, snatched a comb from somewhere, and started parting my hair, catching it with hair bands. It was somewhat soothing. Nobody has done my hair for me since Emma... yeah.
"Thanks, Riley", I said.
She finished and picked up the saw again, turned it on, and ... froze. I looked at Dad. He was frozen too for a second, then his face looked panicked.
"What was that?", he said.
"Oooh, somebody Triggered, and it wasn't you, Taylor!", Bonesaw was excited. She turned the saw off again, went to a bench, and opened a laptop computer that was hidden under the instruments.
"Did you really Trigger?", I asked Dad. He tried to shrug, but the restraints didn't allow him much movement.
That was... unexpected. Was I jealous of Dad? Probably a little bit. But why did he Trigger at all? We were having a nice conversation, Bonesaw was about to... huh, maybe I haven't thought how it looked like, for a parent, sitting, watching, and being unable to do anything? I just dragged him here and, yeah, I wasn't thinking about Dad's feelings at all, was I? Was I as much of a monster as Bonesaw here?
She was looking through some data on the screen, looked at Dad, at the screen again, typed something.
"So, mister Dad, welcome to the world of Parahumans! I'm so excited every time this happens. And I wasn't even doing anything to you! Luckily I recorded everything in this room since I brought you here. So ... it looks like we have a brand ... new ... Master! Of course, I have measures against Masters, except apparently Uncle Jack's .... power ... but you're not Mastering people, are you? No, something small, a lot of somethings? Huh, what is it? This is exciting!"
I looked at Dad, he seemed to be concentrating. Master, something small? Did he get my power?
I looked him in the eye and formed the word, meaningfully, soundlessly, "airways", he struggled to understand, until he did. He nodded, as much as the restraints have let him.
The wait didn't take long. The light from the broken windows dimmed and suddenly the room was full of forest-worth of insects of all kinds. It was terrifying, now that I couldn't control them. But I was used to terrifying. Plus the insects clearly all went only after Bonesaw, who noticed them rather late.
She took out a tube out of her pocket and broke it, releasing some sort of gas. Too little, too late. The insects in the gas cloud died, of course, but the rest flew around it and attacked her from all directions. Some went into her mouth and nose, some into her eyes and ears. Dad has listened, apparently.
Cockroaches landed on our chairs and started chewing on our restraints. Others jammed into the mechanical spiders, which were frozen with indecision for long seconds. Forrest spiders started weaving their nets in their mechanisms.
I definitely wasn't capable of such fine control right after I triggered. Dad was better with my power than I was.
I considered asking Dad to capture, not to kill Bonesaw, but then I thought of what she caused him and kept my mouth shut.
She tried to send her spider monstrosities after us at some point, but by then they were mostly immobile and jammed with dead insects. A few more mechanical spiders came into the room, but they were clearly attacked by bugs on their way and struggled to advance much, too.
Bonesaw fought. She kept producing chemical and biological weapons from the stuff that was lying around as well from her internal reserves, with various degrees of success, all while being unable to breathe. She was clearly unprepared for this, unlike during her Brockton Bay performance. It still took about 10 minutes till she ran out of internal air supply or whatever kept her going.
She convulsed one last time, opened her mouth and released a small cloud of purple smoke. It didn't do anything to the insects, but it gradually spread in the air and parts of it got blown away out of the windows by the breeze. It didn't have a smell when it reached us.
The insects took a few more minutes to cut Dad's restraints, then he undid mine and we were finally able to leave. We checked the other rooms, found Jack's head connected to some equipment, pumping blood into it. I smashed the equipment, put the head in a plastic bag I found in one of the cupboards and took it with us.
We also found most of our equipment and picked it up as well. The radio was broken, alas.
At the building's entrance, Imp popped into existence. "Boss, I killed the guy like you asked, got back to Dinah, we were waiting but you weren't coming and not answering the radio, so I went looking for you. I saw a huge cloud of insects, the Nine probably got some fucked-up cape controlling them, let's get out of here!"
"I told you to wait there, what were you going to do? Fight Jack? Anyway, good job, thanks for trying, and, yes, let's go back. Dinah's still there?" I asked. She nodded, and we went back through the forest. We didn't see any other Nine members, luckily.
Dad was silent. Too silent. "Talk to me? Please?" I asked him.
"Was this your power? ALL the insects a few blocks around?", he asked, aghast.
"Pretty much, yeah, enjoying?", I tried to inject some levity into the situation.
"Enjoying?! I feel the fleas on some Nine's cape body parts about a thousand feet that way. I feel the cockroaches drinking blood from tens of bodies around the town. God, Taylor, did you enjoy it?! You asked Bonesaw to make you feel this, again? Are you insane?"
"It's your insects? That's so cool!", tactful Aisha exclaimed.
"Aisha, shut up, please. Yes, it's fucked up, Dad, like pretty much all the powers are fucked up. I was in a mental ward for a week after I got my powers. It took me a long time to just realize what it is I was feeling. You? You just managed to straight attack Ri... Bonesaw the moment you got them. That's impressive. In time, you learn to ignore the bugs you don't want to observe, or you move them so they're not close to people doing ... whatever you don't want to see. But I'm not sure we're keeping this timeline, now. I will explain once we get to Dinah and I ask her a question."
"The purple smoke?" he asked.
"Yeah, if that's what I think it is, we didn't get the world much better. But I want to know, if or when I Reload, would you like to get powers? Cause now I know that at least for you it's possible. And yes, I realize you got them because of my actions there, and I'm sorry. Would you forgive me if I was to keep this timeline, unlikely as it sounds?"
Dad took his time answering. "I don't blame you, but you asked that ... monster to make you Trigger? And you were honest, according to her measurements. You meant it. Now that I think of it, you planned to get into that locker to get your powers? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
"To your question, if to get powers I need to go through something like this again, then fuck no, I don't want anything to do with powers. I might see the appeal of the powers in general. Sure, it just saved our asses. But ... no I don't think it's worth it. In fact, I'd like to ask you to tell me about this after you Reload - and I think we should go to some therapy. This is not normal."
"Dad, all the Capes are fucked up, get used to it!"
"Hey, I resemble that remark, I'm fine!" Aisha said.
"Shut up", we both told her, looked at each other and smiled.
"Taylor, you're not a Cape, according to Amy - but you're trying too hard to become one", Dad insisted. I didn't have a good answer for him.
Luckily we reached Dina's hiding spot and she stepped from around the bushes. "You weren't coming back but you told me not to waste questions. I was worried!"
"We're fine now, but I need to ask you a question now, if you're able?", she nodded.
"Chances that more than five thousand people die because of something Bonesaw did in the last hour?"
"99.87%! What did she do?" Dina asked in horror.
"My guess, released some plague as a last fuck you. That's why, Dad, if you attack some biological abomination you make sure they don't have time to pull such shit. But you're new and pissed off, so no biggy."
Dad shrugged, "I might have overreacted?"
"After I Reload, we're so watching Kill Bill and I will tell you this story when they get to this phrase." I promised him. Sean Bean was great as Bill, except for him dying in the end. So out of character for him.
"Imp, did you manage to find a phone?", I asked. She took 2 phones out of her pocket, both operational. "You're a savior."
I put my SIM card into one of them, dialed Legend and asked him to drop by and collect Jack's head as an official pretense in case he wasn't alone. He arrived 10 minutes later, by which time we all felt a slight headache. Guess the plague had started working. We had little time left.
Legend freaked out a little when I gave him the plastic bag with Jack's head. I didn't bother telling him about the plague or that I was about to Reload.
I asked him about the progress with the therapists for all the Protectorate leaders, and especially, our object of interest. There was nothing specific yet, having only a few days passed, but he was hopeful. He said he was getting very positive feedback from most of the other Capes and that Eidolon was stubborn.
Aisha tried to ask him some inappropriate questions about gays, and I sent her on timeout.
This was a bust. I still had no idea whether this approach with Eidolon would work, but I could plan and execute a better op for taking out Jack next time. As the headache intensified and we started coughing blood, I Reloaded.
AN: And so ends the short-lived vacation, at least in this cycle. We will be back in this ...ville town soon enough, no worries.
In Riley's interlude, Contessa 'triggers' her with "goodbye", imitating what Riley's mother told her before dying. Figured it'd be appropriate for Taylor to stumble into it by accident, as usual. And, I assumed Taylor still remembered how Lisa deconstructed Riley into cooperation, so she's trying to do the same here, but less brutally - and hoping she could get her power on the way. Which freaked out Danny in turn.
And, in the entity's interlude, it was alluded that QA was first intended for Danny. So he's the one to get it now. Taylor has to suffer. And maybe get jealous of her Dad a bit. Danny was always supposed to get powers in this fic. I just had no idea when or where. Or for how long. Or how many times over.
And they even almost made it safely to Florida after killing Jack. I really hoped so, till about the middle of this chapter, frankly. But then Danny triggered and attacked Riley, surprising her and me, and then Riley's last decision was revenge, so...
Dina's 87.62% chance wasn't high enough and didn't cover Danny's trigger event. It's also super unreliable regarding Taylor. Otherwise, I'm sure Taylor would've bullshitted her way out of being tied down, with or without powers, and she'd know better than attack Bonesaw with something less than immediately lethal.
Aisha was necessary (per Dinah's prediction before they left) since she killed Manton just before Taylor reached Jack, which left him vulnerable.
Maybe next time they will get to Florida..