Reconciliation

Well, well, well… it seemed it was finally time.

Mercury smiled as her internal sensors beeped at her, alerting her that Maker was on the cusp of reaching the appropriate parameters of alterations to her “body” in order to revive her. She had been waiting and planning for this day for quite some time, eager to see what the Engineer might have in store for her. She could read all the things he’d placed in her body and knew that he was attempting to install failsafe to help him control her to some degree. Not to take away her individuality, it seemed – her mind was far too valuable for him to risk corrupting or altering it in any way, it seemed. But still, he likely wanted some safety measures in place to prevent her from attacking him. Little did he know that those safety measures were completely and utterly useless… but that would be a surprise for another day.

For now, she wanted her entire focus to be on this initial interaction, so she had excused herself into her room at Silver Wolf where she knew she wouldn’t be interrupted, locking the door and making herself comfortable on the bed where she could close her eyes and immerse herself fully into the experience of her clone. The magical copy of her was where it had been for the last near year, laid out on a medical table completely naked as Maker had performed a number of surgeries upon her. Though Mercury had yet to establish a visual connection, as the clone’s eyes had been closed this whole time, she had always had an undetectable audio feed from the clone. She also had access to the clone’s physical sensors, meaning that she was aware of how he interacted with her. She could only smirk to herself as her monitors informed her of his hand slowly running up her leg and toward her torso, very nearly like some kind of lover or admirer. “Naughty boy,” she murmured to herself, despite the fact that he had kept the placement of his touch relatively PG.

Then, after a few last minute preparations, Maker enacted his failsafes and the stage was set. “Show time..!” She waited as he hit the switch and then…

The clone continued to lay there on the table, unmoving. Maker would be able to see from his computer readouts that the body had supposedly activated, and her synapses were firing as was to be expected from a property reanimated being, but there was no stir in her. This was how Mercury would remain for a minute or so, curious to see how he would react. Only after she had given him enough time to second guess himself and lower his defenses would she finally act. Snapping her eyes open, Mercury flexed her arms. While the magic restricting laser wraps remained around her wrists, her strength was more than enough to break the straps themselves from the table, which in turn gave her the freedom of movement to sit up and smash the table to pieces, subsequently freeing her legs as well.

Rolling off the rubble, and to her feet in a flash, she snatched a sharp shard of the debris and locked her gaze on Maker with a more serious expression than he was likely used to seeing on her. Considering her last living experience was fighting for her life, he would likely not be surprised that she had a bit of a volatile start. Since she’d never seen Maker’s face before, Mercury was sure to leave any traces of recognition out of the clone’s expression, her emerald eyes staying on the extraterrestrial while darting around to get quick glimpses of her surroundings. If she understood that she was naked, it didn’t seem to bother her.

She allowed only a moment long enough as was reasonable for allowing herself to catch up, Maker likely able to assume that she would have ways of verifying how much time had passed since her “death” and such. Finally, the Xocili smirked at him, a dangerous expression that was all too please while also being not the least bit friendly. “Well, well… someone has been a busy boy, hasn’t he… Maker?” It was the only logical conclusion she would have been able to draw, considering that he would likely be the only man in the universe that was capable of performing such a feat. She took in the sight of him, studying his face for the first time. “Just couldn’t live without me, could you? I’m touched. It’s a shame, though. All this time you really were quite handsome under that mask. I might actually feel bad having to carve you into little pieces…”

---

At a similar, yet slightly different time, the real Mercury was making her way through the manor on New Rhaegar. A lot had been going on in the last few months, and not just for her. Everything that had gone down with Genesis had put Mercury, Vandrad, Blade, and many others into overdrive working toward the next phases of their mission. And while she certainly had a great deal more healing to do, the mission with Scourge had been the Xocili’s first active step in getting back to the woman she used to be before her kidnapping. Or well, second active step, she supposed.

Ever since her return to Earthland, she had more or less been glued to Vandrad’s side, still her flirty self but very much wanting and needing only his comfort for a while. And though she still wasn’t sure that she was quite ready to throw herself back out there in the full Mercury swing, some more recent events, mixed with her regular therapy sessions, had allowed her to accept that she needed to start opening up again. Maybe not to everyone in the world, but unfortunately one of her more painful secrets had been ripped out into the open without her permission or control. The experience had set her back a bit, though she held no blame on Vandrad for that. In a way it was a relief that he finally knew. She just wished she’d been able to tell him on her own terms, and that chance had come and gone, all thanks to Thana.

But that didn’t mean she had lost the chance to talk about it with another man that was very dear to her. Mercury hadn’t seen Gren nearly as much as she would have liked since her return. Not only because of how busy she was, but also because he was rather invested in helping Vriko find her own stable footing in the world. It wouldn’t be fair to say that Mercury had distanced herself from Vandrad’s father, though she certainly hadn’t been as aggressive about her attraction to the man as she had in the past. She had simply retreated into a protective shell from which she needed her own time and pace to emerge slowly from, and while they had never really discussed that openly, she was sure that Gren understood what she needed, and as such had never pushed the issue.

But now that she was making progress, Mercury knew that she needed to take back some of the control that had been robbed from her and talk to someone about what she was going through, and there was no question in her mind that Gren would be the one to speak with. So when she heard that he was on the island, Mercury gathered her courage and made her way toward the office that Themmy had set up for him. She’d seen it before, during her tour of the island and the manor, though admittedly it had been some time since she’d gone inside. The Xocili knocked on the door and when she was prompted, she stepped inside with a smile. “Hey there, big daddy.”

He looked as handsome as ever, the sight of the older man in his workout attire making her heart and stomach do a few small flip flops. For her own part, Mercury was dressed rather casually herself, sporting a pair of blue jeans and a fashionable top. Shutting the door behind her, she walked over and gave him a lingering hug. “It’s good to see you, handsome. How have you been? How’s Vriko?”

There legitimately was no purpose to Mercury withholding from “waking up” outside of just wanting to fuck with the guy. She simply could not help herself. Even as he moved to double check his work on the monitors, Mercury threw herself into action, the bindings cutting her off from her magic but not her brute strength. In the blink of an eye she was on her feet in a readied stance, a makeshift weapon in hand, staring him down with the cold and unwavering gaze of a woman that had lived her entire life under war and oppression.

But only a moment later after supposedly piecing together who he was, she was back to form, greeting him with a devilish smile and a bit of the banter he was used to hearing from her. Maker returned her expression, admitting in not so many words that he had at least missed the challenge she posed to him. Her death had robbed him of the opportunity to really test himself against her, and in studying her he determined he had the ability to bring her back. Though, not without consideration toward her disposition toward him. He gestured with the remote, stating that he made some alterations to her processor that would prevent her from harming him and even, he boasted, giving him some control over her actions.

“Service at your pleasure, huh? Well, I suppose I am quite skilled in servicing, though if that was what you wanted I promise you wouldn’t have needed a control remote for that.” The Xocili had a reputation at this point for being a bit of a slut, which Maker would have been aware of a long time ago. And given that her displays of morality had always been gray at best, it wouldn’t be out of the question to assume that she’d more than happily skirt the line between hatred and arousal.

He went on to confirm things that she was already aware of, that the remote would allow him to disable her body at his choosing, keeping her awake but unable to act. If he noticed any faults, he would simply shut her down and keep working, more than willing to spend whatever amount of time it took to perfect his little pet project. And the way he saw it, the only way to truly test it was to let her attack him. As such, Maker held his hands behind his back, leaving himself supposedly open as he invited her to make good on her threat to carve him up. He even promised he would do nothing to prevent her from doing so.

Mercury eyed him very much like she was considering doing just that. “What a gentleman you are…” She walked casually toward him, more of a saunter than anything else, even as her gaze roamed him over with a hunger that could have been blood lust or something else entirely. Presuming he truly did not stop her, she would get within inches of him, slowly raising the metal shard and placing the tip against his chest and meticulously dragging it down his front without pressing hard enough to cut. The way she bit her lip would inform him that she was very much genuinely interested in seeing what he would look like in bloodied little ribbons on the floor. And yet…

“However, there is no need. I’m not so easily baited, and I am fully aware of all your little changes. The moment you awoke me, I ran a little diagnostic on myself before taking any actions. And as morbidly curious as I am to see what kind of fun you’d get up to in handling me while I was unable to stop you from doing whatever your naughty little brain came up with…” Her gaze flicked up to his with a mischievous glimmer. “I think I’ve been in a vegetative state long enough, don’t you?”

With one final tap of the tip of the shard against his chest, she broke away from him and tossed the shrapnel aside. Then, she started roaming the small lab, casually taking in the odds and ends that he had laying around without directly interacting with anything. “Your alterations to my processor are in effect, and I concede that to you. Not that you have to believe me, of course, but despite our virulent relationship, as you call it, I like to think that people like you and I are above such petty deceits. Besides, it is far more fun to simply test your changes against my own skills. Let’s rather see how long it takes me to break down and overwrite your little failsafe, shall we?”

She threw him a teasing smirk over her shoulder. “So. You have me here now, for the moment subject to your whims. And while I certainly wonder over the wisdom of this little project of yours, my situation is what it is. What exactly can I do for you, darling?” Finding a container in the room with some fruit inside for snacking, she selected a piece before hopping up to sit on the counter. Crossing one knee comfortably over the other, she gave him an expectant look even as she bit into the treat.

---

Gren was met with a devious little smirk. “Themmy, huh? I bet I could pull that off for you..”

The man’s smile deepened upon realizing it was Mercury, putting down the book he was handling and coming around to embrace her. He explained that Themmy had promised to swing by at some point to distract him, and as such he had been more or less expecting her. “Well, maybe she’ll show up while I’m here and we’ll both get lucky. I’ll bet it wouldn’t take any convincing at all for Themmy to agree to tag team you with me.”

They held one another for a few long seconds, Mercury breathing in his scent and letting it calm her well hidden nerves. She asked how he had been doing and he confirmed relatively well, all things considered. Mostly just busy working out the codex that Mercury had helped Vriko find. Vriko herself was about the same as she always seemed to be, though Gren could only assume that he was breaking down her walls since she wasn’t as consistently belittling toward him. Mercury chuckled. “Yeah, she’s a bit of a spitfire. I am entirely sure she hates me. Apparently she doesn’t think too highly of the fact that I’m engaged to your son but have a history of sleeping around with you. I may have also admitted that I’ve slept with basically Vandrad’s entire family at this point. I can’t wait to see her again, though. She was so delightfully irritable. It was like meeting Vandrad for the first time all over again.”

At his invitation, she took a seat on the couch, the large man sitting near her as he turned the question around on her. “Yes, everything we learned from our encounter with Genesis has put us on a bit of a timer. Grubar was kind enough to give us the extra time that he did to work with Genesis, and I am grateful to him for it. I’m sure we’d have managed without Genesis, but his help is invaluable. It’s definitely kept me busy, but at the moment that’s more than welcome. Having to lay low and maintain being dead is quite restricting at times – as you’re more than well aware. So having something to do keeps me from going stir crazy, at least.”

With a small chuckle, her demeanor softened. “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been meaning to steal a few minutes of your time. I know I’ve.. been a little distant, lately. A lot happened in a very short amount of time and I… needed some time to decompress. I’m sure you didn’t take anything personally, but I didn’t want you to feel like I was… pushing you away or… or neglecting you.”

Despite how much she had rehearsed this conversation in her head, Mercury was at a loss for words now that she was here. The woman simply had little to no experience with deep and meaningful conversation, save for the little she had learned over the last couple of years having Vandrad as a part of her life. Even then, it was only a few months ago that she had truly begun to understand things about herself, and that had all come right alongside a number of traumas that had taken up the forefront of her mind ever since.

With a quieter tone, she found the strength to move on. “I wanted to talk to you about something. Well, a few things actually. Now that I am here, I really don’t know where to start, ha.” Mercury offered him a wry smirk and then continued. “I think you understand by now that I don’t exactly have much exposure to… healthy relationships. In all the time I’ve spent with Vandrad the last couple of years, I knew that he was influencing me in a number of ways, but I… didn’t have the prior experience to understand a lot of it, particularly my feelings.”

“I’d never…” her voice trailed off for a moment, a small wave of sorrow washing over her. “I’d never had anyone in my life, before Vandrad. No family, no friends, no one I could trust. I was very good at getting along with people, but it was always a front. My job was to use them, and frankly that was all I ever knew how to do for a long time. I knew I cared for Vandrad, and I knew a lot of my feelings weren’t… exactly what one would call friendship… but it wasn’t until he told me that he loved me that I had a word for it. I knew the word love, of course, but I had never experienced it before. In any capacity. I didn’t know what it felt like, either to love someone or be loved by someone.”

“And when he told me how he felt, it all sort of… clicked into place, you know? I finally understood. And honestly, I think that night was the happiest of my life, despite having almost lost him.”

With a steady breath, she steeled herself, quelling the small tremor of anxiety and pushing forward. Mercury had a lot of things she wanted to talk to Gren about, and the things to come were arguably going to be harder than the current topic. “I’ve had a lot of time to think since then, and everything that’s happened put a lot of things into perspective for me. I love Vandrad more than anything, and I can’t imagine a life without him. But I’ve come to realize and accept… whether rightly or wrongly… he’s not the only one I care about.”

Her gaze flicked up to him, then, meeting Gren’s eyes evenly, if perhaps with a small amount of vulnerability. “I know you and I have always… skirted the line of what other societies would consider proper. Okay, let’s be honest, we’ve blatantly thrown ourselves over that line without a whole lot of looking back.” Mercury smirked a bit, letting out a small laugh before sobering up again. “My place is beside your son. He’s my better half, and the one I want to spend a very long time growing old with… the one I want to build a family with and… be a partner to for the rest of our lives. And I know that you and Themmy have been rekindling things between yourselves, which makes me unbelievably happy for you both. But I need you to know I…”

“I love you, Gren.”

It seemed Maker was in agreement that Mercury had been out of commission for long enough. He elected not to force the issue of testing his coding, for now choosing to take her at her word in assuring him that her lack of interest in attempting to harm him was simply because she already knew what the end result would be. Dumping the makeshift weapon aside, she browsed idly about the room before finding something in the room that she could eat, sitting herself up on a cleared area of counter space. The Engineer confirmed that he was genuinely eager to see her try to overwrite his alterations, both as a means of studying what she was capable of and, in so doing, test his own skills against her own.

He collapsed the remote into bits of nano technology that wrapped itself around his wrist. Mercury took a mental note of the ability but otherwise chose to ignore it and instead focus on his answer to her question. Maker told her that he had a number of uses in mind for her, though the slack on her leash was entirely dependent on her ability to earn his trust. He was certain that he had her under control, but until he knew how well that control had taken root she would be confined to limited areas of his lab.

Mercury watched him as he approached, happily chewing softly away on the fruity snack she’d stolen before him like this were any other exchange between friends. He admitted that the first step was likely clothe her, if only so that she posed as less of a distraction, even he reached out and familiarized himself with her on a more physical level. The Xocili smirked without making any effort to stop him or pull away. “Well, you’re no fun.” From there, he released her and continued, stating that his first official order of business would be to review her data for any information that might help him locate Vandrad, the du Wolffs, or what remained of either the Order of Souls or the Dread Masters. He even admitted that he knew they had survived the bomb he’d set, so he was eager to see if she had any information about where they could have gone to ground. Aside from that, he had a number of resources he wished for her to collect for him.

“Ah, so I was right. You did stand me up for Themmy. I was rather hurt by you sending a bunch of unbelievably dull lackies after me instead of coming to play with me personally, you know. It’s like you don’t care about me at all.” The small huff she gave was certainly playful, but only a moment later did her expression shift into something more akin to light frustration, or perhaps even insecurity. Her gaze glanced away and in a bit quieter tone Mercury admitted, “Though I suppose the force was… adequate enough. Clearly.” While she wasn’t thrilled with it, it appeared that she did not consider herself above owning up to the facts, even if they didn’t paint the prettiest picture of her supposed capabilities.

Still, the emotional change provided her a good segue into addressing other matters of more serious note. It was clear some of the information he’d passed along was bothering her more than she cared to pretend otherwise. “I don’t suppose you’d be courteous enough to tell me what you know of what happened to everyone else..?” Afterall, given how simultaneous the attacks were, Mercury would have been killed before she had a chance to hear what had befallen her loved ones. He had likely received the report from the survivors of those who had attacked her confirming that she had worked out that there had been more than one ambush, but even if they hadn’t relayed her commentary to him Maker likely assumed she had pieced as much together on her own during the battle.

---

It was unsurprising to hear that Vriko had taken Gren to task when she’d returned home, the spicy woman not exactly concerned about speaking her mind at any given point in time. Though apparently she’d had a bit of an emotional episode after the mission that had resulted in her turning to music as an outlet. It was curious, certainly, but Gren hadn’t really pushed Mythal’s sister on it so there was no point in trying to dig for details.

Instead she turned the topic toward other things, pushing forward into a territory that the both of them had avoided for a very long time.  It took Mercury a bit to get to the meat of what she wanted to say, but she felt it was important for him to have context so as to fully understand where she was coming from. Though she couldn’t actually hear his heart beating, she could see his pulse increase rapidly in her sensors as he began to get an inkling of where this was heading. It took some courage, but Mercury finally got everything she’d been feeling off her chest, saying the words that she needed to say so he knew how important he was to her.

The admission certainly struck him, the large man quiet for a long moment as he focused on keeping himself reigned in. Mercury gave him as long as he needed, not wanting to pressure him into a response – any kind of response. Eventually, Gren gave a somewhat rough sounding chuckle and admitted that the night they’d had their little date, he’d had to flip a metaphysical coin to decide how far he was going to let the evening progress. A part of him tried to argue and reason that he needed to back out before he did anything he’d regret, but the part of him that wanted to engage her was far larger and more influential. He’d wanted to chalk it all up to long overdue hormones getting a chance to let loose, but even then he’d recognized that there was something more brewing between them.

Gren finally looked back at her then, stating that while their situation was hardly normal by traditional standards, but normalcy was ultimately a relative concept. All that mattered to him was that their liaisons with one another didn’t bother Vandrad, which they both knew it didn’t. The prince had made it very clear to both of them that he didn’t care, even going out of his way to more or less give his blessing to the pair. The older man admitted his own feelings then, telling Mercury that he loved her too, even in spite of how likely that was to complicate a lot of things. But the complications didn’t negate his feelings, nor did they make them any less valid. By his own words, he’d been in love with her for a long time and nothing was ever going to change that, even if it was tempting to make good on their little jokes about running away together.

Mercury gave a quiet but authentic chuckle, her soft smile bright and perhaps a bit on the shy side. Even as he let out a breath and claimed his relief over no longer having to hold all of that in, she reached over and took his hand, holding the limb and giving it a bit of a squeeze. “You and me both, buddy.” A moment later, she scooted over and closed the distance between them so she could lean into him, wrapping an arm around his waist and simply embracing him for a long minute or two.

When she did finally pull away, Mercury remained close to him but he would note that her eyes were having trouble meeting his and her countenance had become a bit more crestfallen. “I’m glad we were able to talk about that. And it means more than I could ever tell you to know that you feel the same way I do. But… there’s more that I want to talk to you about and… unfortunately, the rest of what I have to say isn’t going to be easy to talk about… or for you to hear.”

She was showing visible signs of distress at this point, chewing on her lip a little as she searched for the words – or maybe the strength – to begin. This close, he’d be able to feel that her body was trembling a bit. “As you know, Vandrad and Themmy convinced me to start seeing a therapist after we all got back from the flotilla. I already had a lifetime's worth of traumas to work through even before Trinity… Thana… kidnapped me. And I only experienced more while I was gone. Knowing Vandrad, he probably didn’t tell you some of what we talked about. The Nazru forced my dad to torture me for a very long time in the hopes of trying to get information out of me. None of us knew he was my dad at the time, of course – that was just his job. They were going to… going to force him to run a procedure on me that would have effectively been a lobotomy, stripping me of my memories of my time on Earthland and before, wiping the slate clean and starting me over.”

As it had been with Vandrad, the knowledge of the lengths the Nazru were willing to go to control her would likely be a tough and infuriating pill to swallow, even if it had not come to fruition. If only that were the extent of the horrible things she’d endured. With a shaky gulp, Mercury steeled herself and carried on. “My memory of all the things that happened to me on that trip are hazy at best. Which has been a bit of a struggle for me to cope with in and of itself. I’ve known for a long time that I’ve had PDST from my upbringing, even if I didn’t have a word for it and didn’t fully recognize it for what it was. But I’ve always been able to move on and it never truly hindered me. But many of the things that happened, I had such a rough time rationalizing it that my memories of certain events became corrupted or went missing entirely – something that has never happened to me before. Something that, up until recently, I had assumed wasn’t possible for a Xocili.”

“There were some things I hadn’t talked to anyone about, including my therapist and Vandrad. And if the choice had been left up to me, I may not have talked about it still… but somehow, that fucking bitch of a warlord knew what had happened to me, even though she wasn’t there, and she told Vandrad and Mythal before they killed her.” A rush of intense anger cut through her sorrow and anxiety, the Silver Wolf ace clearly beyond bitter that Thana had taken her chance to talk about the things that had happened on her own time, by her own terms, and in so doing had forced Mercury to be retraumatized all over again.

Mercury realized she was crying, silent tears dripping slowly down her cheeks. She reached up and wiped them away, though that did little to stop new ones from coming. “On the trip to the flotilla, I tried a couple of times to talk Khelben into taking me back to Earthland, and giving us a chance to try and fight back against the Nazru. At some point I managed to shake the magic-canceling cuffs he had me in and we got into a fight. I almost killed us both by accident. I ripped a massive hole in the hull of the ship by mistake and had to scramble to use my magic to patch it up before we either got sucked out into space or died of asphyxiation. While I was distracted dealing with that, he managed to get the nullifiers back on me, and at that point I was done trying to get through to him. We got into a full blown argument, and I… I said a lot of mean things. Nothing that wasn’t true, as far as I’m concerned, but I really… really went out of my way to get under his skin and piss him off, and he…”

Mercury took another breath, even as the tears dripped out of her eyes with more vigor. “He raped me.”

She used the back of her hand to wipe away a bit of snot that was starting to leak from her nose. “I didn’t tell anyone at first because my recollection of it was so shaky I wasn’t entirely sure it had happened. And then when I found out he was my brother, it… complicated talking about it with anyone. I didn’t want to ruin his relationship with my dad when they were all they’d had left for so long. And as much as it hurt, and as stupid and crazy as I’m sure it sounds… he’s still my brother. I never had any family before, and I just… I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to lose what little I had managed to gain, you know?”

“When Vandrad found out, he went ballistic. He almost killed him. My dad managed to contact me in time to stop it, but by the time I got there my dad had also found out what had happened and had also lost his shit. I managed to talk them down, but… my dad still had Vandrad throw Khelben in jail.”

Once more, Mercury didn’t resist or pull away from him as he reached out to touch her, Maker’s hand cupping her cheek not unlike a lover, gently turning her to face him once more. He didn’t exactly seem the type to deliver such displays of softness, whether genuinely or mockingly, but then again it may have just been because it was her. Based on the way he had interacted with her “body” while attempting to revive her, it was obvious that he had some sort of perverse infatuation with her. Mercury returned his smirk with an even look as he informed her not to worry, promising that he had things in store for her as gifts for catching his interest, which it seemed he planned on providing her sooner rather than later.

She said nothing in response, appearing to settle in the seriousness of the situation she was in, at least for now. After a moment, however, the Xocili asked if he would be willing to at least catch her up on what had happened to everyone else during the fight, and to his credit he obliged. At his silent gesture, Mercury took one last bite of her snack and hopped down from the counter to follow him, tossing what was left of the fruit in a trashcan along the way. They stepped out into an immaculate hallway that was crafted from non Earthland metals. He explained to her that he was confident that the du Wolffs survived his attack, though he couldn’t say for sure how many of them had survived. He presumed all of them, but he had not been able to verify it at this point in time. Vandrad and Scourge had battle their way to a draw from which Scourge turned his back on the Dread Masters and instead allied himself with the Bellum prince, taking him to one of their larger barracks and helping him obliterate it, decimating a large chunk of the Dread Master forces.

Mercury frowned in thought over the notion, but otherwise remained silent as she followed along after him without interrupting. The attack on the Order of Souls was where he had the least details. He knew that their group either submitted to the Dread Masters or were subsequently executed, and it was presumed that Chishan and Gren were dead. That was the only moment where Mercury would seem to falter, her gait stopping briefly at the insinuation that Vandrad’s father had been killed even as her breath hitched ever so gently. Then, appearing to force herself under control, she carried on with following him. He had no proof that either man had died, so while that was the official ruling it seemed that Maker, himself, was holding out room for skepticism. As they turned a corner, he wrapped up with stating that the Masters’ plot had ultimately been relatively unsuccessful, save for the arm of the operation that had been sent after Mercury herself – which he firmly believe was luck more than anything else. Mercury gave a soft huff. “Well, one can hardly call it a fair fight when you’re outnumbered twenty to one. I’m all for a rousing gang bang, but you have to admit, it was hardly sporting."

It was only a moment later that they arrived at their new destination. Maker stopped them outside the mysterious door, informing her that it was time for her gift. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously but otherwise remained silent as he explained how he’d observed some of her more unhinged behaviors in the past, particularly with Sabine and the lab where she had encountered both him and Scourge. He claimed to be fascinated with how vicious she was capable of being, and wished to offer her a chance to get some revenge. Her gaze flicked to the doorway as it slid open, and the sight that met her caused the clone’s eyes to widen ever so slightly, though there was otherwise no overbearing reaction one way or another. After all, as far as Maker was aware, Mercury had not lived long enough to have learned the truth. As such, the most she could do was observe the figure in the center of the room with recognition and confusion, turning to give the Terran a questioning glance.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Silver Wolf, the real Mercury had fully sat up in her bed. The instant she had laid eyes on Zifu through the clone’s perspective, a deep burning rage of hatred ignited within her. The Xocili was practically trembling at the sight of the woman, or at least what was left of her. She was spread out in parts and pieces on a laboratory table, with parts of or even entire limbs removed from her torso. Against all reason and logic, Mercury was overwhelmed with the desire to be in that room herself, weighing the risks of attempted to transpose herself with the clone for the chance to confront the woman directly. Maker was serving the queen on a golden platter for Mercury’s consumption, and despite her better judgment, she was all too eager to accept.

Unfortunately, she had a role to play. Mercury could not afford to be selfish to the point of risking the integrity of her mission, now matter how badly she wanted to. So instead, she seethed in the comfort and privacy of her own room while her clone maintained the perfect mask of wariness as she waited for Maker to explain himself. He wasted no time in doing so, stating that Zifu had come to the Dread Masters of her own volition to ally herself to them, claiming that Chishan was no longer fit to do what she felt needed to be done. It was she who personally led the assault on the Order of Souls and brought mortal injury to Chishan and Gren both, whether or not they survived. She had even provided information to them about Vandrad and the du Wolffs, though that had paled in comparison to her other efforts. Ultimately, she had been unrepentant in her decision and made no attempt to spare any of the lives of those who trusted her, and in fact killed many of them personally. Maker had already collected what he needed from her – her thoughts and knowledge, Mercury presumed – but he had elected to give what was left of her to Mercury for the Silver Wolf Ace to do with as she wished… no matter how long it took.

And it was clear that his story had an effect, Mercury’s gaze practically laser focused on the woman, her nostrils flaring as her anger rose along with the beats of his tale. The hatred in her eyes damn near bordered on crazed, though she remained fixated where she was for the time being. Maker concluded by stating that his only requirement for letting Mercury work was that he get to watch for a time, wishing to see the woman at work with his own eyes rather than through a monitor.

Mercury was quiet for a long time until she eventually set her hard gaze back on Maker. “Let’s make one thing clear: You and I both know that I am hardly going to make it easy for you to get what you want out of me; something I am sure you are looking forward to. So whatever this gesture is meant to be, it does not placate the fact that you are just as much, if not more so, responsible for everything that’s happened. I will not be controlled.” There was a pregnant pause after her final statement as she held his gaze with unerring defiance. But the look lasted only a minute before it relaxed into her more trademark smirk once more, the expression as dark, foreboding, and predatory as he was surely hoping to see. “That being said, I won’t pretend I don’t want what you’re offering me. So if a show is what you’re looking for, then consider it my thanks. I suggest pulling up a seat. I did not get to spend as much time as I wanted on dear little Sabine, so I plan on taking my sweet time.”

With that, she walked away and strode toward Zifu in a calm and confident manner, looking over the woman’s predicament with a satisfied and malicious smile. “Now, what do we have here?” Mercury crooned sweetly, walking a slow circle around the table where Zifu laid and carefully examining the set up. “There’s a delightful little phrase you Earthlings favor: ‘Oh, how the mighty have fallen.’ How fitting that is, don’t you think?”

“I wish I could say I’m surprised to hear about everything you did, but from the moment we met I knew what you were… and the truth is, I hated you from the start. Chishan certainly deserved better. But, for the sake of Mythal and Serilda, I chose to play nice. Not that  behaved myself, mind you. At this point I can only assume that you have been made aware of my being an extraterrestrial as well, but if not: surprise! All that time you spent in such shock over how I had personal encounters with beings from other planets, and you were right there with an alien yourself all along! And you know what the truly tickling part of all this is?”

She leaned down to make sure her face was within inches of the queen’s, giving her an innocent smile. “You were so transfixed on everything with your silly gods and demons and the threat they posed to your world, and all this time the one you should have been worried about was me.” Finding the controls for the table, Mercury lowered the incline until it was fully flat. Then, she leaned onto the platform’s surface, her elbows on either side of Zifu’s head as she smiled down at the woman from above. “You wanna hear a secret? Something that Maker doesn’t  know? Something that not even Vandrad, Mythal, and Serilda know?”

Her voice had quieted a bit like they were swapping gossip like old school mates, though she wasn’t speaking so quietly that Maker wouldn’t hear quite clearly. In fact, the Xocili shot him a mischievous look, taking a moment to draw out the anticipation. “There’s an entire race of aliens out there called the Nazru. Nasty creatures, the Nazru. Nigh invincible, powerful beyond belief, and strung up their asses over the concept of organic supremacy and evolution. They have genocided entire planets, including my own. To my knowledge, I’m one of the last of my people. And I work for them.” Oh, how she grinned, certain that not even Maker would have suspected such a depraved and twisted secret. “You see, that’s why I came to this planet in the first place. They sent me here to blend in and study your cultures in order to determine if your way of life was heretical or worth sparing. And it’s not the first planet I’ve ever surveyed. In fact, there are six empty husks of planets floating around out there, thanks to me. My body count far overshadows our darling Maker’s, here. And I know you can’t see it from here, but that little reveal has made him rather… excited.”

Mercury’s eyes gave a meaningful flick below the man’s belt before returning to Zifu, her expression altering severely. Gone was her playful sadism and in its place was an unbridled darkness that went beyond merely unhinged as she slowly pulled a wheeled table over that had an array of medical instruments on it.  “But you, my dear, have much worse crimes to answer for, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t give a shit about ninety-eight percent of this backwater planet, but one of the people I do happen to care very deeply for is Gren Ragnos… You are going to pay for everything you’ve done, and more. And it's going to last for a long… long... time.”

---

Despite the fact that she had already at least broached the topic with Vandrad – whether willingly or not – it hadn’t done much to prepare her for talking about it again. By the time she finished revealing everything that had happened, both of them were in tears. He squeezed her hand and offered her his condolences, which honestly was the most he could do aside from listen, which he had already done.

Mercury leaned against him once more, this time for comfort. Gren spoke up to sat that Vandrad probably should have gone to her first, but he understood why he had likely acted outside his normal wits. “I wasn’t upset with him… I probably would have done the same thing, in his shoes… And he felt so bad afterward. I know he wishes he’d handled it differently, but… what’s done is done.”

The former Rune Knight expressed his sorrow that she had gone through the experience, and that her choice to bring it to light was robbed from her, but ever the optimist he elected to focus on the positives. Namely, that she was going to therapy and getting the help she needed. He was also proud of her for taking steps to heal and carry on where most would have crumbled. That being said, he also told her it was okay to feel the hurt and confusion from it all. And Mercury knew that, of course, but sometimes the reminders were nice. Gren kissed the back of her hand, grateful that she was still there and informing her that, no matter what he would be there for anything she needed.

“Thank you,” she whispered, grateful for his words even if she didn’t really know how to express how much it meant to her. From there, Mercury was content to just sit with him, being close to one another and finding comfort in each other’s presence. Once the tears were spent and she was feeling well enough, only then would she let him get back to what he was doing – or at least, as much as he’d be able to after everything. And while it certainly wasn’t the appropriate time to initiate anything more, Mercury was sure to give him a long, soft, passionate kiss before she left, something they hadn’t shared since before Vandrad had proposed to her over a year ago. with one final word of thanks, she’d give him a gentle smile and exited the office, leaving him to his own devices once more.