Additional input:

You are assigned to shadow them and make sure they don't fail or see too much gruesome stuff.

So, this one was hard. Really, really hard. I'm not absolutely certain I got it right, but this is how it got birthed, and it's what needs to happen. It's clunky in a few places, I know. Maybe in the future, when the whole thing is complete, I can wrestle it into better shape, I dunno. Anyway, here goes.

---

"You ready?"

"I am. Are you not going to gloat?"

"Generator, unlike you, I don't take particular joy in kicking someone that's writhing in agony. Besides, nothing I can say is going to sting as much as the fact that you lost. Speaking of that, maybe in the future, if this doesn't stick, remember that you aren't the judge of people you think you are."

"Before we do this, how was I wrong?"

"You didn't know me. You didn't care about me. So you didn't know shit about how I got where I am. You keep trying to grind at me by calling me doctor, but I was a fucking nurse. Nurses spend more time with patients, hands on. My power is called empathic healing, and despite that not being the limits of what I can do, it's how it first manifested. I fucking cared, Generator. I gave care because I couldn't see the pain people are in and not try to help.

My power kicked in on the oncology unit. Like most people, like you, it didn't kick off fully fledged. I worked for two years with my power slowly pulling the pain of my patients into me. Then the diseases themselves, or at least the version of them it transfers.

It was another year before I figured out what was going on, and that was when I started medicating. Six days? Six days ain't shit, lady. You remember Nuke? How I offloaded into him, I had been carrying that mess for months, and only kept the bare minimum cocktail in me because I was hunting someone almost as bad in their way as you fuckknuckles in Ragnarok. I ride the pain and addiction every day."

"Are you going to keep on with the whining, or get started?"

"Fuck you."

"In your dreams, junkie."

"Shut the fuck up, and sit down. How the mental shit works is different from the physical. The body, I just pull it into me, almost zero effort. But psychological injury isn't so clear cut. It's brain patterns, memories, chemical pathways. When powers are involved, it's even trickier if the powers need to be unchanged. I already probed you when we first met, and again while we've been chatting. I've seen worse, but your brain is like a skein of yarn after a methed up kitten had a go at it.

You ever meditate?"

"I have, yes. The Program included that, as well as other less abusive efforts."

"If you can still do it, keep your conscious mind dialed down a little, it makes sorting through the knots easier since they aren't being pulled on as much. There's going to be some degree of transfer beyond the trauma and disordered patterns. Sometimes, it's an ugly thing. Sometimes it's more gentle. The less you fight, the more likely it is it'll be gentler than it could be. Sometimes, it gets telepathic, and empathic in a more literal sense. Our minds may connect, we may feel each other's emotions as our own. I'm used to that, and it still sucks. Never had it be as bad as it was with Eternus, but the last time I tried to unkink a power trauma complex, it was rough.

This is your last chance to wimp out. I won't do this without consent, no matter what our bet was, no matter what else you've promised anyone. We don't start until you say go. But once it starts, stopping is dangerous. For both of us, but I'm more likely to survive with my mind intact. That's why we're here in the Vault, and everyone is standing ready. Nothing from the outside to fuck this up."

"Do you run your mouth this much with everyone?"

"No. I usually insist on a much longer set of preparation instructions."

"Let's just get this done."

---

Sunny day. Two adults, a teenager. I'm sitting on a lawn chair. No, she's sitting on a lawn chair. Don't lose yourself idiot, ride the wave, surf it, stay loose and ready.

Okay, she's feeling strange. Damn. She's feeling something similar to the way I first felt when my power kicked in. A hyper awareness of other people, a kind of hum coming off of them. When she pays attention to it, that hum gets more intense. Her's is more auditory than mine, interesting. There we go, the flash of awareness, the connection. She's pushing a little, trying to change the hum. The woman passed out! I guess that's their mom? Shit! She's out too. Double whammy, the feedback and strain of pushing did something.

Focus, Kerry, focus. Feel for it, feel for that first change. Ah, damn; fuck me. It's snarled deep. This is gonna take hours.

"Elaine? Generator? You with me here?"

"Yes. I am not a fan of this, doctor."

"I'm not either. Look, I need info. You passed out when your power first got used. Plenty of people do. But what did it feel like right before you went under?"

"Like someone pulled a plug inside me and all the water was spinning out."

"After that, when you woke up again, you had a weird thing with your mom, didn't you? Weird as in some kind of changed perception."

"She was always watching me, always jumping when I'd move. It turned into us not being able to be in the same room. Then the same house."

"Yeah, well, that's because when you passed out, part of your power stayed focused on her. Let me guess again, you both had a spike in nightmares. Of each other, most likely."

"Yes."

"Shit. That's part of why your power changed you so much. You were locked into a cycle of amplifying her, with a feedback that amplified you. Both of your emotions, the chemistry, the neurotransmitters and brain patterns; both of you scared, then angry, then horrified. I'm surprised neither of you broke worse."

"This is necessary? I would much prefer not walking down memory lane with you, much less reliving their betrayal."

"I don't know if it's necessary. Most of the mental shit is from the patient, not me. I have to sort through what you give me, find where things aren't working right. If those things are tied directly to a memory, I'll get some kind of experience of it. Let me work for a bit, try and get a handle on this knot."

It sure is a bad knot too. It's not the only one, but it's the biggest and most painful. Gotta tease it out careful. Easy, easy there, pull it in. Damn. Glad my mom is dead, I'd hate for this to connect to her in my head. Damn, that's some serious hate and love. Okay, okay, don't linger on it, too easy to get sucked into replaying it. Box it up, put it in the corner until the job is done.

Follow the threads. Waking up. Cold, hard surface. Bright lights. Hushed voices. Feel drugged? Not in a good way. Shit, she's tied down. Straps. At least they're padded. Fear, ramping up to terror. The sense of betrayal. Damn, no wonder this lady has a hate on for everything. Who's this jagoff? Dr. Moran? Shit, I know that name.

"Well hello, Elaine, I'm so glad you could join us here. We are going to help you master your power. We are going to help you be a better you and serve humanity. But first, we must separate you from your old life, give you room to grow. Devon, take her bags. We'll store them for when you graduate."

"No! At least give me Charley! My sister gave him to me!"

"No, no, sweet child, to become the real you, the strongest you you can be, you must begin anew."

Jesus fucking christ! She's picking up more than I thought she would. The briefing Max gave me didn't cover this part of her power, and Don sure as hell didn't know. This guy is fucked in the head worse than her by a mile. About as bad as I've ever run across, and throbbing in my head as bad or worse than Nuke did. Shit, that's me filtering her power. Was she feeling it more or less intense?

"More. His, for lack of a better phrase, brand of crazy was a power of its own. He leeched off of us. Our pain, and our use of power, fed him. Charged him up. He was a sadist before his power, I'm certain of that. Feeding off of his victims gave him the ability to manipulate others. It's how he took over the Program. It's how he kept himself insulated despite the deaths, and the reports of his abuse.

It's why we killed him slow.

That day, I knew his power. I don't feel that throb you speak of, but I do sense how a person controls their power, how it works in their body or mind. Him? I could feel the stink of how he could twist emotions and feed from them, the lust for the rush of it, and how he could use that feeding to bend people to his wishes. You feel a painful throb, I felt currents and flashes."

"Wait, what does my power feel like? No, scratch that, we're on the clock, but we need to talk after this, assuming we both survive. I have an idea I think Don and Max are going to love.

For now, just be careful. We're wrapped up in this. Don't start fucking with my power while we're synced up. I have no idea what the fuck would happen."

"You're the doctor. A foolish one, dangling a temptation like that, but I will comply."

"Thanks Elaine. Shit. Generator. Sorry."

Back at it, Kerry, don't let shit slip. Stay with the memory, the creepy fuck dialing up her fear and paranoia

"It isn't paranoia if they're really..."

"Yeah, I get it. Just because you're picking up my thoughts doesn't mean you need to respond to them. It's distracting. Let me fucking work, yeah?"

"Fine."

Fucking hell. Dammit, follow the paranoia, the twist of anger he's siphoning. That's where the knot is. Pull it gently, no rough moves. Tease it out and make it a gift after what that rat fucker did. Shit. "Sorry generator, I know what I'm doing has to feel similar. If I'd known, I would have... I don't know, I just don't want this to be like that."

Oh. She's letting me fucking work.

Smooth it out, lift just the rut the bastard wore into her. She'd have fucking recovered from the shit with her mom if she'd just gotten away for a year or two. Less with conventional therapy. Damn. This one asshole caused all the deaths she had a hand in.

Trace it to the next cluster.

---

Oh shit. Nuke. He's got power cuffs on. He's running towards her. Shit! What the fuck? He's going to knock her senseless!

Not her! Some kid. Behind her. Holy fuck, is that baby Devastation? It is. What the fuck is going on? She doesn't know either.

"Hey. Dipstick. Didn't I tell you not to fuck with new kids? I gotta beat your ass again?"

"Fuck you, man. One of these days, ima fuck you up."

"In your dreams. You hit me, it just builds up. Cuffs won't let me blow, so it just builds and builds, and makes me harder to hurt. Nothing you got scares me, Devon. If you'd chill out, you'd save yourself some bruises.

Hey, new kid. You alright? You look pretty messed up."

"Doctor. I want you to pay attention. Feel what I felt. Like with Moran."

"Okay, yeah, I can do that."

Let's see what she's on about. Damn! Devastation it is, I can feel the crackle of his power, no mistaking that. Nuke, he's... that's fucking weird. "What the hell is that?"

"That is Nuke when I met him, killer. You feel that control? You feel the fact that he could blow those cuffs off? He's got weeks of abuse piled on him at that moment. And he's still sticking up for me, all while playing by the rules. Still think he was born broken?"

"I can't feel him the same as Moran, Nuke isn't as mental in his power, he doesn't play with emotions, so what you're picking up doesn't translate the same. I'm just feeling a steady hum from him, it's translating as health, but like an athlete working hard. He feels like a marathon runner on a treadmill. Your power is picking up him controlling his, if I'm guessing right, and that he's not struggling to do it."

"Exactly. No surges, no flares. He's relaxed, but putting effort in. Wait until you see more of him, pay attention to what changes, killer."

"I'd rather you went back to accusing me of being a doctor."

"I'm sure you would. Now, I'll just hurry off and let you 'fucking work'."

Smartass. But she's made her fucking point sharp as it can get. Nuke felt totally different when I dumped into him. Even drugged out, there was a sensation of jaggedness to him, under the throb. Did I kill the wrong guy? No! Didn't have a choice. It was Nuke or someone on the team that wasn't a known and convicted murderer. And I couldn't have held it much longer. The shit from Don was leaking, like nothing else ever had. Wasn't sure it wouldn't take root for real. And if it hadn't, I still couldn't have gone anywhere to find other targets. Hell, compared to most of the shit stains I dumped into that died, he was Hitler to their schoolgirl.

Fuck! Pull it together, Kerry. Follow the memory, find the next snarl.

---

Shitfuckdamn! What did they do? She's bleeding internally. Feels like a ruptured spleen, damaged liver. She's been beat almost dead. Head ringing, everything blurred. Concussion for sure. Face all fucked up. Yeah, there's a major knot to this.

"This is what will happen every time, Elaine. You must comply with your training, with your treatment. Now, focus. Reach into Devon, push his power, push it until he screams again."

"No. I'm done, asshole. No more."

"Devon, hit her again. This time break a rib."

"Rrrraaaaaaggghhhhnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!"

"Devon, you will comply. The longer you fight, the worse it will be for both of you."

He's going to do it. She's reaching out with her power, but not at him? Where? Oh, shit.

BADOOOOOMMMMM!

Fuuuck! Ruptured ear drums. Devastation is down. Moran is crawling out from under the door. She's shifting her power to Moran? What? Why? Shit, get back to work, sort through the knot, don't just rubberneck. Moran is making this one worse. He's fucking with all of them. The more she amps him, the worse it gets, I can feel the hate, the rage in her. She's trying to burn him out. Is this the first time she did it? "Is it? Was it?"

"Yes. That's what he wanted me to do to Devastation. Now it's his turn."

Another kid, young one, coming in behind Nuke. Looks familiar. Shit! She did it! Moran's down.

"Fixer, take care of Moran."

"Okay Generator. Only take a minute."

Fixer? The healer? Oh. I get it. Just fix the knot, get the fuck out. Christ, I really don't need this memory stuck in my head. Fuck! Nuke exploded his balls! They're just going to keep healing him and fucking him up. Dammit! She's amping him, he's fucking with all of them, it's all twisted up.

He's gonna fucking blow!

Shit! Shit! That fucking hurt. He's fucking dead. Brains leaking out of his ears. She's not feeling any power in him at all. But all the fucking kids, they're almost screaming with power. They're screaming, period. She's gotta get control of herself. Pull it in, Elaine, you got this kiddo. Fuck, of course she does, this is memory. If she didn't get control, there wouldn't be a Ragnarok.

"Look, I'm out. I said I'd help with this, but I'm out. You guys are fucking nuts."

"Yeah, Fixer, just patch us all up, and go. Just remember, never fucking cross the horsemen, you dig?"

"Yeah Nuke, I dig. Like a dog after a bone. Look, Nuke, I can't fix all of this. I only do physical things. Bodies, machines, computers; I can't do anything about what he did when he died."

"The fuck are you talking about kid?"

"He did something in your head, to your power. You and Elaine."

"It's Generator, rat turd."

"Yeah, sorry, sorry. Just, I can't fix everything, okay? Don't kill me, okay?"

"Get it done. Get out."

Fixer wasn't lying. I can't tell what happened to Nuke, but she's got more than a rut, more than a knot. Fuck it, pull it out the hard way. "Generator, I think this is gonna hurt. No easy way about it. You ready?"

"Shut up and finish."

Gaaaaaahhhhhhh! God damn it! She's out. God, it's like a fucking maggot, eating at me. What the fuck am I gonna do with this? I can't offload this into anyone, no telling what the fuck it would do. Am I stuck with this shit? There's gotta be a way. That shitstain made a psychic fucking cancer, or something. Latched it into their powers. Every fucking time they used them, it ate deeper.

Okay, okay, get your shit together Kerry. Follow the threads, follow the memories. Anything left? Anything else I can take with me? Traces, yeah. Clean it all up while she's out. Less traumatic for both of us. Okay. That's the best I can do. Dial down her vitals, coax the brainwaves into healthy sleep, let her recover.

---

"I don't really care, Kerry."

"Don, man, we fucked up. You have to give me a shot to fix it. If I could fix him first, she'd be way more likely to agree to all of this again. Trust us both more. It makes sense. I can do the job on her better now that I know what happened. If I can contain one of those little psychic parasites, I can contain two."

"You don't get it, Kerry. The only fucking way I'm repeating any of this, anything since you fixed me, is if the whole thing fails. It's been too damn hard keeping everything in the air as it is. I'm not fucking risking it on a maybe, I'm not undoing the first fucking success I've had with her because you got caught up in her emotions and trauma."

"That's not what it fucking is, you asshole! We fucking killed Nuke, and I could have saved them both! I've had the brain worm locked down for three days! It isn't getting out. She's recovering well. She's still a hard ass, but the crazy is gone. If we had her and Nuke, in their right minds, wouldn't that be better?"

"Maybe. Maybe it would. But I'm not risking it on a maybe. I promise though, if we can't get the job done like this, that'll be the next thing to try."

"You are such a fucking prick, man. You know I'm fucking right. I felt him before Moran fucked them up. And I felt him before I killed him. Before we killed him. I deserve a fucking chance to undo that. He didn't have to fucking die, Don."

"Why the fuck do you care? Before Max got you down here, you were hunting a drug ring down. You had cancers on board, syphilis. You were going to fucking kill them with it. Why the sudden flash of conscience? I'll tell you why. You picked up more of her than you think. You're feeling her grief, her friendship, and it's coloring your thinking."

"Fuck you, Don, fuck you."

(I was unsure whether to pluralize hydra or not, as I worried it may steer the prompt too much. As it is, I fear mentioning real-world history (even if it is mythological history) puts a bit too much of a boundary around it.)

Inspired by a comment to a YouTube community post.

Post in question. gl finding the comment.

So, reposting here for continuity. Welcome back literature.cafe!

---

I really don't want to do this. I need some fucking valium. Maybe some meth to counter that fuzziness. No, coke, definitely coke; I get too assholey on meth, even at low doses. Yeah, a valium, a snort of powder, then a toke or three to smooth them together. Then snag some of Max's fancy scotch. Need to get some addiction built up to offload, I can't rely on finding good shit at shelters any more. Everything around here, I've hoovered up and used. Not like I can weaponize jock itch or scabies.

Fuck. I'm just delaying the inevitable. I hate the mental shit. Hate it even worse when the patient has to be babied into even considering it. Shit. Here goes nothing.

"So, uh, Elaine? Or am I supposed to stick with Generator?"

"You're the doctor, Doctor."

"I'm not a fucking doctor."

"Yes, I know, but your little glare is so adorable."

"Lady, are you ever going to stop fucking with me?"

"No. Not likely. You killed Nuke. He was my oldest friend, you scabby little asshole. I will absolutely fuck with you every day I'm stuck here. I will absolutely fuck with you every chance I get. Now just imagine how it would be if I didn't like you."

"Fucking hell. Look, you know damn good and well Eternus killed Nuke; I was just the bullet he used. Not that I really give a fuck, Nuke was a walking genocide waiting to happen. You're damn near as bad. You kept your buddies juiced up while they killed thousands. You did plenty of that killing yourself. I'm not fucking apologizing for Nuke. Nobody I ever dumped into deserved it more."

"You asked a question, I answered it. The rest is you posturing and virtue signalling."

"Fuck that. I don't have virtue to signal."

"And that is why I like you. That's why I'm willing to hear you out."

"So, on to business?"

"Unless you want to pollute yourself first."

"I promised I wouldn't."

"Your reliance on the chemicals is a weakness. It'll get you killed some day. Maybe by me."

This asshole right here. I swear to fucking god. "Yeah, yeah, people keep trying, people keep failing. I got junkie power. Can't knock me over. Let's fucking do this. You know that Eternus wants me to try and sort out your shit. Stabilize you, give you the chance to not be a fucking homicidal psycho. Your sister begged me to at least try.

I can fucking do it. I hate it, and every bit of it will suck for both of us, but I can fix what your power broke, and you won't lose any of the power. I've done it a few times."

"Then why didn't you do it for Nuke?"

"Fuck! Fuckity fuck fuck! Lady, until our first discussion, I had no fucking clue part of his shit was power related too. I fucking told you that. I still would have done it, I just might have regretted it. But I didn't know, and from what I felt when I was offloading, I'm not sure I could fix him. His shit was worse than yours. You? I can feel the core of it from here. It's a tangled up, horrible fucking knot, but I can see how to untie it. His? It wasn't a knot, it was him. I can't fix what isn't broken, and he wasn't broken, he was just that fucking nasty."

"You didn't know him before."

"Neither did you! You said you didn't meet him until you were both in the Program. That shit fucked a lot of kids up, but I can promise you that Nuke went into it already fucked up. It just made him worse. No, I know the difference between a psychological injury and someone that was born fucked. I can feel it like a throbbing tooth. A regular trauma? Those burn, they itch, but they don't hurt just to feel. The people born fucked in the head pulse with it, it radiates off them if I don't shield like crazy."

"Bull. Shit. When I met Nuke, he was the one good kid in the bunch. Devastation was the one that was already hungry to hurt things."

"My power can feel shit. Part of how it works is reading what is and isn't 'natural' to the patient. Anything that isn't part of them, anything that's malfunctioning feels one way. Things that are natural, but not working the way it's supposed to for others, those feel another way. It's the difference between someone with a brain injury and someone with Down's. One's caused by external factors, the other internal, and my power can fix the external ones, but not the internal. Nuke? His shit was internal. Yours is caused by the power. I dunno about Devastation, never met the guy."

"I think you're full of it. You're playing mental gymnastics to try and escape responsibility for not doing the hard stuff."

"God, fuck you, generator. You think I haven't tried... No, no, I don't owe you shit. You're the one with a body count in four digits, not me."

"Don't try pulling that card, doctor, you have a body count too, and you're a 'hero'. The only difference between you and me is that I don't lie to myself. You, Eternus, that skidmark Streak, Hellion, you've all killed. Word is you've almost hit triple digits yourself. Oh, I know, they're all criminal low lifes. Gangsters and thugs. You're a one man epidemic, laying waste to anyone that offends you. You're not better than me, you're not better than Devastation, and you're sure not better than Nuke.

Admit it. You like doing it. You like the feeling of cramming disease and misery into your victims, just the same as I like crushing the life out of the useless sacks of meat that get in my way."

I should have taken the fucking valium. I'm going to. Fuck having this conversation straight.

"Look at you, running away into your cloudy little drug haze. You? Help me? You can't even help yourself. You're a coward and a killer. At least I don't lie about it to myself."

"Yeah, yeah, big bad Generator, proud of herself. I didn't ask for this shit any more than you did, but at least you don't get cancer and have to carry it around. You carry a dozen tumors around and see how you feel about drugs then."

"Then go get some. Bring them back. Give them to me. You can take them back out any time, right? I'll make you a bet. We'll let them sit there with no drugs until I give up, and anyone would eventually. You take them back and see if you can go as long. You win? I let you fuck with my head. I win? Well, I win, there's nothing I want from you, but you'll shut your mouth and leave me alone about it. I'll do my part with the big bad horde of Kittens either way, I gave my word on that already."

Can't lie, the kitten thing pulled a laugh out of me; I'd had the same thought more than once. And I put the valium back in the bottle.

---

"So? What happened?"

"What do you think? I took her bet."

"Kerry, did you not maybe think to consult someone first? Like, maybe the guy that's going to have to eat a bullet if this fucks up?"

"Ahhhh. No. No, I didn't. It was kind of an immediate thing. Couldn't go running off to ask permission."

"Fuck me. Kerry, how long will she last if she doesn't give up? How bad is what you gave her?"

"End stage stuff. Had Lightspeed run me down to Charlotte, the pediatric oncology unit there had asked for healers a couple of weeks ago. You know how it is, there's never enough healers that can do anything about cancer at all. And I'm not in that loop. I haven't been into all this organized shit, ever. But I cleared the ward.

She's dead in maybe a week. She'll be unable to function in maybe four days. Took a nasty glioblastoma from a toddler. A toddler for fuck's sake."

"You're an idiot. You need to fucking fix this. And I mean now, Kerry."

"Don, suck my cock. You aren't my boss. You're barely my friend, and half of that is your own fucking memories. But in the entire time you've known me, this loop or any others, have you ever managed to give me a fucking order and not get kicked in the nuts?"

"You're fucking with the entire human race, you asshole!"

"No, I'm fucking with one sociopath. I'm trying to change that fact about her. I'm the only person I know of that can do it. Oh, there's people that can fuck with minds, change shit, but they'd fuck up her power because they'd be laying in blocks and changing memories. I can fix most of it, and she'll still be able to do her thing. So maybe give me some fucking trust here."

"And what if she dies? What if something goes wrong?"

"Well, then when you loop back and kick me in the nuts, I'll deserve it."

---

"Okay Generator, you ready?"

"Es. Getid out. Can't fink."

I can feel the brain tumor, like an eldritch evil, tentacles spread even worse than they were in the kid I took it from. The leukemia ain't fun, nor the others, but glioblastoma is a nightmare. It's why she can't think straight, or talk right. Fuck my life. She made it five days. She's on death's door, and still glaring at me.

Okay Kerry, suck it up.

Damn it! That fucking sucks. Skull feels like it's going to explode. Vision blurry. I gotta make it six fucking days. Six fucking days. The fuck? Did I just shit myself? Why am I on the floor? I fucking hate cancers. Always some fresh fucking hell, and I can't just offload this into a rat. Six fucking days. At least she's calling for help.

"So, Doctor, you think you'll win this bet? I don't. But, unlike you, I get to go have a nice massage, drink some hot cocoa, and listen to some music. You get to suffer, and then lose. You'll be popping morphine in an hour. Weakling."

Was the kick really necessary? Fuck. Good. John's here, "cnt mve rit jon. Shit slf."

"I can tell. We'll get you cleaned up."

Six fucking days. At least I'll be able to hold my bowels by morning. I hope; I've never taken anything this bad.

Generator was in motion before I could speak again. It probably would have been a reset for me, but Evelyn moved faster than her sister, stepping in front of me, arm extended, "Stop! Damn it Elaine, don't do this! Stop and think for just a second before you fly off the handle again!"

I don't know why, but it worked. Elaine stopped. She looked at her sister, glaring, then raised an eyebrow, "Fine. I'm stopped. I'm thinking. I'm thinking I want to read the future in your boyfriend's liver."

"Really? Elaine, you thought astrology was bull even when we were kids. No way are you buying into vivimancy."

"That degree of yours sure bought you some big words." But then she laughed. Not a crazy villain laugh, just a throaty, sane one.

"Well, I was too pretty for print journalism, so I have to break out the fancy vocabulary when I get a chance. They make me dumb things down for TV."

I kept my mouth shut. Mama Wesley might have raised a dummy, but it wasn't me. I was also smart enough to step out of way when Generator took Ev by the hand and moved to the bench. They sat for a moment, both looking nervous. Which made me nervous, because Generator nervous seems like a very volatile situation. But Ev lit up with that ratings generating smile of hers and just placed her hand on her sister's. She sighed, "It took some digging you know. To find Charley."

"I thought he was gone. Lost forever."

"He almost was. The old storage shed was falling apart, and the bin he was in wasn't in great shape. He had some fuzzy bits on him that weren't supposed to be there, and was missing parts that were. But he didn't smell too bad, despite the horrible conditions. Don, Eternus, cleaned him up a little, then asked a favor from a lady that can control things on a molecular level to get rid of anything that would keep damaging him.

He was going to have repairs made, but we talked about it and wanted to ask you first. I didn't think you'd even remember him, much less think about him... when you were about to die. You did though, so we thought it would be a bad idea to go too far."

Generator looked at me, glaring, "Didn't want the crazy monster to bite your head off."

"I didn't, no. I also didn't want you to think it was a fake, or to change it enough that it wouldn't mean the same. Look, Generator, we've thrown down a handful of times that you remember, and a lot more that you don't because they haven't happened yet, or they got avoided. But you don't really know me any more than I know you beyond knowing you can kick my ass nine out of ten times. You may not believe it, but I didn't go through the trouble of all this without considering how it might effect you.

Yeah, if it saves the fucking human race, I'd put a bullet in your face right now. I'd lie, steal, damn near anything if it meant the world would be preserved and people I love would survive. But I'm not fucking with you. Charley? You brought it up after the two of us had fought as hard as we could. We were going to die, and you showed me enough of the person inside you that I found hope. Hope we might survive. Not then, we were beyond fucked then. But hope that maybe, maybe the human inside you, the real person might be worth talking to.

I had enough hope to keep dying, to keep fighting for this moment, this meeting right here. Thousands of years, Generator. Thousands of years of pain and fear and misery that Evelyn could barely make bearable, where she was the one fucking thing to keep me going enough to hold on to hope.

This little horse?", and here I pulled the stuffed animal out of my jacket pocket, a tiny, ragged horse, faded to an almost white purple, only one eye left, and stuffing coming out of a half dozen holes, "this horse, I would never fucking lie about. Because if I did, it would break any hope I could have of you believing me, of some day maybe even trusting me.

Please. Generator. Elaine. At least think about it. Help me save Evelyn. Help me save everyone."

Silence crashed across the woods. She gaped at me. I could see her eyes flicking while her brain churned, processing all of what I'd said. I could also see her emotions fluttering back and forth from rage to sorrow, to what looked a hell of a lot like hope from the outside.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. She tilted her head and watched whatever my own face was doing, behind the tears I felt crawling their way down.

She stood and crossed the few feet of earth between us. She took Charley from my hand, then reached up to pull a tear from my cheek. She licked her fingertip, "You can get this fixed? You can turn this back into Charley?"

"Absolutely."

"How long?"

"Two days, sooner if you say it has to be, I can pull a favor to jump the line."

"Three days. Be back here, with Charley. If he's right, we'll talk again, see what happens. If he isn't, I'll hunt down you and everyone you ever thought about loving and eat their faces."

She walked away, turning at the tree line to wave to Ev.

---

"Jesus fucking Christ, Don! Is she really the only way? She's fucking batshit."

"Yeah, she has what we need anyway. I don't know of anyone else that can amplify the way she can. Plus her other powers. We tried Kickstart, that kid from Compton twice. Even talked a bunch of doctors and healers into getting Dynamo out of the nursing home and dialing back the dementia so he could try. Nowhere near as close to just surviving as Generator going at it half-ass.

Mike, I swear I've tried every idea thrown at me. There was a point where I was looping the last six months before they show up just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem, every whacked out plan anyone could think up. We even tried mind controlling Nuke, stuffing him full of juice at a reactor and detonating him. Took a lot of them out, but not all of them, and it blew a crater big enough to reach the mantle. Then the fucking Kitain just tore into us again.

Your sorcerer buddy? He called up half of hell once and the Kitain just mowed them all down. They're individually powerful enough to be a problem, but their group mind, the connection they have and the numbers , it's like fighting an army of The Ragnarok juiced up on boost."

"How... how bad do I die?"

"Bad, Mike, real bad. Torn to pieces. Your fire hurts them, and anything that hurts them gets swarmed. Dynamo got you going hot enough they couldn't reach you without a lot of them blown to ash, but his radius wasn't enough. They figured out he was boosting you and took him out. We all got ripped up then. Only good thing is that they don't waste time. They kill fast, when they can."

"Generator it is then. I'd suck Del off if it keeps me in once piece."

"Like I'm lettin' you near my junk. Don, you got the thing fixed right, right?"

"Evelyn says so. It certainly matches old pictures. If it isn't right, I can probably manage to loop back precisely enough to not have to try to navigate the meeting again. But guys, she's chaos. It's taken a lot of repeats to get here. We have to be fucking careful. I can't risk having to go back and ending up before the meeting. It took too damn many microscopic adjustments to get her there and talking. No fucking crazy shit when we're in the field, no fucking speeding on the highway, no fucking jaywalking!"

"C'mon Don, it can't be that bad."

"The fuck it can't, Mandy. This whole fucking thing is like juggling razors that want my blood. Death by a million cuts, even if I get it right. I'm not joking, I can't risk the whole fucking world because one of us got sloppy in a fight with some schlub like Titan. I might have to leave someone mangled, crippled, dead even. The further we get from the meeting, the more cushion I'll have, but if she ever agrees to let Kerry help her sort out her mental shit, I'm not going to risk fucking that up either. And we've only got a few years to get there. And I still don't have any clue how Quake and Devastation are going to fit into things. And a dozen other little unknowns can come up because there's always a chance something new occurs because one minor choice we make."

"Okay. Okay Don, we're all on careful mode now, no problem."

"Thanks guys. I'm sorry I couldn't give you everything before this. I'm sorry for the other little things I can't let you know yet too. But this was the big one, the one that lets me at least brief you on the big picture, start getting you as ready for the Kitain as possible."

---

---

Okay. For anyone that has been following along, you have likely realized that this has not only gone well beyond the prompt that started it, or the ones that continued it; this thing has a life of its own in my head now. I have zero clue how many more "chapters" are going to show up along the way to the final scene that's burning a hole in my head, waiting to be set loose. But that ending is there, and I'm trying hard to get there without fucking it up, just like Eternus is. Unlike him, I'm not so confident I can manage to not fuck it up.

There's been flaws and dubious choices along the way so far. I know there's gonna be others. But holy shit, that final scene in my head? There's part of me that wants to get it out now lol.