"That's a pretty convenient Aether ability, huh?" Winston said cheerfully, tying the laces of his boots as he sat on the bed. "Faking your death like that."
From what Marie had heard, Winston Grace had been a real nuisance for the doctors and nurses that worked in this medical facility over the last couple of days. He'd been telling people their own life stories from a glance at their wrists, exposing affairs from the inflections of voices, and generally being the most irritating patient in the world.
"Sure is," Marie replied, her voice dull and monotone. She watched, arms crossed, as Winston finally got off his hospital bed, pulling his fur-coat back on and parking his fez on his head.
Did he know?
Given his talents, Marie couldn't imagine it was impossible. That was fine for the moment, though. If she got the sense he was going to try to use it against her, she'd just kill him. Otherwise, there was no harm in one more person suspecting something he couldn't ever prove.
Apparently satisfied with the angle of his fez, Winston twirled on the spot. "How do I look?" he asked, grinning broadly. "Healthy and hardy?"
"You look fine." Again, her tone didn't waver in the slightest. "Can we go?"
They really didn't have time to spare for Winston Grace's prancing and preening. The night before -- shortly after Marie had returned to Muzazi's residence -- they'd received word that Marcela Caesar, the head of the Special Officer's Commission, wanted a report on their progress from all three of them. Muzazi was already waiting in the town hall's communication hub, so the unpleasant task of picking up Winston from the hospital had fallen to Marie.
Speaking of Winston, he was still just standing there, adjusting his sleeves.
"You mentioned Regan had gone missing?" he asked as he finally followed her out of the door.
Marie nodded, dulling her sense of smell to avoid the pungent stink of Panacea as they headed out the door into the cold. Even with the artificial lighting that flooded Landfall-01, the darkness bore down on them oppressively.
"Okay," Winston said. "Regan's the culprit, then."
She stopped walking, boots crunching in the snow as she gave Winston a withering look. To be honest, at this point she wasn't exactly surprised by the fact he'd blurt such a thing out -- and, much to her consternation, she was sure she wouldn't be surprised if he was right, either.
"What makes you say that?" she asked, already prepared for the verbal artillery she was sure would follow. "I was thinking he might be the culprit's next victim -- if they wanted to cripple Nocturnus, going after the Governor would be a sure bet."
Irritatingly enough, Winston hadn't stopped walking when Marie had, so she was forced to jog after him as he explained: "Exactly," he snapped his fingers. "The fact that he wasn't targeted to begin with was suspicious in itself. Hence, he was probably the one behind it. Hence, I didn't share my findings with him until you guys showed up, since I was scared I'd get killed."
Marie caught up with him, gritting her teeth as what he'd just said fully registered. "Wait," she hissed, putting a heavy hand down on his shoulder and stopping him in his tracks. "You knew from the start, and you didn't say?!"
Winston blinked as if her concerns were ludicrous. "I suspected from the start, sure," he said cheerfully. "But there were a lot of neat little mysteries inside the big mystery, hence I decided not to say anything. It all worked out, so what's the problem?"
This had been a very stressful week. With a growl of fury, Marie seized Winston by his collar and pulled him close, teeth bared.
"Are you being fucking serious right now?" she whispered, murderously quiet. "What's the problem? What's the problem? I got blown up because of you, asshole."
If Winston was at all intimidated, he didn't show it. He tilted his head limply as he replied: "No. You pretended to get blown up. That's your Aether ability, right?"
Marie could snap his neck like a twig if she wanted to. Even this base form of hers was capable of that, easily. Despite that, however, Winston just kept staring at her, his gaze as cold and glassy as a dolls.
She got the feeling there actually wasn't very much behind those eyes.
Winston dropped down to the ground as Marie released him from her grasp. This standard form of hers wasn't exactly a giant, but even so it had been able to hold Winston up off the ground just by pulling at his collar. He was such a small, annoying thing -- like a squeaking mouse.
But there was no way he knew. There was no way he'd be able to jump to that conclusion -- it wouldn't even be a possibility for the humans of today.
As if nothing had happened, Winston adjusted the collar of his coat and continued strolling towards the town hall, humming a tune. Marie could only sigh and rub her temples at his infuriating nonchalance.
It was no surprise she was in a foul mood, given Winston's general existence, the headache she'd been feeling for hours now, and the fact that she'd found no sign of her other half as of yet. She was certain the half of her body that had been brought into the morgue had been taken by Regan, so what was the hold up?
The other Marie hadn't gotten any clever ideas about fleeing the planet, had she? No, Marie knew no version of her would be that stupid. If the Needles within their bodies went too far away from each other -- generous as that range might have been -- they'd release their deadly payloads, and that would be the end of both of them.
She couldn't imagine any version of herself being killed by a bureaucrat like Regan, but that didn't do much to reassure her. Things like this had happened a couple times in the past, but even then it had been for an hour or two at the most before they recombined -- not an entire night. It was unsettling to think of another Marie wandering around, quickly becoming more and more distinct from herself.
There was no choice. She'd have to actively track down her other half as soon as possible. But first came the meeting.
This wouldn't be much fun.
----------------------------------------
By the time Marie caught up with Winston and entered the communication hub, the hologram had already sprung into life. A slightly enlarged version of Commissioner Caesar stood before them, gloved hands clasped behind her back.
The leader of the Special Officer's Commission was a woman who constantly seemed as if she'd just stepped out of the dressing room. Even ignoring the pale blue uniform securely wrapped around her body, and the tricorn hat that somehow never slipped off her head, the rest of her appearance was utterly immaculate. There was never a lock of white hair out of place, never a blemish on her dark skin, never so much as a stray microexpression. She was a woman in constant and complete control of herself.
Atoy, predictably enough, was already offering a salute to the hologram. Meanwhile, Winston was lounging on a couch off in the corner. The Commissioner's gaze flicked over to Marie as she entered the darkened room.
"Kind of you to join us, Officer Hazzard," she said, her tone light. "Something keep you?"
The Commissioner had the kind of presence that made even seemingly casual phrases seem official. Marie tensed herself up appropriately as she was addressed -- she knew that Caesar would appreciate it.
"Apologies, ma'am," she said, offering a salute herself. "Conditions are harsh out there. My arrival was delayed."
"So I've heard," Caesar nodded. "Officer Muzazi was telling me these events on Nocturnus seem to be the result of a Darkstar operation. Is that correct?"
Marie took a deep breath. She'd lived for a century, but somehow she still found herself nervous in Caesar's presence, like a child having to explain herself to an adult.
"That seems to be the case, ma'am," she agreed. "At least, that's Officer Grace's conclusion."
Caesar closed her eyes and sighed. "He said that? It must be true, then. I'd hoped these extremists would have disbanded when their king was captured."
The pest himself spoke up from the couch, where he seemed to be playing some kind of monster-battle game on his script. "Regan's behind it, by the way!"
Caesar's stare hardened. "Governor Regan?"
"Mm-hmm," Winston replied, still not looking at her. "The whole thing's an audition for Darkstar, so he wants to be in that group for some reason. I haven't figured that bit out yet. Probably because he's mediocre."
Caesar put a fist to her chin, visibly absorbing and calculating the new information. Marie always found it almost mesmerizing to watch the thought process rush through her eyes -- the Commissioner was no Cogitant, but she might as well have been. Nothing escaped her notice.
"Officer Muzazi?" she turned to address the still-saluting Atoy.
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Your new directive is to apprehend Yuren Regan as quickly as possible. I want him alive for interrogation. I don't care about the circumstances -- if he dies, I will be very unhappy. Do you understand?"
"Of course, ma'am," he nodded, shame written all over his face. Apparently, during the time he thought Marie had been dead, he'd wiped out a group of smugglers that could have been used to find the culprit. He'd be eager to make up for that mistake.
"Officer Hazzard will assist you in the field, as per usual," Caesar continued. "And Officer Grace will remain at Landfall-01 to act as mission control." Her tone softened just slightly. "Don't worry, Winston. It's been confirmed that Yuren Regan is not an Aether user. You aren't missing out on any interesting abilities."
Winston shrugged disinterestedly from the couch. It seemed he'd already returned to his game.
The veneer of affability Caesar had adopted vanished in an instant. "Officers Grace and Muzazi, if you could please give us the room. I have private matters to discuss with Officer Hazzard."
Atoy offered a parting salute -- before taking the liberty of grabbing Winston by the back of the collar and dragging him out of the room. Winston, for his part, just continued playing on his bleep-bloop device.
The door slid shut behind them.
"I'm told you were the victim of a bombing, Officer Hazzard," Caesar said slowly. "Am I right in saying I'm not speaking to you in your entirety right now?"
There was no point hiding it. Chances were that Caesar already knew for certain. The Needles had tracking devices in them, after all.
Marie nodded. "Only around half of me is here talking to you right now. I'm having trouble tracking down the other half." She added hurriedly: "It's in hand, though. Just a matter of meeting up."
Caesar raised an eyebrow. "If you'd like, I can activate the Needles within your duplicate's body. That seems an efficient means of dealing with the problem."
Her breath caught in her throat, and Marie rapidly shook her head. "No, that's alright. As I said, I have the situation in hand."
"If your duplicate attempts to leave the planet, you understand that will result in the activation of both its and your Needles."
"I understand, ma'am," Marie said. "That won't happen. I can deal with this."
Caesar didn't understand. Marie doubted anyone who wasn't a Gene Tyrant possibly could. The other Marie wandering around was no duplicate -- she was just as much the genuine Marie Hazzard as the one standing in this room. There was no way Marie could condemn her to death for her own convenience.
The quirked eyebrow returned to its neutral position. "I see. With the bombing situation, has anyone else become aware of your true nature?"
Are there any loose ends that need to be tied up?
Marie hesitated -- but only for a moment. She shook her head. "I managed to play it off as an Aether ability of mine, just like last time. If anyone suspects anything, they haven't shown any sign of it."
"Hm. Well, keep a close eye on them. Keep me updated -- Wu Ming maintains a personal interest in this operation. Success will bring with it a very good impression. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how valuable the friendship of a Contender can be."
Marie nodded, but paused as a thought occurred: "I have to say, ma'am, I'm surprised it's you getting in contact with us and not Wu Ming. He's the one who personally gave us the assignment, after all."
The Commissioner looked down at her, unimpressed. "The Contenders are very busy people, as I'm sure you know. I couldn't possibly comment."
And with that, the hologram flickered away into nothingness, and the little light that had been in the room evacuated. Marie sighed as she rubbed her forehead. This day really seemed intent on getting on her last nerve. It had been on the spur of the moment, but she'd lied to the Commissioner all the same.
For a moment, a cold sweat rose to her skin, but she suppressed it nearly immediately. What she'd just done was foolish as it came. Letting Caesar find out about it wasn't even an option -- it would mean Marie's death, or possibly something even worse. Most likely Atoy's death, too: the Supremacy couldn't risk word about a living Gene Tyrant getting out.
This whole thing had become a fine mess. She found herself agreeing with Atoy: this planet really was nothing but trouble.
She couldn't get lost in anxiety. She hadn't lived for a hundred years by worrying about future possibilities. If the situation developed against her later on, she'd deal with it then. What she had to deal with were the here and now.
The other Marie. Before going after Regan, before doing anything else, she needed to find her. Apart from the obvious benefits of recovering her lost biomass, it was entirely possible that the other Marie had valuable intel. So where the hell was she?
She took a deep breath. After everything that had happened already, the idea of digging this pit any deeper wasn't very appealing, but…
...she couldn't do this alone.
----------------------------------------
Marie managed to corner Atoy on the way out of the building, hurriedly pushing him into what seemed to be some kind of custodian's closet. She looked up and down the hallway, checking nobody was nearby, before pulling the door tight.
"Officer Hazzard?" Atoy asked, brushing off his parka. "Is something the matter?"
She sighed. "I need your help."
"Of course." There wasn't even a moment of hesitation before Atoy agreed -- Marie took some sly comfort from that. "What's wrong?"
Marie adjusted her posture slightly. She'd thought this would be a simple matter of enlisting Atoy's assistance, but now that the time came to actually explain she couldn't help but feel a strange discomfort blocking her throat. What she was about to explain was something fundamentally inhuman. It would be like a plant trying to explain its way of life to an animal. Perhaps he would just recoil.
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"Marie?" Atoy's voice softened slightly.
Screw it. Assistance would be useful in this case, but it wasn't like she was helpless by herself. If he didn't get it, then he didn't get it. No point in hesitating.
She cleared her throat. "You remember how last night you asked how we were gonna find who tried to blow us up, and I said I'm with them right now all cryptically?"
Atoy nodded.
"At the time, I was expecting you to, uh, to ask me what I meant by that. But you didn't."
He scratched the back of his neck almost sheepishly. "There… was a lot to consider that night. To be honest, I didn't think I could handle any more information. I take it that it's now become important?"
"You remember how I was blown in half by that explosion?" Marie asked casually.
Atoy visibly paled. "Yes," he quietly replied.
Marie took a deep breath as she began to explain. "Well, the Marie you're talking to right now isn't the part of me you took back to Landfall-01. I'm the part that was blown back into the house. Gene Tyrants can split into more than one organism, so long as the parts are big enough, so that's basically what's happened here. You understand?"
For an awful moment, Atoy made no movement at all -- but then he slowly nodded. From the look on his face, he clearly didn't quite understand, but he wanted to. Marie felt some of the tension drain from her shoulders.
“Well,” she went on. “The thing is -- I need to meet up with my other half so we can go back to being one Marie Hazzard. If I can’t do that, and for whatever reason the other Marie tries to leave the planet, that’ll trigger one of the countermeasures I mentioned to you earlier. Basically, we’ll both die.”
Atoy took a deep breath, and the resolve in his eyes hardened like diamond. “I won’t allow that to happen. I lost my partner once before, and I… disliked it. What do you need from me?”
A grin already spreading across her face, Marie lifted a hand to explain -- then flapped it uselessly as she realized she didn’t exactly know what she needed from Atoy. Why had she come to him in the first place, really? What would he be able to do that she wouldn’t? Was it just moral support?
Maybe she’d just wanted this anxiety to exist in more heads than just her own.
Atoy frowned at her obvious distress. “I take it you’ve been unable to locate your, um… other half, then? That’s where the problem is?”
Biting her thumb as she winced from her headache, Marie nodded.
He took a deep breath. “I have a proposal, then, if you’ll hear me out.” The hesitation in Atoy’s voice was nothing if not concerning. “I’m sure it’s not something you’ll be eager about, given your personal opinions, but I think it would be effective in solving your problem.”
“And what is this proposal?” Marie asked cautiously.
Atoy spoke quickly, rightfully worried that she’d interrupt him otherwise. “We enlist the aid of Officer Grace.”
“Hell no.”
Marie fiercely shook her head. Telling Atoy, someone she trusted, about her true nature was one thing -- but Winston Grace?! The vapid detective himself, who’d gotten her blown up with his childish mystery obsession? The boy who’d never been introduced to the subject of shutting the fuck up? She might as well announce her secret for all the world to hear.
“I understand,” Atoy said, raising a placating hand. “I understand you dislike him, but this seems the optimal way to solve your problem! Essentially, it’s a missing person case, correct? Officer Grace will leap at the chance to solve that sort of mystery. Perhaps we can be vague about what exactly we’re searching for -- just give him enough information to make a deduction?”
“It won’t work!” Marie growled, pacing back and forth in the small space the custodian's closet allowed her. “He’s an idiot, but he’s smart at the same time -- he’ll figure it out!”
Atoy sighed, once again rubbing the back of his neck as he grasped for arguments. “You’ve told me, so is it really that disagreeable to tell him? We’ll benefit from it as well, and he’s a Special Officer -- same as us. He’ll be bound to secrecy just as I am!”
Marie thrusted her fist towards the wall -- restraining herself only at the last moment, a mere second before her misjudged strength would have torn right through the steel. Right now, she was more than just angry: she was furious. She’d entertained hopes otherwise, but Atoy Muzazi simply didn’t get it.
“I trust you,” she hissed, eyes drilling into the wall. “I don’t trust him. I don’t care what sort of promises he makes. This is my life, Atoy. You understand?”
Atoy’s eyes flicked from Marie’s clenched fist to the wall, and back again. “Perhaps,” he said quietly. “You should take a deep breath?”
She glared. “Don’t condescend.”
"I'm not. I do it myself when I become frustrated -- it helps."
Whatever. She took a deep breath -- deeper than was possible for any normal human -- expanding her lungs as the air flowed in and in. She hated to admit it, but she did feel a little calmer as the cool air rushed in.
"Okay," she sighed. "But I'm still not telling him."
Atoy stepped forward, placing a firm hand down on her shoulder. Marie glanced at it, frowning, but she made no effort to peel away his grip.
"Listen," he said. "You said you trust me, didn't you?"
"Right…"
His grip tightened. "There's no need for you to trust Officer Grace. Just trust me, and I'll trust him." His other hand hovered over his sheathed blade. "If Grace proves unworthy of my trust… I'll kill him myself before so much as a word can leave his mouth."
Marie opened her mouth to refuse again, to counter the flimsy argument, but instead she found herself nodding.
It seemed she really had come to trust Atoy Muzazi.
----------------------------------------
The command center Winston Grace had set up was a ramshackle affair -- it seemed he'd dragged every monitor and holographic projector in the building into this unused room. Most of them were showing exterior models of Landfall-01, although some displayed charts of various sensory data and one -- sneakily hidden between two projectors -- was clearly displaying the pause screen for some kind of card game.
Like a clumsy spider, Grace swiveled around in his chair to rake in the input all around him, eyes flicking from one display to the next. As the doors slid open, he whirled around -- his chair doing two loops before finally coming to a stop before Atoy and Marie.
"Hiya," he said, reaching into a bag of chips. "What's up?"
Atoy took a deep breath. They'd decided that he'd be the one to break the actual news -- and to make clear what the consequences of blabbing would be. Marie wondered how he'd build up to it.
"Officer Hazzard here is a Gene Tyrant!" Atoy Muzazi declared, staring straight forward.
"Wow," Grace said. "That's crazy."
Crunch.
He nonchalantly chewed the chip in his mouth, already reaching into the bag for a replacement. The only thing that stopped him from continuing his feast was the fact that Marie forcefully slapped the bag out of his hand.
"You knew?!" she growled, her face pulled close to his, her eyes wide with fury.
Winston blinked innocently. "Sure I did."
Marie drew even closer in her interrogation. "Since when?!"
He stuck his tongue out playfully as he shrugged. "That's a secret!"
Before Atoy could so much as speak up in protest, Marie's hands lashed out like twin vipers, each hand planted against Winston's temples. It would take only the slightest effort for her to crush his skull like a grapefruit.
"I could seriously kill you, you know," she said softly, her voice a minute monotone.
"You won't, though," Winston shot back calmly, that same glassy look in his eyes.
"Are you sure about that?" She squeezed, just a little, and the resultant wince of discomfort from Winston was reward enough.
"Mm-hmm," he nodded as much as he was able. "You came to me and told me this even though you find me infuriating. Hence, you absolutely need my help for something. Hence, you can't afford to kill me."
He was right. Damn it, he was right. Marie released Winston from her grip, and he fell back into his chair roughly. She took a deep breath, and a step back.
"I'm sort of accepting the fact you probably know what I need help with, too," she said, crossing her arms.
Winston crouched down, recovering his bag of chips from the floor. Some had spilled, but it didn't seem to bother him any.
"You were blown in half by the bombing," he said, waving a chip in the air. "And there are records of Gene Tyrants surviving even after being cut into pieces. Hence, there's another one of you somewhere on this planet. You would only come to me with a problem if I was the only person who could solve it. Hence, it's a mystery related to your other half. Hence, you want to find out where it is." He tossed the chip up in the air, then caught it in his mouth as it came down and began to chew. "I'm right, right?"
Marie sucked in a deep breath of air. Atoy's advice really did work well. "Every word..." she forced out through gritted teeth.
Winston grinned. "Great!" he cried, with all the enthusiasm of a victorious child.
Before Marie could say anything more, Atoy stepped forward. Just as he'd promised her, though, his hand was placed firmly on the hilt of his sword. A seemingly casual gesture, but one that could become deadly in a split second.
"All we require is a location," Atoy said firmly. "I'm sure you've handled missing person cases in the past. This should be no different."
Winston sat cross-legged on his chair, idly spinning as he considered the conundrum. "That's a toughie, to be honest," he mused, a finger on his lips. "With humans, you can pretty much predict the set of actions they can take and work backwards from there -- but I've heard Gene Tyrants can do some wacky stuff. The range of actions is much more extreme."
Spin, spin, spin. Marie had no idea how the brat could think and act as a centrifuge at the same time.
Her head twinged.
Marie winced -- and at the very same moment, Winston stopped his spinning. He leaned forward, fingers steepled beneath his chin like the supports of a bridge. A sly smile crossed his face.
"Okay," he said simply. "I know how to find her now. Marie, can you take my hand for a second?" He extended his own.
Marie exchanged a glance with Atoy, and got a subtle nod in return. She doubted Winston could try anything -- but if he did, Atoy would be there to cut him down.
She stepped forward, clasping her hand against Winston's smaller one.
"What's this meant to do, then?" she asked, narrowed eyes betraying her suspicion.
"You'll see," he chuckled. "Dupin's Alchemy."
The entire world became nothing.
In an instant, every sense Marie Hazzard used to perceive the world vanished. Her sight, her hearing, her sense of touch -- even the hidden senses she'd sneaked away inside her body. She was disconnected from all of them.
It wasn't as if she was floating in a black void. For a void to be black, colour would need to exist. It was just… an absence of reality. Nothing.
Nothing except the pain.
The buzzing that had been tickling her brain was now scraping it's claws against it, rifling through every nerve, shredding the meat as if it were butter. She opened her mouth to scream -- and was sure she must have done so -- but no sound reached her ears.
This pain had a direction, had a source. She could feel it, like a great clawed hand reaching out from the wilderness to torment her. Would she die? How could a person feel this pain and not die?
And then, just like that, it was over.
Marie fell to her knees, fingers pressed against the carpeted floor. She'd never realized how blessed she'd been just to be able to feel things. The sensation of the carpet against her hands was simply indescribable.
"How'd it go?" came the choked voice of Winston Grace.
Marie looked up. Atoy had seized Winston by the neck and slammed him against the wall, where he was being held aloft, legs flailing against the air. Despite the fact that his face was already turning red from lack of oxygen, the childish grin on Winston's face didn't lessen in the slightest.
She picked herself up, glaring at him. A nod to Atoy brought the detective back down to the ground, where he lay massaging his throat.
"What did you do?" she demanded.
"I was curious to see if Atoy Muzazi would actually kill me," Winston laughed, still massaging his throat.
"No," Marie shook her head. "What did you just do to me?"
"I told you -- Dupin's Alchemy," Winston looked up. "People think humans have five senses, but that's not strictly true. There are a bunch of inputs that could be considered extra senses, even if evolution has mostly left them behind. Am I right in saying your senses are dialled up to begin with? I'm right, right?"
Slowly, Marie nodded.
"And you've had a headache for a while now, right?"
Again, a nod.
Winston's sly smile spread just a bit wider. "Did you know humans can faintly sense magnetic fields? It's called magnetoreception. If a human can do it faintly, I'd bet you can do it exceptionally. Plus you've got a headache. Hence, the other Marie Hazzard is projecting a magnetic field, and you're picking it up."
Infuriatingly enough, that made sense. It aggravated Marie beyond belief that this brat understood what she was feeling more than she did, but she wasn't stubborn enough to reject that conclusion because of a personal grudge.
"Did the pain of the headache seem to be coming from a particular direction?" Winston asked.
Marie hesitantly nodded.
"Well, there you go," he shrugged. "Keep going in that direction, and you'll find the other Marie."
That was that, then. It was hard to believe things could be that easy, but everything Winston Grace was saying seemed to ring true. Atoy left the room first, but Marie lingered by the door.
"Hey," she called back to Winston, the words almost reluctant to leave her mouth. "Thanks. I do appreciate this."
Winston had already gotten back into his seat, and was faced away from her, messing around on his various consoles. "No problem. I had fun figuring it out. Thanks for throwing me against the wall and choking me out and stuff."
She'd entertained the niceties -- Marie's gaze hardened. "If you dare blab, though, I will actually have you killed."
"Don't worry," Winston replied, putting another chip into his mouth. "There's nothing I hate more than a spoiler."
----------------------------------------
Marie's headache only intensified as their bike approached the object, and by the end she found herself numbing her sense of pain just to avoid falling off the back of the vehicle. Atoy, driving, cast a worried gaze back as her grip on his shoulders tightened, but she waved off his concern.
They'd finally found it, after all.
It had been easy to identify the other Marie Hazzard at a distance, what with the amount of light she was giving off, like a bonfire in the darkness. If that didn't do it, the sheer incongruity of her appearance would have been a dead giveaway. There weren't any other trees on this planet, after all.
The black wooden growth bore no leaves nor fruit, but was instead covered in glowing yellow pustules, like sleeping fireflies. The branches that protruded from the top of the tree fanned out like an umbrella, and the roots that bound it to the ground had spread out just as vicariously -- in some places, even infiltrating the flipped-over wreckage of the trailer nearby. The snow around it had melted, although it was difficult to tell whether that was due to heat or because the tree had drained it away for sustenance.
As the bike stopped, Atoy got off, looking around cautiously. "This… is you?" he asked, clearly unconvinced. Marie couldn't exactly blame him: this sort of form was unusual for her as well.
She got off the bike, feet crunching against the thin line of snow that remained. She could definitely feel it, in rhythmic pulses -- the magnetic field that Winston Grace had described, coming right from the core of that tree.
It was surprising how sheepish she was as she approached. Every other time this had happened, her other half had been a humanoid just like her, and the merge had been a mutually initiated thing. This time, however, her other half showed no signs of even possessing intelligence.
The reason why was easy to guess. Projecting a magnetic field like this -- especially one of this strength -- wasn't something Marie had ever done before, and she was willing to bet the other Marie had reconfigured her entire body to be dedicated to that task. There was literally no more room in her form for independent thought.
She reached out, placing her palm against the curiously warm bark. Deep inside, she could feel something like a faint heartbeat.
For the other Marie, this had been an all-or-nothing gamble. More than that, though, it had been a display of trust in herself. She found herself smiling softly.
"Hey," she whispered. "It's me."
The tree had enough of a mind left to know what to do next. The bark began to ripple, the tree shrinking and the roots retreating as the arboreal organism flowed into Marie's hand like water… and the memories flowed with it.
The truck, rumbling through the snow on a preprogrammed route.
Regan, recoiling as she tore off his hand.
McCoy, disappearing through the jaw of a massive skull.
Two became one.
Taking in a deep breath -- and savoring the disappearance of the magnetic field -- she turned to look at Atoy. It was a wonderful thing to feel complete, and she couldn't help but grin widely as she saw his stunned expression.
"Beautiful…" he whispered, still staring at the last of the tree roots retreating into her palm.
A laugh escaped her throat. She didn't even care how cold it was out here anymore -- this was a moment to be happy.
"Good to see you again, Atoy," she said.
Admiration turned into confusion on his features. "But we…"
She waved a vague hand. "Sorry," she chuckled. "It seemed appropriate. Anyway--"
Suddenly, Muzazi tensed, hand flying to his sword. Marie too, clenched her fists, bringing her body low to the ground. Why couldn't happy moments ever last?
Around them, shining through the darkness, were the countless glowing green eyes of security automatics -- fixed directly on Atoy and Marie, surrounding them on all sides. At least a hundred in all.
The two Special Officers moved quickly, planting themselves back-to-back to get a view of as many of their enemies as they could. At the same time, there was a legion of clicks as the automatics readied their weapons as one.
Regan had clearly anticipated they'd come here and left a trap. But how the hell had he gotten so many automatics?!
"Marie," Muzazi intoned, his sword held up in a ready position. "Are you ready?"
He was right. There was nothing to worry about anymore. There was one Marie Hazzard again, and that was enough to deal with anything the world had.
"Yeah," she said, raising her fists. "I'm ready."