LI.

New Houston – The Verdant City

If it had been merely strange to cut through the Eastern Wastes again, it was terrifying being at the edge of the city, at that border between the burning sands and the literal asphalt jungle of New Houston. It felt like déjà vu or rather a strange revision of history in which he hadn’t been bombarded by calamity every step of the way. In truth, it almost felt like a dream, like another one of the visions. It felt as if he were a spectator watching Tehom’s grand plan play out instead of a participant. Vagari stared down the long crumbling highway that divided the city in two. The sun was rising at the far end, perfectly in line with the roadway – their own little solstice event rolling out a golden carpet, as if beckoning them. Vagari wondered how many people got to see such a beautiful sight before the horrors of this place consumed them.

The caravans droned down the highway, slower than before, but for good reason. Each one had a lookout with binoculars mounted on top. Vagari was glad they were taking his advice about the birds seriously. And so far, so good; the decaying skyscrapers shimmered with their eerie green light. “LEFT: LONGBORROW’S LAKE;” struggled the crackling voice of the city’s A.I. system, its speakers muffled by an overgrowth of moss and fungi. “RIGHT: OUR LADY OF RESPITE – MEMORIAL HOSPITAL; EXIT: 15 MILES.”

True to the dreamlike feeling of repetition and par for course, that was where they were going, back to the hospital, back to Site B. The consensus was that if the Amalgamation were still alive, that would be where it was, hopefully still trapped within the rubble Vagari had left it in. The dread raising the hairs on the back of his neck promised him that that was a futile hope.

Vagari caught the tail end of a passing caravan, pulling himself up onto the bumper of its long flatbed. The people he shared the bed with were all hooting and hollering, hyping each other up as if this were just any old hunt. Vagari couldn’t tell whether they were brave or just stupid. Maybe it was both. Money had the benefit and curse of bringing out both in men. The plan going forward was just as stupid, Vagari thought. The Amalgamation was to serve as a sort of steppingstone for BP’s abilities, allowing her to try her luck with their progenitor. The idea was to take control and use its biomass and latent psychic ability as an amplifier for her own. It would also act as a buffer between her mind and the Leviathans if it wasn’t too keen on coming to heel. It was stupid, dangerous, and stupidly dangerous, but Vagari couldn’t offer any other solutions, just fear and doubt. The doubt part he kept to himself. Either way, as terrifying as the plan was, he couldn’t come up with any alternatives. Tehom’s plan, however frightful and insane it felt, was their only real course of action against their impending doom. They needed a heavy hitter to take on the Tevat and the legion in its wake, and the Leviathan was as heavy as they came.

Looking forward you couldn’t see it against the shine of the rising sun, but it was there upon the horizon, a blackness – the slow march of the heavenly host. It was as wide as the sunrise and just as undeniable. They had a day, maybe two, before the legion would be upon them, before they’d have to face them in a battle to determine the outcome of the world. No pressure, Vagari thought. None at all.

Getting to the hospital proved to be a challenge no matter which way they took. One way the road was out, and another took them halfway around the city, costing precious time they didn’t have. Ultimately the long road panned out, being the only real option. Luckily though, that road took them directly where they needed to be, the collapsed parking complex at the rear of the facility. It was a strange mix of relief and horror when they found the hole where the creature had dug itself out from its intended tomb. It was alive, but in the wind, meaning it could show up at any time and add their screaming to its own. Vagari wished it had been found dead, not just for their sake, but for BP’s. There was no telling what might happen when she attempts to link with it. It might overwhelm her like Esh had, or worse, take control.

Vagari had already said his peace, stated his worries and protests loud and clear as soon as they had made him privy to their plan, but BP would have none of it. She had already made up her mind long before he had woken up from his astral coma. She was going to do this whether he liked it or not. And why? Because she thought it was the right thing to do. That every single life they might save was worth the risk. Vagari both admired that aspect of her personality, and, in this instance, hated it – wishing she would be selfish just this one time in her short life.

Camp was made within the hour, and at hours end, their patron finally made her appearance from her personal caravan – a great red thing if seemingly solid metal. The top crumbled and up she floated like the world’s worst jack-in-the-box. “Alright everyone, your attention please,” she called out, both physically and mentally. There was a brief panic amongst the mutant crew that just as suddenly vanished with a psychic hush. It suddenly dawned on Vagari that there was a third option beyond threats and money. She had no need to threaten them, and probably wasn’t paying them at all – just instilling her will into them like he did his drones. “Calm yourselves… Calm,” she cooed, her chthonic voice an almost soothing drone, “and listen.” Her shadowed gaze leveled across all of them, scanning each and every with judging eyes. Tehom must have found what she was looking for – be it fear, compliance, or something else – because she suddenly boasted her skeletal grin and let loose her vicious witch’s chuckle upon their minds. “Do as I say, without question or hesitation,” she said as pleasantly as her voice allowed, “and great riches will be yours. Riches enough to rise you up from the dredges of society and into the Uppercity. Riches worth your meager little lives, for sure.”

Vagari watched in quiet shock as her words filled their minds with the idea of better days ahead. Psychic intrusions or not, she had them wrapped around her gnarled finger with that offer. Some part of him wondered how far her influence went – whether he or BP were unwittingly under it. “See how I make lions out of mice?” Tehom mused to him, watching him sidelong. “Now they will face the gaping maw of Hell so willingly.”

“It’s vile,” Vagari seethed. “How exactly are these poor wretches going to catch the damned thing? It’s nearly as fast as I am and can bite through transteel and concrete no problem.”

“Oh, they’re not the trap,” Tehom casually informed. “I would never rely on such lowlifes for something so important. Awaken, Nabu!” She commanded in a shout, and instantly the strange red caravan she had ridden in pulsed with a familiar glow as a crimson eye appeared upon its surface. It was the A.I. from her tower, or maybe it even was the tower. Like the one he had previously encountered, it seemed to have a mobile form. “This is how,” Tehom answered. “Nabu here will handle the physicality of it, while I restrain it mentally.”

“Alright,” Vagari granted with half a frown as he put the pieces together, “then if he’s the trap, why bring them along?”

“What good is a trap without bait?” Tehom returned with a vicious chortle that sounded like rolling thunder. “Look alive, men!” She cried out. “Make some noise!”

The group of caravanners bent to her wishes immediately, clanking metal to metal, shouting and hollering at the top of their lungs. “S-stop! Stop shouting!” Vagari stammered out, panic spreading across his face. “Stop shouting!” BP crept out of the back of one of the wagons, roused awake by the commotion. “Are we having a party…?” She muttered, rubbing her bulbous eyes. “No one told me…”

“BP… Get ready!” Vagari cried out. “She is using them as bait!”

“W-what?!” BP croaked, staggering forward onto the ground. “I’m not ready! I’m not ready!”

“Best get prepared then,” Tehom suggested with a cruel boney smile plastered across her face. “I sense… an incoming! We’ve already got its attention.”

BP could feel it too, a weight in the air. Its psychic screams filled her mind. It was close, really close. She shot Tehom a frightened look, but Tehom offered but a glance in return. A glance was all she needed as it spoke volumes – saying to her ‘if you want them to survive, then succeed.’ It was monstrous, villainous – exactly what they should have expected from her. BP jumped to her feet running. “Everyone to the back!” She shouted, both vocally and with her mind as Tehom often did, making sure her words reached them. To her surprise they followed her directions without hesitation, crowding up behind Nabu. “Here it comes!”

That horrible sound filled the air, the sound of grinding glass, of gnashing teeth. Vagari could see it lurching in the distance, dragging itself around a corner on two gnarled limbs as long as it was. His breath caught in his throat, facing the ghastly thing down once again. The faces pocking its flesh contorted into soundless screams as it spotted them, enraged at their presence, at their lives. The calloused hood of flesh pulled back revealing the horrid length of its toothy maw. It stared at them for a moment, hesitating as the caravanners clanked and hollered. It had grown more cautious since their last encounter – with good reason, Vagari thought.

The Amalgamation seemed to struggle with itself, with part of it wanting to rush ahead, eager for the kill, and another wanting to pull back, assess the situation. It seemed that Vagari’s fire had made its mark upon it in more ways than one. But like with their first encounter, that rageful side overwhelmed all else. The mutated Synbio slapped its giant bony hands against the ground, roaring horrendously as it prepared to charge. “Alright… Alright!” Vagari repeated, half to himself, “Here it comes!”

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The horrific merging of flesh lurched forward, digging its jagged nails into the dirt and asphalt. It crashed through the rusted-out vehicles and surrounding caravans alike as it made its way directly towards Vagari. It remembered who scarred it and had a clear desire to finish their duel to the death. Vagari raised the palms of his hands, ready to blast the stampeding abomination with a bolt of lightning. “Get behind me!” he cried before spitting the spell into existence, “Dheht-stenh!” The bolt of electricity shot forth from the palms of his hands and… missed, with the bolt suddenly careening off course as if reflected off something. “Fuck!” Vagari thought in the fleet moment it took for the horrific creature to be upon him.

The Amalgamation spread wide its mess of stolen jaws before barring its jagged rows of teeth down upon him. Vagari dodged to the side, as the monsters jaws snapped shut with the dull crack of tooth on tooth. “Don’t kill it!” Shouted Tehom in his mind. “We need it alive and in good shape!”

“We all need to be alive and in good shape!” Vagari shouted back as he ducked below swiping claws. Part of him was glad its focus was so single-minded, that BP and the caravanners were out of harm’s way, if only temporarily. The other part, however, really didn’t like the idea of cars being thrown at him, which the horrific thing was not shy to do. The mutant homunculus snapped its jaws down on a rusted hulk of steel and hurled it towards him, adding to the ruins of the collapsed garage behind them. Vagari darted out of the way, flacked by metal shards and flakes of concrete. “Whatever you’re going to do,” He hollered, pausing to throw himself out of the way of another projectile, “DO IT FAST!”

“I… I’m trying!” BP cried out. “But I can’t really get a lock on it! Get it to stand still!”

“Get it to stand still?! How?” Vagari shouted, his voice cracking under the weight of the request. “You make it stand still – it’s your brother!”

“Tch-tch-tch, always the complainer,” Tehom announced with a spectral chuckle before snapping her fingers. “Nabu – restrain the subject.”

At her word the crimson carriage transformed in an instant. Arachnoid legs burst from the sides, changing it from a pillbug-like configuration into something akin to a crab. Nabu sprung upon the horrific creature’s back, clamping down its claws over the monster’s wrists like shackles. The freakish Synbio roared and bucked wildly, the faces of its hide scowling as it tried in vain to throw the A.I. off. Nabu began to spill over it, transforming again into a body tight cage around it, spearing long poles into the ground while wrapping its snapping jaws in a muzzle. In a few short minutes it was caught. “Why… Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” Vagari asked, huffing and puffing with his hands upon his knees. “You big-brained asshole!”

“And take away your fun?” Tehom mused sarcastically. “Never!”

BP hesitantly made her way to the creature’s side. “It’s okay…” She uttered soothingly. In response it snarled and fought against its bindings, causing her to stumble back in fright. “It’s… It’s so angry! I don’t know if I can do it… There’s just so much rage…”

“Let me deal with that as well,” Tehom told her, levitating to her side. She reached out, placing one of her gnarled hands upon the creature. “Ah – I see what you mean… It’s a mess in there, isn’t it? So much fear, loathing, confusion. You’re going to have your work cut out for you, dear. But – let me ease your entrance… Calm…” The word echoed out psychically, raising the hairs on the back of Vagari’s neck, and with it the beast seemed to ease into its new reality under yoke. The Amalgamation settled down instantly, its dozens of eyes glazing over, its rage subsided. “That is the most I can offer,” Tehom stated kindly. “Now it’s your turn, little one. Take control.”

BP shared a fleeting glance between everyone behind her. The caravanners had stopped their ruckus and just looked confused. Vagari looked worried, and despite what he said, she knew his confidence in her was lacking. She’d just have to show him. BP took a deep breath through her nose, counted until four, and then let it out. Go time. “Okay… Okay, I got this,” she said, nearing the Amalgamation once more. “It’s okay,” she told it calmly, “I know you’re angry and afraid… I know what they did to you, and I know what happened wasn’t your fault…” BP uttered softly. “They used us both, so I know your pain. But that pain doesn’t have to last forever. It doesn’t have to be a cycle where it’s all there is. I can help you. Let me help you.”

She placed her hands upon its confusion of flesh and sighed, letting all the turbulent feelings just wash away. She closed her eyes and did as Tehom had taught her: she built a tower in her mind, one far above the maelstrom of emotions, high above a churning sea of souls below. There were so many people drowning within that ocean, fighting for control, something lost more and more with each new soul taken in. They were hardly human anymore, just remnant feeling and conflicting personalities forced to coexist without division or borders – just constant war for structure, for order, for survival.

From her tower BP stared down into that abyss and wondered if that was what the Abzu was like, and how Vagari had ever traversed its treacherous waters. She focused her mind. She couldn’t allow herself to get distracted if she wanted to succeed. BP knew what she needed to do to assert control: she had to bring order to the chaos. She was afraid, but that was fine. Fear was natural, and it was what let one become brave if one didn’t allow it to take control. Soprano had been afraid, BP reminded herself, but she had shown no fear when she took Vagari’s book and fled across the wasteland. She had been brave until the very end. BP wanted to be like that. “Show no fear,” BP told herself. “Believe in yourself, even if no one else does… You are worthy… You are capable… You are.”

Her blueprint would be simple, a game of sorting. The human souls below had been forced into an alien existence, an alien body that retained none of the structure they once knew. She had to build that structure. So, zone by zone the walls went up, and with them the fear and fighting died down, giving way to synchronicity. The task felt like days turning into weeks, but she knew that in the waken world maybe only a few minutes had passed. Soon enough, however, the immense mental construct was complete. BP stood high above upon her tower, looking down at the vast city she had carved out of the chaos. She wondered if this was how Tehom felt in her Crimson Keep; if, perhaps, this was the idea behind the Megacity – order out of chaos, control over the uncontrollable.

Now came time to test her machine. BP raised a hand and the zone she focused on lit up to her command, flashing like signals of the brain. BP opened her eyes and saw herself from a totally new perspective – above. She saw Vagari with one arm wrapped around her, holding her limp form to his breast. One hand was raised, no doubt a word of power fresh in mind. He was ready to kill it if he had to, she could see the intent clear in his eyes. He’d really damn the world for her, she thought with mixed emotions. Other sections of the creature’s mind lit up to the notion. It was feeling happiness for the first time ever through her. “I… have… asserted… control…” BP struggled to say through the Amalgamation’s fusion of mouths. “I… fixed… it,” she would say, the words coming easier now as she learned what buttons to push. “It was… broken, it’s mind… shattered… But I remade… it.”

“You… remade it?” Tehom questioned, her face not showing the shock leeching into her voice. “Not forced control, but remade? Bravo! You have more potential than I thought – which was considerable already. Very good.”

“Forcing control isn’t BP’s way,” Vagari stated firmly, looking down at her true self with admiration. “She helps people, no matter how hard it is. That’s her way.”

“I’m just glad everyone is safe,” BP announced with a breathy sigh that blew Vagari’s hair back. Vagari looked back over his shoulder to the confused caravanners. “Speaking of everyone,” he began, shifting his gaze to Tehom. “You’re going to keep your promise, aren’t you?”

Tehom stared blankly at them for a moment, as if contemplating her answer. “Of course,” she said at last with a mocking flourish. “My word is my bond. Nabu, see that these cherished citizens get to where they need to be – safely to the edge of the city. I’m sure such distinguished travelers can find their way back from there.” Nabu’s light flashed twice in response and the A.I. began shifting form once more, pouring off the Amalgamation’s back as grains of crimson sand. The A.I. set off herding them all back to their vehicles right away, with the poor lost souls following without question – no doubt wondering why the hell they’d ever volunteer to go to such a place. It took a total of ten minutes to set them right and down the roadway – but even a mere ten minutes seemed to test their patron’s patience. “Are we happy now?” Tehom asked, not really wanting an answer. “The rats are back in their nests and on their merry way home.”

“Yes,” Vagari stated flatly, “it’s the least you can do, having thrown them to the wolves. Why you didn’t just use your army of throwaway soldiers, I don’t know.”

“The same reason why we never returned for our dear little friend here,” Tehom answered, waving her hand out as if to display BP’s unconscious body. “The ‘Leviathan’ as you call it – an answer that perfectly segways us into the next step of the plan.”

“She would just control them, wouldn’t she?” BP speculated. “Just like before, with my siblings.”

“Precisely,” Tehom confirmed with a sharp exhale, sounding as if she were releasing steam. “As you may have already come to the conclusion on, our quarry is not like the others.”

Vagari scooped BP’s body into his arms and cradled her carefully. “It’s a clone of Nintu isn’t it?” He put forth. “You said before that the goal here was to resurrect her, but you couldn’t.”

“Correct,” Tehom answered. “For reasons unknown to us at the time, we weren’t able to raise the Blessed Mother from her grave… Truly a great loss, but not an unsalvageable one. We may not have had her soul, but the flesh of a Shassuru can perform miracles.”

“So… I’m part GOD?” BP mused to herself. “That’s pretty cool.”

“I suppose, in a way you are,” Tehom offered with a spectral chuckle. “In trying to resurrect Nintu, we found that the flesh had started discarding nodules once properly fed. These ‘byproducts’ seemed useless at first, but Xu discovered that we could incubate them – that they were a sort of fetal tissue that could be influenced by outside forces.”

“And then what?” Vagari pressed. “It grew sentience? Didn’t like you taking its children?”

“It was mindless, thoughtless,” Tehom continued rather snappishly. “Or, so we thought… The somatic components hadn’t shown any sign of sentience or sapience besides a need to feed. But that’s neither here nor there… We need to focus on the now – on conquering that component.”

That was fair enough, Vagari thought, though he doubted ‘here’ or ‘then’ would ever come. “So, what do we do now?” he asked, matching her snappishness. “With no army, what am I supposed to do – buzz around like a gnat? What’s going to keeping them from just swatting me and then you two next?”

“Your vote of confidence is duly noted,” Tehom uttered as dry as bone. “The Synbio are already in position – outside the city. You will meet up with them shortly. You’ll be able to see them from our destination.”

“I can already feel them…” BP announced from her segregate host. “Faintly, but they’re there… like a thousand little flames lighting up the night. I can see a whole lot now – it’s fascinating.”

“Nabu will return shortly,” Tehom stated, “so save your strength. You will need every ounce of it for the challenge ahead.”