The following takes place after Interlude 31A, at the end of which Pace first extended the idea of working together to Lies (before she was given the name of Theia), and before Interlude 32B, in which Pace-Lies was found by Seller, Miranda, and Abigail.

“So, figured out what you want yet, hon?”

The question came from a gum-chewing woman with dyed blonde hair. The dye was cheap store brand, the gum a generic strawberry flavor whose scent did nothing to cover up the perpetual smoker’s smell that hung over her. She had stepped in stray cat excrement on the way to work before scraping the majority of it off on something, and her hands still smelled of the disinfectant soap she had scrubbed them in upon arrival. Which was precisely why they had chosen to sit at this table rather than one at the other end of the diner, which was covered by a woman who had not been nearly as careful in her washing.

Lies, sitting alone in the booth, slowly lowered the menu she had been perusing and squinted up at the woman. Her first instinct was to snap that she would tell her when she was ready.

Be nice. We can do that. She’s just doing her job. Her manager told her to hurry us along because we’ve been sitting here for fifteen minutes. Don’t pretend you didn’t hear it. I’m in here too, remember?

Head tilting a little as she listened to the silent voice for a moment, Lies then turned her attention back to the woman, who was still loudly chewing gum as she waited for an answer. Pace was right, of course. They were almost alone in this diner, but it was the middle of the night. Or rather, the middle of the very early morning. Not quite dawn, and still too early for any of the work crowd, yet beyond the bedtime of even the latest of night owls.

Night owls. Were there day owls? That was, here on Earth. Of course there was always the–

Um, she’s still waiting, you know.

Of course. The waitress had clearly been getting impatient the longer she stood there without getting any response, to the point of clearing her throat a little with a significant look toward the clock on the nearby wall.

Lies took a breath, lowering the menu the rest of the way until it was flat against the table. “Yes,” she finally answered, trying for a smile. It was meant to be reassuring, but from the way the woman took a reflexive step back, she was guessing that it hadn’t exactly been successful in that.

“Yes,” she repeated, still giving that toothy smile in an attempt to look friendly. “We would like two coffees. One black, one with two sugars and one cream. We would also like a tall stack of pancakes split in two, with blueberry syrup on one half and maple syrup on on the other half. We would like four strips of bacon, two crispy and two regular. Also, two pieces of toast, one with butter and honey and the other with just strawberry jam. Oh, and eggs. We would like two eggs sunny side up and two eggs scrambled.” She thought for a moment before giving a firm nod. “That should be all of it.” Belatedly and at a slight mental prodding from Pace, she added, “Thank you for waiting for us to be ready.”

“Us… we?” A look of confusion crossed the woman’s face as she slowly turned to look at the empty side of the booth. “You expecting someone else to show up, hon?”

“If they do,” Lies informed her sagely, “they will not get any of our bacon.”

For a brief second, the woman’s mouth opened as though to question that. In the end, however, she simply shook her head. “You know what, it’s too early and you’re not the strangest person we’ve ever had in here. Pancakes, bacon, toast, and eggs, coming right up. And I’ll get your coffee out to you in just a second. One black, one with two sugars and one cream.”

“You have a good memory,” Lies complimented. “Are you sure you’re not one of us?”

That weird look came back, as the woman squinted at her before turning on her heel. She walked back to the kitchen, muttering something about needing to change shifts.

“She is very strange,” Lies murmured softly as her head tilted to follow the woman’s departure.

Yeah, she’s the strange one, Pace silently put in before adding, Thanks though. You know, for trying to get things that I like. You didn’t have to do that.

“You wished to negotiate our partnership,” Lies pointed out. “Such things should be done over a meal. That’s what the movies say. That or in a big room with a long table. But you didn’t want to go into that office building where the people in suits were.”

She heard the girl’s thoughts about what she was afraid would happen if they had gone in there, but Pace only purposely replied, I meant I know you don’t have to care what I like to eat. So thanks. It kind of helps.

For a moment, Lies didn’t say anything. She simply sat there with a thoughtful frown before looking up as the waitress came back with two cups of coffee. She set one down in front of the girl, then moved to put the other one on the opposite side of the table before looking at her questioningly. Lies pointed next to the first mug and the woman shrugged before putting it down there. Leaning back, she asked, “Anything else for you, dear?”

“Only the food we ordered, please.” Lies’ replied as sweetly as possible, trying to be nice. Her face almost immediately hardened however, as she added, “Unless you really are one of us. In which case, you should know that we will be able to tell if it’s poisoned.

Oh God, Pace quickly put in silently, laugh. Make her think that was a joke.

She didn’t need to be told twice. Lies are probably burst into a loud, manic cackle for several long seconds before cutting it off. Her face returned to being utterly impassive as she announced in a flat voice, “That was a joke. The poisoned part, not the part about us detecting it. Just in case.”

The woman raised a hand, then paused once more before her head shook. “Nope,” she said before turning on her heel to walk away again while repeating, “Nope, nope, nope, nope.”

Once she was gone, Lies turned her attention back to her host while picking up the first cup. “Why do you want to work together? I am your enslaver. You should want me dead. With extreme prejudice.” Her voice held no real accusation in it, merely curiosity.

I know that it wasn’t your choice to be like this, Pace insisted. I’ve seen your nightmares too, remember. I know what your mother did to you. I know what your society is like, what they expect everyone, especially people like you to do. And I know that you are capable of being better than that. There was a brief pause then before she added, Besides, if you die, I die. I can’t deny that’s part of it. Self-preservation. But we really can work together. What do you have to lose? No one on that side wants you around. All they do is abuse and betray you. They treat you like garbage. They call you a Lie, for fuck’s sake. They abuse you. You don’t owe them anything. You don’t owe anyone anything. And if they find you, they’ll kill you. They’ll kill us. But you and me, we don’t have to be enemies. We can get somewhere. We can do something.

“How would we work together?” Lies asked curiously while switching to the other cup of coffee for Pace’s benefit. “What do you think we should do?”

Find a way to fuck over Manakel and the rest of them, Pace promptly replied. You already kept that Seosten kid that’s possessing the Chambers’ girl secret. Hell, you kept that secret even when you could’ve used it to save yourself from Manakel in the first place. You know how much he would’ve done if you told him that part? He definitely would’ve forgiven the whole choker thing. But you didn’t. You didn’t even consider it.

Switching to the first cup once again, Lies quietly murmured, “She is a child. They would have hurt her.”

And that’s why I want to be your partner, Pace declared firmly. That’s how I know you’re not like them. All the shit they’ve done to you, and you’re still not as bad as them. I mean, sure, maybe you’re a little… off. But you’re not evil. I mean–right, it’s complicated. But you can be better. We can be better. We work together, we can fuck over Manakel and everyone else who hurt you.

“And find a way to separate us,” Lies added, switching once again to the second cup.

What… what do you mean? There was hope in Pace’s mental voice, though it was tempered by hesitation, fear of that very hope being easily torn apart in so many possible ways.

“If we are partners,” Lies pointed out, “we must both get something. You will help me control myself, help me… blend in, help me survive. You will help me with Manakel. And I will help you get your body back.”

A whole lot of emotions and thoughts ran through Pace then, more than Lies could easily keep track of. Once they settled at least a little bit, her host finally replied, If we’re going to work together, that means you need to listen to me sometimes. I know you’re better at a lot of the fighting stuff. But sometimes we need to control your impulses. We have to stop and talk to people sometimes. And not just to scare them.

Lies considered that briefly, pursing her lips thoughtfully before giving a slight nod. “You are better at the talking. You are better at understanding people. I will listen to you then. And… I will give you a vote for what we do. I cannot give you control of your body, but I can let you vote for things. I can try to listen. That is… that is the best I can do now. You get a vote, and I will try to listen.”

It’s enough, the other girl assured her. I mean, for now. I just–you know we’re going to have to work with the people who are fighting Manakel, right? Which means working with people that we tried to kill. People that we hurt.

“People that I hurt,” Lies corrected. “People that I tried to kill. That was not you. And if they try to take it out on you, I will–”

She stopped then, as their werewolf senses let them know that their food was being delivered. Turning her head, Lies and Pace both watched as the waitress brought the plates out, setting them down on the table with a smile that was admittedly forced, but was still a smile.

At a bit of prompting from the girl in her head, Lies piped up, “Thank you, we will enjoy this. It does not even smell poisoned.”

“Yeah,” the woman retorted easily, “I told Mario to make sure to hold the poison on this one.”

“We know,” Lies informed her. “We heard you. But it could have been a trick, a signal to add poison.”

“You heard me from–” Abruptly, the woman stopped. “Nah, that’s fine. You enjoy your food, sweetie. You’re polite enough and you haven’t thrown anything yet. Far as I’m concerned, you’re one of the best customers we’ve had at this time of night. Let me know if you need anything else.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

With a nod, Lies replied, “We will. And tell Mario that the answer is enumeration.”

Pausing, the woman blinked back at them. “I’m sorry?”

“For his crossword,” Lies explained. “After you told him to hold the poison, he asked you for thirteen across. Eleven letters, ‘the act of numbering.’ Enumeration. He should feel bad for not knowing that.”

There was pure silence for several seconds, as the woman stared at her. Slowly, she turned to look at the door into the kitchen, which was way over halfway across the diner. There was no way that the girl sitting here at the table should have heard that conversation. Not unless-

Yet, again, she simply shook it off. “I’ll… let him know.” She turned once more to head off.

Yeah, Pace put in, we should probably give her a big tip when we leave.

A really big tip.

*******

The following takes place after Interlude 32B, in which Pace-Lies was found by Seller, Miranda, and Abigail and they agreed to work together to free Pace from Lies in exchange for information on Manakel. It is also after Lies took up the name of Theia.

“Are you girls sure you’re going to be okay here by yourselves?” The clear worry in Abigail’s voice was evident even to Theia, as the woman stood by the door of the hotel room.

Seller, who was standing next to her, laid a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “They’ll be fine, Abigail. Trust me, we lost any pursuers and there’s enough spells up over the room right now, as long as they stay in here, there’s no way anyone could find them. And even if they do, there’s warning spells for that too. We have spells up to let them and us know if anything goes wrong.”

“And we have the phone too,” Miranda pointed out from where she was sitting on one of two king-size beds in the room. “It’ll be fine. Trust us. We’ve got the emergency teleports, the phone to call you, and we can protect ourselves too. Not to mention… well, me.”

Another Miranda poked her head back in the room from where she’d been watching the hall. “Exactly. If all else fails, that me will give a tug so that I-me absorbs her again. Then I’ll know everything that’s going on. See, redundancy upon redundancy upon redundancy. It’s cool.”

“It’s as ‘cool’ as we can make it,” Seller confirmed. “We can’t take Pace back to Garden with us, and we need to check in. The others need to see us around. If nothing else, it’ll throw the scent off about Pace being with us. Trust me. Trust them. They’ll be okay here for a couple days.”

“Right,” Abigail muttered unhappily, “I know. We need to look around Garden and see if there’s anything there that could help separate Pace from Theia. And they can’t come with.”

Not that anyone expected there to be some specific ‘separate Lie from host’ spell, since even the Seosten didn’t have anything like that. But the hope was that there might be something that could be appropriated and adjusted that way, with both Pace and Theia being willing subjects. Maybe there would be a way to make a second body for them, like Miranda’s duplication power, only permanent, and then shift each of their minds into one of them. Or… something. They weren’t sure yet. But looking around the archives couldn’t hurt, considering they didn’t have a lot of other options.

Theia, who had been laying on her back, half-hanging off the bottom of the other bed with her head near the floor as she watched the group by the door from her upside-down position, nodded. “Can’t go back to Garden without the hidey-choker. Or Heretics get cutty-stabby-shooty. Not very nice.”

Inside her own head, Pace silently muttered, That or they’ll just enslave us. Remember, Crossroads is the kill on sight one. Eden’s Garden likes to make people like us useful for awhile first if they can. They might kill us, or they might just throw us in a cage to see if we could make decent cannon-fodder later. Depends on the tribe.

“Oh, don’t get me started on them being ‘not very nice’,” Abigail all-but growled before heaving a sigh as she looked to them once more. “Okay, fine. But remember, no leaving the room unless it’s an absolute emergency, right? You stay in here, have food delivered. That’s why we came to a place with room service and a good pizza place nearby. Stay in the room where it’s… safe-ish.”

Theia gave a thumbs up at that, before belatedly realizing that in her current position, it looked like a thumbs down. So she awkwardly turned her hand over a bit to correct it. “Stay in the room. It’ll be like a slumber party-oooh! Can we have a pillow fight? And play truth or dare? Or spin the bottle?”

Before the Miranda on the other bed could respond to that, Abigail quickly put in, “Just don’t do anything to attract attention, okay? Keep things nice and quiet and calm. Watch TV, talk, whatever you need to do. But stay in the room and stay… calm. The last thing we need is for someone to get uppity about why there’s a couple teenage girls alone in a hotel room together.”

“Dear Penthouse,” Theia began to recite with a wicked grin.

Stop that! the horribly embarrassed Pace blurted, even as Miranda’s foot kicked her in the leg from the other bed. Both of their reactions made Theia cackle out loud.

“Again,” Abigail reiterated. “Be nice, be quiet, and don’t get in trouble. And don’t–”

“–attract attention to ourselves,” both Mirandas finished for her in chorus. “We know. We all know.”

The Miranda by the door pulled Abigail by the arm. “Come on, the sooner we look through everything we can find back at Garden, the sooner we can get back here, right? So let’s go.”

Abigail couldn’t argue with that, and so the three of them headed out. As the door closed behind them, the Miranda on the bed and Theia-Pace were left in the room, looking at one another.

“So,” Theia started easily, “was that a no to truth-or-dare?”

******

“So what do you want to have for–Theia, what… what the hell are you doing?”

The question came from Miranda, as the girl stood in the open doorway of the bathroom, staring in confusion.

Theia, meanwhile, was once more laying on her back, this time in the bathtub. The tub itself was void of any water, which was a good thing since she still wore all of her clothes. Her head was under the faucet of the tub, as she stared curiously up into it.

See? Pace pointedly informed her, I told you this was weird.

Aloud, Theia replied, “We wanted to see how the faucet worked, and Pace-I said that taking it apart was a bad idea. So we’re trying to see.”

“She’s right, it would be a bad idea,” Miranda agreed instantly. “But how are you going to–”

While the other girl was in mid-sentence, Theia reached up and turned one of the handles, sending a spray of cold water down into her already open and waiting mouth. She swallowed rapidly, gulping the water while squinting up. After a few seconds of that, she turned the handle off once more.

“It didn’t work,” Theia lamented mournfully, “we still can’t see how the water comes out.”

“You should Google it,” Miranda advised before coming into the room. Carefully putting the lid of the toilet down, she sat there. “That or ask a plumber. They could probably explain it. Actually, you come from a super-advanced spacefaring civilization, and you don’t know how plumbing works?”

“Don’t have to know how it works to use it,” Theia recited, tilting her head a little to look at the other girl. “Never had to learn. Besides, space-plumbing is different.”

“How is space-plumb–you know what, never mind.” Miranda’s head shook. “I can’t believe I’m even having this conversation with you.”

“You still don’t like Theia-me very much,” the girl murmured, hand playing idly over the faucet as if trying to feel out its secrets.

“You tried to kill my best friend,” Miranda snapped. “You’ve been helping the people who have been making her life hell all year and who, oh yeah, are responsible for a hell of a lot more bad things than that. Like, for example, the entire Heretic situation. Your people have been fucking with humans since you got here however long ago you showed up. Yeah, maybe you’ve had problems too, but you still tried to kill Flick. You still hurt her. You still hurt a lot of other people.”

We did, Pace silently confirmed. We did a lot of bad things. It’s… kind of a miracle that they even want to help us at all, you know. Abigail is pretty much a saint.

There was a moment of silence from the girl in the tub, before Theia corrected aloud, “You did not do bad things. Theia-I did.”

“What?” Miranda blinked. “I know–”

“Not you, Pace-me,” Theia informed her before sitting up. “Theia-I know that I did very bad things. Very evil, very nasty, icky, terrible things. That is not what Theia-I was confused about. I was confused about… why are you here now? Because of Pace-me?”

“It’s not that I–” Miranda paused before nodding. “Partly that, yeah. I want to help Pace. But…” She paused then, considering her words. “I don’t know if I like you or not, okay? You’ve done evil stuff, but you had reasons. You’ve suffered too, I get that. You’re kind of… it’s hard to…”

Again, she sighed. “It’s hard to explain. Even to myself, okay? I… want to like you. I think you could be smart, and funny, and all that. But every time I start to relax around you, I remember the other stuff you’ve done. You’re playing nice now, but what if you change your mind again and start hurting people I care about? What if your old bosses say ‘hey, all is forgiven if you kill that Abigail person’, and you–”

“I would never kill Miss Abigail!” The sudden and almost violently forceful interruption made Miranda reflexively jerk back, even as Theia found her way to her feet. She continued, the lack of prefacing her ‘I’ with Theia showing just how out of sorts she was by the suggestion. “I would never hurt Miss Abigail! I will die before I hurt Miss Abigail. I will gouge my own eyes out and tear apart my spleen before I hurt Miss Abigail!”

Our spleen, our eyes, Pace reminded her. And I agree. Never hurt Abigail. Never hurt Miranda. Never hurt Seller. They’re our friends. We get that. But calm down, Theia. Don’t scare her. Don’t freak her out.

Listening to her host’s words gave Theia pause enough for Miranda herself, who had also stood up by then, to speak up. “Okay, okay. I get it. You care about Abigail. Probably because she was the first person to really…” She paused, grimacing. “I get it. No hurting Abigail.”

“Never,” Theia reiterated firmly and pointedly.

Fists, Theia, Pace silently reminded her.

Realizing belatedly that she had balled their hands into fists, Theia relaxed them as best as she could, wincing visibly. “We… we are both sorry. Theia-I and Pace-I. We did not mean to… scare you.”

“It’s umm…” Miranda paused before clearing her throat. “It’s okay. I get it. I shouldn’t have said that you might hurt or kill Abigail if they told you to. But… but do you see why I’m still afraid of–why I still don’t know how much we can trust you? You worked for them for a really long time. They have to mean something to you. They’re your people.”

The other girl’s voice was soft. “Theia-I was never one of them. They would not allow it.”

Miranda was quiet for a second, before she gave a single nod. “You’re right. You’re not one of them. You’re better. You can be better. Just… make sure you remember that, okay? Remember that you’re better than they want you to be. Whatever happens, this whole… cure or… separation thing? However that goes down, it doesn’t matter. You’re still better than them. You’re better than your psycho piece of shit mother. All those people that hate you just because of how you were born? Fuck them. Worry about the people who actually care about what you think.”

Like me, Pace reminded the Seosten girl who was sharing her body. Believe it or not, I do care about what happens to you, Theia. I’ve seen your past, remember. Parts of it anyway. And she’s right. Those people, they don’t matter. Fuck them. Abigail, Miranda, and Seller. They matter. Maybe it’ll take awhile to prove ourselves to Miranda and Seller. But we’ll do it. You worked your whole life to convince your own people to give you a chance, and they never cared. They just used you. But these people are giving you a chance.

Theia was quiet once more, listening to what both of the others were saying, before she lifted her chin. “Yes,” she said simply. “Miss Abigail matters. Mr. Seller matters. You matter, Miranda-person. Even if you do not like Theia-me very much because of the bad things that I did.”

“I…” Miranda paused, then simply replied, “I came in here to find out what you want for dinner.”

After a brief consultation with her host, Theia piped up, “Cheeseburgers? One with only ketchup and mayo, and one with everything. And extra onions.”

Miranda shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat. Err, boats. Now come on, let’s order it.”

Obligingly, Theia stepped out of the tub to follow the other girl out of the bathroom. “And maybe we can call a plumber so they can tell us how the water comes out.”

Heading for the phone on the nearby desk, Miranda shook her head. “We’ll just Google it, Theia. Google knows everything.”

Standing there, Theia considered that. She thought about what they were trying to do, the whole reason they were working together. “Hey… do you think…”

Miranda replied without looking back, “–that Google might know how to separate a Seosten with SPS from their host?”

Clearly confused by that, Theia echoed blankly, “SPS?”

“Sticky-Possession Syndrome,” Miranda informed her. “It’s better than calling you or… or people like you Lies. And no, I promise that Google doesn’t know how to fix it.

“…. because I already checked.”