Scattered 5.3

2000, September 23: Unnamed, Ivory Coast

The meeting was over, but Contessa, Doctor Mother, Alexandria, and I remained in the meeting room. The rest of the Founders were off back to their cities, no doubt to catch up on whatever they'd missed while they were in Naples. The Number Man must have seen something in the numbers surrounding Contessa because he took one look and decided he wanted no part of this conversation.

"Andy," Alexandria nodded.

"Becky," I greeted back with a cheeky grin. If she wanted to drop the formalities, I'd return the favor.

"You wanted to tell us something. Something you couldn't say in front of the others."

"Yeah. Hero and Legend are too kind. Eidolon is too callous, and maybe even unstable. And Number Man… actually, I wouldn't have minded him being here. He's a sociopath, but a competent one."

"He is broadly uninterested in anything beyond the numbers that define the global economy," Contessa said from my right. "He will participate if requested, but he considers morality to be a social construct and the nature of powers to be too abstract to be worth serious investigation."

"The nature of powers?" Doctor Mother questioned. "And you think the rest should be excluded from this information?"

I nodded. "I'll send Contessa a full writeup of just what entities, powers, and all that are. Knowing won't change too much, but it might inform how you mix your vials going forward."

"That doesn't sound like something to hide."

"It's not on its own. Long conversation, better had after you read the brief. There are two things that really need to be said in the immediate. First, Eidolon. The man needs therapy."

"I assure you that in spite of his personal issues, he is an effective agent-"

"He's also responsible for the endbringers."

That shut her up.

"Explain," Alexandria demanded.

"Well, okay. I don't know that he's responsible for the endbringers, but I do know that during the final battle in my vision, Eidolon gets killed by Scion laughably easily. Lots of things happen, but they have a conversation. Scion tells him, 'You needed worthy opponents,' and that realization horrifies him. It paralyzes him to know that he is responsible for the greatest tragedies in our world and he shuts down. He does nothing as Scion kills him. That's how the supposed greatest hero dies, like a fucking chump."

"Scion could have been lying."

"True, which is why I said I don't know for sure. However, I do know that his Shard is the High Priest. Think of it as the right hand of Eden, her COO. It was, is, responsible for managing Eden's entire Shard network and has the highest authority available to Shards, only overridden by the entities themselves. That's why Eidolon can seemingly access any power in the world; because he can."

"You are accusing Eidolon of making endbringers, of working against us."

I shook my head. "No, no I'm not. He's a lot of things, but he's not evil. In the end, he's just a deeply flawed man trying to live up to an impossible ideal. He's trying to hold up the sky but he's no Atlas."

"Explain."

"Long story short, in my vision, you won. Kind of. Scion died, but so did Eidolon. The Simurgh, Eden's contingency, acted at that point with two driving directives: First, she was to preserve the Cycle as mandated by Eden. Second, she was to provide Eidolon worthy opponents. But of course, Eidolon was dead via Scion, so she cloned him."

"That…" The doctor trailed off. Unlike Alexandria or Contessa, she was far from unreadable. Compared to those two, she may as well have been shouting her emotions from the rooftops.

"Ridiculous? I know. But if you need to check the validity of my words, note that Contessa hasn't shot me yet."

"Fine… Proceed."

"I'm not saying Eidolon is a traitor to mankind or anything. In fact, he's arguably the most dedicated hero alive, though that's not a good thing in his case. I'm saying that he's banked so much of his identity into being a hero that when he lacks a worthy opponent, he feels like he loses a piece of himself.

"It could be that with the gradual decline of his powers, he's looking for something like a catalyst to help him become as strong as he once was. It could be that he needs to feel like he matters and has a savior complex a mile wide. Or maybe he's looking for a way to train himself for the big fight against Scion. I don't know; I'm not a psychologist. I'm not qualified to tell you exactly how to untangle the shitshow that's his subconscious mind. I'm just here to tell you you've got a problem."

The room as silent as they processed that information. "Contessa?" the doctor spoke.

"Accurate as far as I am aware. The model I have of Eidolon is not fully reliable as you are aware, but what Hyunmu said is in line with his psychological profile. I am inclined to believe him as I did not provide him any information concerning Eidolon."

I shot her a grateful nod.

"So the endbringers will stop if we can get him some therapy…"

"No, I hate to be the one to pop that bubble, but we don't know that the endbringers will stop. They could be like bullets, a fire and forget sort of deal. We shouldn't assume that they can be recalled if Eidolon gets 'in tune with his Shard,'" I said, putting finger-quotes around the last.

"But we need him to become more self-aware. Otherwise, he'll die against Scion without achieving anything," Alexandria voiced my thoughts.

"True, but that's not all. In my vision, Scion kills Behemoth in New Delhi sometime after 2011. Complicated series of events, but just know that Behemoth dies. We can't replicate it so the exact scenario doesn't matter right now. Then Khonsu appears six months later. Roughly nine months after that, the twins, Tohu and Bohu, show up."

"Six endbringers…"

I decided then that as funny as it was to see the usually unflappable woman shocked by something, anything that could surprise her wasn't a good thing.

"Twenty," I corrected grimly. "I have concrete information about six. Eidolon needs therapy, not because I think he can rein in Behemoth and Leviathan, but because I'm terrified he might activate more endbringers. Who knows? If we hurry, we might be able to un-fuck his head enough to prevent the Simurgh's activation, though I'm personally doubtful on that front."

"Contessa, what are our chances of eliminating Eidolon?" Alexandria asked.

I paused, then sent her a wry grin. "You stone-cold bitch. Are you seriously planning to just kill him off?"

"Yes." The look on her face was so completely at peace with the idea that it almost made me wonder why I hadn't suggested it myself. "You said you saw my death. Was that true?"

"Yup. You die in that timeline."

"Good. If I ever threaten the world, I expect you and Contessa to be my executioners."

I sighed. I looked behind the mask and saw not a shred of hesitation, only determined steel. She was a bitch, but at least she was dedicated. "Sometimes, I forget that Eidolon's not the only idiot who doesn't know how to take off her mask."

"The word you're looking for is 'pragmatic,'" she drawled.

"Well, one of us has to be the moral center here. Besides, killing him off just isn't a good idea."

"Oh?"

"For one, we don't know if the High Priest Shard wouldn't just jump to another host, one we have even less control over. Shards do that by the way, find new hosts once their current ones die. While Eden's Shards are slowly losing power, we don't actually know if it's incapable of jumping. Hell, it might be that we end up with multiple buds of the High Priest; that'd really suck."

"Noted."

"Two, he's still the best bet we have of actually taking Scion in single combat. Hero will be able to… eventually. But that eventuality might never come if we don't nurture that potential." I didn't mention my own growth. Perhaps Contessa would, but I thought it'd be best to not mention the true nature of my own powers yet.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Very well, have it your way. I'll see about getting him some therapy."

"Can you?" I asked. "I mean, can you get him good therapy. You know, something that'll actually make him a better person, give him some perspective, and help him understand and develop his identity as a person rather than a hero."

"You don't have much faith in psychologists, do you?"

"I have realistic expectations. It takes years to change a person, whether it's anger management or an addiction. And I can't imagine it'll be easy getting him to actually attend a few sessions. Hell, without you and Contessa, it would have been a challenge just finding a psychologist with the right clearance and temperament. Shopping for a psychologist isn't like shopping for a car."

"But you do have me. I'll arrange for it on the Path," Contessa said.

"Fine, I'll leave that up to you two."

"What's the second thing you wanted to talk about?" Doctor Mother asked. She sounded calm but there was a slight sheen of sweat over her brow. Finding out that our greatest asset could also doom us before Scion ever got the chance wasn't easy.

"Christine Mathers."

"I take it that name is supposed to mean something?"

"No, not anymore. Or at least, not at the moment. But it might in the future and I want to get it out of the way."

"She's one of our prospective capes. I picked her out because she is easy to control," Alexandria said. Then to Contessa, "I take it you didn't tell him her name?"

"No."

She turned back to me with a respectful nod. "One more reason to accept your visions. What is it about her that's so special? She's just one more vial candidate."

"Right. I don't know exactly when or how she ends up a Cauldron cape, but she does and she eventually ends up leading the Fallen. Seeing how Naples was supposed to be what caused their big surge, I want to decide on what to do with her right now. Otherwise, she might get her vial before I can talk you out of it.

"The main deal with her is that she's Contessa-proof. Or, as close to it as someone not named 'Eidolon' can get. Consider her a 'soft' blindspot. The vial she receives makes her a memetic hazard, letting her share and control the senses of anyone who perceives her. See her? She can look through your eyes or make you hallucinate. Hear her voice? She can hear what you hear or whisper in your ears. Touch her? She can feel what you feel or make you experience excruciating pain. The worst part is that her power works through power-enhanced senses too. An empath would find that she can influence their feelings for example."

"And since she cannot be perceived, her power makes her a blindspot."

"Kind of? Contessa could Path her, but in my visions, she really hated doing it for some reason. Let's call her a soft blindspot."

"So we save the bottle for someone more loyal."

I nodded. She was quick on the uptake. "Yeah. I figure that if Contessa can model Eidolon, she can also model a hypothetical scenario in which she and the doc prepare a bottle for Christine Mathers, a scenario without my involvement."

"You want to distribute it to someone who will be more useful, perhaps one more directly tied to Cauldron and not released into the wild."

"Honestly? I'd settle for sane and not willing to start an apocalypse cult, but yes, that sounds nice. You need to make sure that this person is both highly competent and unconditionally loyal, then silo them into a branch that doesn't require thinker oversight. Ultimately, we need to be certain that they will work towards our interests even without anyone checking in on them. Then we need to keep in touch through a dedicated intermediary to further compartmentalize information." I turned to Contessa. "Can this be done? If not, we should just destroy the bottle."

"Path to crafting the formula you are referring to: One thousand nine hundred twelve steps. Path to acquiring a suitable host for the bottle: Nine hundred thousand eight hundred ninety-seven steps. The latter will take some time, approximately two months to identify said host and another year to instill appropriate loyalties before they receive the vial."

I nodded. I wasn't satisfied completely, but I'd settle. Without Mama Mathers, the Fallen shouldn't be able to get off the ground. Valefor wouldn't join the Fallen either.

Whoever Contessa chose, I could be certain that they would be unfailingly loyal to us. We could then have them carry out clandestine missions on our behalf, anything that requires some public exposure yet also benefits from information security. Off the top of my head, this person could slowly dismantle Heartbreaker's empire or run an organization in another part of the globe.

Truth be told, it wasn't just about gaining a useful asset. There was a small but significant part of me that wanted to insist on the destruction of the vial. That same part of me wanted to use Cauldron assets to go track down Christine Mathers, to go murder both her and her son.

I glanced at Contessa. She sent me a subtle nod.

I could. I could end them. Elijah Mathers already triggered. He was one of the youngest to ever do so. Hell, thinking about it, that was probably what Alexandria meant by "easy to control." Elijah was the perfect leverage against her. Or he would have been had she not received the most inconvenient power possible.

I couldn't. No matter how much I loathed masters, I was a hero. My entire mission was to make the world a better place. Yes, there was an argument to be made that killing Christine and Elijah Mathers would improve the world, but I didn't buy it. If I wanted my words to carry moral weight, I couldn't use Cauldron to enforce my own prejudices.

I swallowed and breathed deep.

"Elijah Mathers is a cape," I said. Alexandria nodded. She'd already known, figures. "Was that what you meant by 'easy to control?'"

"Yes. Every mother wants what is best for her son. I see no reason to not leverage that. Unless you know differently?"

"Again, Christine's the kind of woman who will join the Fallen in America, eventually becoming the head of a family dedicated to the Simurgh. She isn't exactly the most stable woman around."

"Are you saying she is unfit to be a mother?"

"Probably, though it's not like I have any idea of what their daily routine is like. At the very least, she was a true believer in the righteousness of the endbringers and considered herself a divinely ordained messenger. She made a believer out of her son too. Either turn her from that, or monitor her until she does something stupid then take Elijah away."

"What are Elijah's powers?"

"Are you testing me?"

"Yes. By your own admission, your vision is losing reliability each passing day as our present timeline strays from the one you saw. I want to know if you have enough of a background to advise on this matter. The vial is one thing; the boy is another."

I rolled my eyes at the frank admission. It stung a bit, but she was right. "Without my interference, Elijah would have one day take on the name of Valefor, a lieutenant in the Mathers branch of the Fallen. He was responsible for murder, kidnapping, and sexual slavery. Oh, that was a thing. The Fallen kidnapped Wards and female capes to start their own breeding program and used Mama Mathers' power to evade retaliation.

"As for his powers, I consider him one of the more dangerous masters. He can hypnotize and control anyone he makes eye contact with. He can control them immediately or implant suggestions that trigger when certain conditions are met. In my vision, he used his power to cover his tracks so most people believed that he did not kill. His targets can be awakened from the hypnosis with something as simple as a slap, but he doesn't seem to have any concrete limit in the number of people he can control.

"Standard procedures against masters are effective. Technology, not looking into his eyes, a shock bracelet that goes off every few seconds, that sort of deal. Anything else?"

"That was thorough."

"What can I say? I hate him," I admitted with a sigh. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "A part of me wants to insist on offing him for what he'll become."

"I've gathered. You're nowhere near as unreadable as Contessa and your agitation is noteworthy. Should I mandate increased therapy for you as well as Eidolon?"

"Don't bother, it's being handled. Besides, I'm not blind to my faults. After today, I intend to step away from the Mathers case. Make him a Ward. Find him decent foster care. Or get Christine some therapy of her own and make her a productive member of society. I don't care, but if he does grow up to be a monster, please know that I'm going to kill him."

The others nodded as if an eight year old declaring his intent to murder someone was routine.

"Agreeable," the doctor said. "Was this everything?"

I thought about it. "That's everything I need to tell you for the moment, but I do want something."

"Oh?"

"This world is devoid of human life, right?"

"No. There are several humans employed by us. We relocated them here for logistical purposes. Believe it or not, we do need a support staff, even with Custodian."

"I meant besides us."

"Then yes, there are no humans. There are several species of primates that may eventually become human-like, but at the moment, none possess the required combination of intelligence and social structure."

"Then I want a garden. One of the reasons my material production rate is so slow is because I don't want to introduce foreign species of plants into Earth-Bet. Dream Blossoms, Petricite trees, that sort of thing. I want to make a garden on this world so I don't have to worry about any potential ecological damage. There are also half a dozen potions recipes I want to work on that I currently lack the materials to perfect."

"Oh?"

"Yup. I'm close to perfecting an Elixir of Rejuvenation that'll regrow lost limbs. I've also been working on one that turns people to stone temporarily, another one that's a more concentrated version of the Dream Blossom Censer's mist, and a few more. How do you feel about gene splicing?"

"We make Case-53s."

"Point. Because I think I can give people permanent powers, assuming I have an operating room and some magic herbs and whatnot. You know, Singed, but without the vivisection."

"No, I don't, but that sounds promising nonetheless. You can have Ukraine," Alexandria said.

I snorted. There was a joke about Putin in there somewhere. "Why Ukraine?"

"It contains some of the most fertile soil in the world and the climate is perfect for growing a wide array of plant life. Will you require additional staff?"

"Probably, but not immediately. I want to make an entire magical forest then eventually build robots to help me look after it. I'll send you a list of things I need for that. I also want wood from the oldest tree in the multiverse that you can find. Older the better, but it must still be living."

"Acceptable. We can have Clairvoyant look into it. Just don't forget the report on power dynamics."

"Heh, homework?"

"You are eight."

"Fine, but get Powell to lay off my armor design. Deal?"

"Deal."

Author's Note

There. A look at what Andy's doing with Contessa in the background. The reason I didn't include scenes like the first of this chapter is because they kind of drag on a bit. Obviously, there's a lot more to talk about, but I doubt you want a third chapter of meetings so just assume a lot of this is happening in the background.

Also, Cauldron is sketchy as fuck. Go figure. And yes, Mama Mathers is a Cauldron cape. Yes, Elijah was why she accepted a vial. Yes, that means the Fallen were on Cauldron's radar since their inception. Yes, that makes everything about the Fallen and Cauldron that much worse.

And yes, Andy really, really hates masters.

Mollisols is the riches type of soil on earth. It covers only 7 percent of ice-free land and is the black, loamy stuff that fertilizer tries to mimic. It is found in several parts of the world, but Chernozem, Ukraine's particular brand of black soil, is the richest and most fertile of them all.

Historically, this is why Ukraine is called "Europe's breadbasket." Alexandria didn't just hand out Ukraine to Andy so I could make a joke about Russia.

Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.