“Hello, Tremble… is that still the name you respond to?” The Wyrm was staring out of a gaping hole in his penthouse suite.

”Of course it is,” she wiped pink blood from her shoulder, slightly insulted.

“I’m sorry,” The Wyrm stayed transfixed on the city, his mother’s skin pulsing in a rhythm that humbled them both., “I think you would prefer something more suitable. Now that you’re-“

He rotated his hand all the way around. A crack. Then a sound like the crack in reverse when he turned it back.

“Did you see the way I fought?,” she said, for a moment unguarded, “I’ve never bit into a person before, I didn’t know they tasted like crawl cow.”

”It’s the other way around,” he finally turned to face her, his eyes black with white pupils. “I did see you. You were very good. You use the Needle well.”

She could have done a somersault, or a backflip, it was what her hands and feet itched for, but would that be viewed as childish? She decided instead to put a hand to her chest and kneel, saying “I am a humble servant of a higher power. That of The Wyrm. All of my successes are yours, all of my failures a fault of mine alone. I will be your aberration, and I will preach with teeth and convert with claws.” What made her happy is most of it she really did believe.

The Wyrm stared at her, unblinking. He wrinkled his nose, thoughthrough she couldn’t smell anything that would offend. “Where do you get that from?”

”Why, you of course,” she said.

She felt a question reach his lips, but he made the strange decision not to ask it. A shame, she would have answered it.

But, the sudden empty space was an opportunity.

”So… there’s you and the false Morgan.”

”If that is the name you and the others use, then yes.”

The question came out like a blown gasket.

”Years ago, me and my sisters-“

And she told him what Morgan had done to them. Why and how her sisters died. It was hard not to get emotional. She had killed them, on Morgan’s command.

”Was that you, or the imposter?” She was breathing heavilyheavy. Suddenly she feared she couldn’t take the answer.

He bowed his head and sighed. “That was me.”

She smiled, relieved, “Oh thank Ggrand.” She went for a hug, and embraced him with all her strength.

It was the second happiest day of her life.

…

Tremble took a moment to familiarize herself with the current situation. It’s what Lemure- no, she must respect him, and attribute him properly, the Wyrm had taught her.

She was outside, no, that was impossible. They had fallen so far. They were down so deep. But yet her eyes could not lie. There was a bright blue sky, clouds, smiling faces in the cloud,

Smiling faces in the clouds

Concrete streets, manicured yards, and two story houses. And people, so many people.

They were lucky this place was so massive. Their disc had landed in the middle of the town square, and they hadn’t hit anything important.

Well, except for the fountain, now jutting out from below the platform, spewing water that had long ago gone bad, but she didn’t really care about that.

There were mailmen, going from box to box, vendors selling food to passing pedestrians, Tremble as a child, kneeling over her sister’s corpses,

Tremble as a child, kneeling over her sister’s corpses.

No, the last one wasn’t real. She closed her eyes hard. When she opened, the sight was gone.

She looked up at the sky. The faces were still there.

The townsfolk didn’t seem to care or even notice their sudden entrance. It was like a dream, this place. They had no built in threat response. No way of knowing that Tremble was the apex of this here food chain.

If she chose, she could claw all of them. She could- fuck. She had gone to make a fist, and found that she was back in her human form.

While she liked this form (she was far fitter than she was before, almost comparable to Devon) her Needle form was who she truly was. A fucking monster, a beast that others could either follow or run from.

She pointed to the mailman, shifting only her face into her true form. Her teeth multiplied and filled empty space. “This is my kingdom, all who oppose me oppose the mandate of Shamayim”

She watched as the mailman tripped over the side of the platform. He corrected himself well, but never acknowledged her. Just went about his business.

Placebo, certainly. How disappointing. At least she didn’t have to worry if any of them got killed.

What a waste. The town was just boring. Here on the disc was where the action was.

All she cared about was-

*flick*

*flick* *flick*

Devon. Cool, hard, used to be a meaningless little match of a girl Devon.

Devon, looking great in a fighting stance. Devon, staring ahead, Adam (treacherous Adam) in her hand. Every so often she would do a quick jab, bringing the small remark forward in a scooping motion.

*flick* *flick*

It was a goad. Well so be it, this was as good a place as any for a fight. It was quite a pretty place to die. Not what Devon deserved but Tremble would be kind.

She approached in a combat pose of her own. Left arm changed into its true potential and held at the ready.

The disc was at an incline and she had to go low to the ground as she moved down. The closer she got the better she could make out Adam, talking incessantly in his whining voice with that implacable accent.

“Devon, you need to wake up. Devon, I’m sensing hostility from Tremble. I think she might be planning to attack us.”

“I am planning to attack you.”

Adam sputtered and laughed. “Oh great, now she’s talking to herself. She just announced intent. Devon, I know you’re still in here, I would rather not fight her on my own, it would be great if you-“

“What, is she stunned or something?” Tremble came forward, getting as close as she could without being in range.

“How can you hear me?”

She shrugged. Devon attacked her, or the space right in front of her. The action was automatic. This wasn’t a call for battle, it was a reflex. Like a twitch one does when they’re dreaming

Her sisters would keep her up all night with their twitching. Once they were dead, she would finally get some shut-eye. And yet, sleep never came easy. How could that be?

“An explanation is due.” Adam wiggled out of Devon's grip and approached Tremble at head level.

She laughed. “Look at you” There was something so amusing about a Remark trying to act like a person. “It’s been a long time Adam, you great Idea that will kill Morgan dead. Too bad he’s senile and useless now. Never even in control. I assume your wanton slaughter has continued.”

”It has...” Adam said, his tone unsure.

She gestured to Devon. “Why her?”

The statuesque cretin was still jabbing at the air.

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”I’m sorry?”

“Was I not good-“ She stopped herself.

Don’t be too desperate, don’t be too obvious. Her Contrarians Needle was a great leveler. It balanced out her worst traits and saved her from embarrassment.

“Adam, it strikes me as a foolish choice to pick her as a vessel. I expected better, that's all.”

It said and expressed nothing. That was one thing it had in common with Adams previous body, the lack of any discernible emotion.

”If you say so.” His battered glass front turned and floated back to Devon.

Tremble felt like she had lost. She was not a person who deserved such a feeling. Not anymore

Wanting to beat Adam, she ran up to Devon and pushed her.

Devon suddenly sprung to life. She gripped Tremble's arm and sent her to the ground.

She righted herself and scuttled away. Adam did a loop in the air and fell into Devon's waiting hand. Her eyes still shone with that same far off intensity, but her body was alive. Shoulders stretching, legs balanced on toes bouncing gently up and down.

”Devon… how are you?”

Devon still didn’t answer.

“I’m afraid she’s still not back yet, not fully.” Tremble got up slowly while Adam buzzed around Devon, her hand pulsed and gripped down anytime Adam got close. “Her vitals are good, reflexes, as you demonstrated, fantastic. But mentally her mind is,” he shuddered, “she’s stuck in a Mallory Loop.”

“A Mallory what?” Her left hand, still transformed into its much preferable clawed form, played with the emptiness around it. Devon’s body seemed to follow the motion, swaying in time, but her eyes remained utterly detached.

”It was coined long ago. Named after the first Sufferer. What I can do as a Remark is not necessarily unique, but my ability to function independently of my user very much is. When I take on the pain of Devon's body, it’s like holding my breath. I can only do so for a limited time.”

kids flying kites passed to their left. With no wind their box kites trailed limply behind them.

“When I inevitably release all of it, it opens the user's brain to all the pain I had blocked for them all at once. It’s… It’s quite.” He hovered in front of Devon's face, wobbling slightly. “I was overzealous, Devon. You have every right to hate me.”

The weakling couldn’t handle pain, and somehow Adam felt like he was at fault. She scoffed. “What a shame that she wasn’t up for it. Such a powerful, truly special duelist, cut down in her prime. Now, should I put her out of her misery, or will you do the honors?”

”What?” He shuddered and fell a few feet, regaining composure before he hit the ground. “She’s fine. We just need to give her a little push. Her mind is in a constant loop right before I took over in our fight. So she’s bracing for a battle that has already happened.”

“Should I fight her?” Tremble said, nodding her head at her own suggestion. “That would get her out of it.”

”The opposite actually, we need to make it clear to her that the fighting’s over, we need to right her perception. Snap her out of it with something unexpected.” His point tilted from Tremble to Devon, then back to Tremble. “You’ll need to do it”

“Why not you?”

”Because I’m too familiar to her, she’s dimly aware of me right now, but only dimly, so my words are like white noise to her. Within her perception, me, as she puts it, “yammering on” is normal. You’re-“ He struggled for the word, she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just call her a friend, “You’re not someone she’d expect to have reached out in this situation.”

She sighed, fair enough. “Excellent, excellent. I have experience in verbose exultations. What do I say exactly?”

“Center her. You were neighbors, right? Remind her of that, think of a nice memory, something that will slowly bring her back to the present. A calm, peaceful present.”

It would be easy enough. Sure young Devon had never seemed to like her, for some reason, and most of her memories involved hiding from her, or stowing away notes and watching Devon read them at a distance, but that in itself was a relationship.

Around them the mood of the Placebos had changed. They were acting more sluggish, slower in their movement. Tremble thought she saw something long and black slither behind a building, but convinced herself she didn’t. Clive was dead, thank Grand.

“Hello Devon! Your cherubic and messianic pal Tremble here, already saved your life once today, Grand be praised, and I’m about to save it again.” She shouted. Devon continued to stare forward, her limbs itching for violence.

“Do you remember when we were kids, and we went out fishing together?”

Around them, placebos were pulling others to the back of buildings. There were those who had their standard routine, and others who had seemed to be gripped with a new purpose, manhandling the others with gusto and moving them by force. A tall placebo took confused children in hand, still trying in vain to fly their kites. The corpse slumped above them leaked expired fluid.

“Well, we weren’t together. Separate boats, your father in one and my mother and me in the other. We had been given nets and finally, instead of just endlessly watching, it was our turn to fish that day.”

”Tremble, I would suggest you hurry up, something is happening.” The courtyard was now empty, the ambient noises of the Placebo were absent. Above them the smiling faces of children seemed far more malicious. She had seen those smiles before.

She had seen those smiles before

”You caught a big one, a singtrout. With beautiful scales, and a voice like a bell.”

She smiled at the memory, it had been nice to see. The absence of the Placebos didn’t bother her, things felt safer with them gone. But the faces in the sky, she suddenly remembered where she had seen them before.

The smirks. The faces of her sisters, treating her existence like a shared joke. Looking back on the memory now, she realized she had no reason to be nostalgic.

“But I spotted that singtrout first. It swam under my moms boat, and I was about to throw out the net, but she stopped me. “We need to be courteous of others, let Anthony’s son throw out a net, he just got his untangled.” She said this part in a falsetto far removed from her mothers actual voice. “And guess which fish *you* caught Devon?”

She looked for a reaction from Devon. Surely remembering such an awful unkindness would get her to snap back. But she stayed resolute. Her face was no longer unreadable, but clear. She had no regrets for what she did.

”Oh everyone fell over themselves to congratulate you on that catch, Devon. My mom gave you more praise than she ever bothered for me!” She knew her voice was becoming shrill, that her current attitude would only be envious to whiners, but she was caught in these emotions. Her sisters smiled down on her, shadows were forming. “The worst possible thing, Devon being unhappy, we couldn’t have that!”

Devon’s eyes twitched, she opened and closed her hands, as if begging for something to be inserted. Not good enough.

“Okay Tremble, you’ve said enough.”

“But I haven’t! I haven’t and we both know it, she needs to know she’s been coddled. Why? Grand knows, maybe you’re sweet on her, maybe you felt pity. I’d understand, it wouldn’t be my problem that you hitched yourself to someone so blatantly dead on arrival. But I guess because you made her pack on some muscle you thought she’d be a fair replacement.” Her claw motioned at the silent Devon, vibrating in stunned anger. “Clearly you prostrate for the wrong girl, Adam!”

“If we’re going by that logic, then hear this, Tremble. You could not be trusted, you have already shown that today and while I didn’t realize it at the time from the start you were trying to get me killed. The powers, this needle, it has only made you worse.”

Tremble’s back shuddered, the edges of her body pulsed and rose up like triangles. Tremble had to work very hard to remind herself that Adam was a weapon, and weapons couldn’t be hurt, out of principle, and also just logically.

“I respected it at the time. I thought you shared my ideals and saw through a meaningless conflict. But no, you just lack something, it’s not that you didn’t want to do it, you just couldn’t.

She saw them out of the corner of her eye, a pile of her sisters. And sure, she had a lot of them, but the pile of corpses was massive, more improbable than its sudden appearance. So many of them she didn’t recognize, they couldn’t all be her sisters. And yet they all had her beautiful rose black locks.

And yet they all had her beautiful rose black locks

“Whatever I lacked I have now.” She gave him a back flex, letting him see the sheer power in her form. “Even with her training I know I could take her in a fair fight. Or even an unfair one.” She knew they weren’t above dirty tricks. Unlike her.

”You were given your enhancements by people who don’t care about you, and who will now surely hunt you down.” Tremble winced.

”You make no sense! Sure, even if all that was true!” She had cut off her sisters’ hair because what use would they have for a corpse. “It’s not, of course it’s not, but you haven’t explained what makes her more qualified. Was it pity?” Her sisters forgot she existed, they thought she was just an exceptionally large piece of trash, deep under their beds. “I bet it was pity, that is the only thing she’s ever had, and she wields it like a weapon.” They lied through their teeth till the end.

They lied through their teeth till the end

“I sensed that she was a good person, nothing else” There was a quiet waver in the last sentence that made Tremble smile. He was lying, he was a sister. “And she has shown that again and again. I would never leave her, I have no reason to.”

No. None of that was true.

Laughing, she displayed her claws. She raised one and stretched it until it towered over Devon, giving her shade as she repeated that idiotic motion. “Oh? She’s a good person? Will she still be a “good person” when I cut her throat and feast on her-“

Devon was on Tremble, her body ferocious.

Teeth clenched, she held Tremble down easily with one hand while the other made a sawing motion right above Tremble’s neck, over and over again.

It was the same sort of repetitiveness that she displayed in her comatose state, but her eyes were bloodshot and very much present now.

She kept going, far past the point that she would have cut through bone if she was wielding a weapon.

Adam floated into view behind her, his casual motions seeming to say “I told you so”

Too scared to move, Tremble held still as Devon’s motions slowly ceased. She was powerless again in Devon’s arms. Her breath stilled, her breathing slowed.

Devon blinked. Some semblance of sense seemed to come back to her.

Very slowly, she got up. Tremble risked a smile, and wiped away some wetness forming at the edge of her tear ducts.

”Hah! I knew that would bring you back.” She said, dusting herself off. “It was all planned, see. I was trying to help you, that’s all.”

And then one of the Placebos ran at her with a broom.