The Major hit the ground hard, rolling out of control until she came to an abrupt stop against something implacable. She groaned, the warnings blaring across all her systems. She dismissed them one by one with only a cursory glance and she felt a secondary awareness return to her. Taylor blinked awake, the light blinding to her organic eyes. She felt whole again for the first time in hours, having both halves of herself back.

“I gotcha, girl,” Melissa said, cradling her shell in strong arms. “You’re safe now.”

“What about the others?” Taylor, or the Major, asked, surprised to hear an electronic warble from her voice. “Fuck, that’s gonna be a bitch to fix.”

“You’ve got time,” Melissa said. “Amy has Militia in her own lab. Stalker and Aisha arrived with her.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief. “And the Undersiders?”

“Waiting in your base back in Brockton,” she answered. “We need your code to let them through the portal you keep there.”

“Oh, right,” she grunted.

She sent the signal and her lab’s portal opened once more, the three capes stepping through a moment later. Grue’s leather jacket was scorched and torn in places, Regent had a limp and Bitch… Rachel was missing her arm below her shoulder, wrapped in a bloody bandage.

Fuck.

What was it with people losing arms? Sure, between herself, Amy and Riley, it was only a temporary setback at worst, but that had to hurt like a motherfucker. Her shell didn’t report pain in the traditional way, she felt the loss of a limb, the sting of her damaged hand, but it wasn’t pain. It was simply information.

Even when Taylor had been gunned down she didn’t feel the bite of the bullets like she should. It was a failsafe, to protect her from bleed over, but it had also lessened the event. She needed to feel pain, to remind her that not only was she alive, that she was still human.

That she was still Taylor.

Just another thing on the long list of repairs and upgrades she needed to make to her shell. That would need to wait, however. She had more pressing matters. Her original body sat up, feeling lethargic to her wishes. She had thinned, no doubt because Amy had to repair so much from the barrage of bullets that she had endured.

If not for the fact it was a remote suit, she would have truly died. Whoever was behind Coil thought they had scored a decisive win, and she needed them to continue to think that. Cyber and Tattletale needed to remain dead, at least until Coil himself was buried in the dirt. He had killed her father, tried to rip out almost everything Taylor loved in the world.

There would be a reckoning.

“How’s Lisa?” Taylor asked after a moment.

As nice as it was to be held by Melissa, she could really use her girlfriend at the moment. To hold her and know that she was still there, that she hadn’t died. Still, it was the Major being held, not her. There was something to that distinction, and the thought processes that had happened through the entire day since she was shot that she didn’t want to think too deeply on at the moment.

She was Taylor Hebert, she was human…

Wasn’t she?

Then why did looking at the Major, cradled in Melissa’s arms, feel like she was looking at someone else?

“Cranial managed to repair her cyber brain,” Melissa said, snapping Taylor from her thoughts. “Lisa’s asleep, and will likely remain so until tomorrow.”

“She will need her shell,” Taylor said softly. “Her body is wrecked from Amy’s healing.”

“A temporary setback,” Melissa assured her, looking at her original body, not the Major in her arms. “You were bloodied today, but you’re far from down. Take your time, build up your strength and then punch back harder than they gave. I know you’re dwelling on all this to avoid thinking about your father, and that’s fine for now, but don’t lose sight of your goals for it.”

“I could have saved him,” Taylor said, and her original body began to weep from its place on the table. “He would still be alive if he had a cyber brain, you said it yourself. All because we were having petty arguments rather than dealing with our problems.”

“They weren’t petty to you at the time,” Melissa said firmly. “Hindsight makes fools of us all. The important thing is that we learn from those mistakes and press on in spite of them.”

“Danny won’t be forgotten, I promise that,” the Major said. “Coil has to die, painfully and in a way that sends a message to anyone who would dare try something similar.”

“He will,” Melissa said. “And you won’t be going it alone, will you?”

The Major looked up to her mentor’s smiling face. There was no kindness in that smile, instead it was sharp and vicious; it was how she imagined a monster would smile when they caught their target. She felt a shiver run down both her spines at the sight of it. She knew her mentor had a cruel streak buried deep within her, she had seen it peek out before, and now it was on full display.

“Come on,” Melissa said, helping her up. Once again she was surprised at how easily her mentor could lift the Major despite it weighing more than a fridge. “Jacob should be back soon with some news, so let’s go check on everyone.”

“My shell’s damaged,” the Major said. “Bring Taylor instead, that way I can start running proper diagnostics with Cranial and get a head start on repairs.”

“Good call,” Cranial said. “These initial readings tell me you are a lot worse off than you appear.”

“Alright,” Melissa said, giving the Major a quick hug and an understanding look before moving over to Taylor. “Can you walk or should I carry you?”

Taylor laughed, and got to her feet, wobbling for a moment before Melissa helped steady her. Her old body felt wrung dry, and in a way it had been. Cranial passed her a bottle of water, which Taylor gulped down, only now realizing how much she needed it. The Major hopped up onto the table that she had vacated, sending a nod back at Taylor before she laid down and Cranial wasted little time getting her hooked up to the systems.

Taylor zoned out, putting her full focus on her own body while ignoring the implications of the Major carrying on a conversation with Cranial. Melissa kept an arm under her for support as the pair walked the halls, dozens of generic doors passing them by as the Undersiders trailed behind them in silence. Toybox was a labyrinth at the best of times, and at the moment she didn’t have her HUD in place thanks to the diagnostics.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Thankfully Melissa knew the way, and it didn’t take them long to reach Amy’s lab, which was only marked as such by a single sticker of a marijuana leaf. The door opened for them and Taylor was surprised to see Hannah sitting up on the table while Amy had her testing her digits. That she wasn’t a sobbing mess told her nobody had broken the news just yet.

“Hebert?” Sophia squawked. She was off to the side, with a bottle of orange Gatorade in hand. “They told me you were dead.”

“Came close. Amy put me back together,” she admitted, looking over at Hannah, knowing she was about to crush her. “Dad wasn’t so lucky.”

Taylor watched a torrent of emotions roll over the woman, tears pooled in her eyes, but her face ended up set with grim resolve. Taylor knew that when the time came, Hannah would have her back in whatever came next.

“Aisha!”

She turned, finding the young girl wrapped around Brian, who had unmasked at some point. Sophia tensed at the sight of Grue, and she knew from some of the Major’s conversations with her that she had some sort of grudge with him over a power interaction. Hopefully she could put it aside in favor of cooperation for the moment. Taylor didn’t have it in her to prevent a fight between them.

“I said piss off!” Rachel snarled.

“Fuck,” Amy said, staring back in defiance. “Let me at least check you over.”

“Bitch,” Taylor said with all the firmness she could. “Stand down. There will be time for violence later.”

She huffed and finally Amy got a look at her.

“So, what now?” Sophia asked. “Half of us are either wanted or assumed dead.”

Looking back at those assembled in the room, Taylor found herself at a loss. She wasn’t a leader, she was just one person who had been active for less than four months. Everyone in the room seemed to be looking to her for guidance, well, Regent was feigning being bored while Amy looked him over and Melissa was keeping to herself for the moment.

“Armsmaster,” Hannah said, her power shifting to some high-powered rifle in her hands. “I trusted him, worked alongside the man for over a decade, and he shot me in cold blood and left me to die.”

“You would have died in under an hour had Taylor not found you,” Amy said. “Be glad that whatever check he did on you was less sophisticated than Taylor’s equipment.”

“Taylor’s?” Sophia asked, looking from the healer to Taylor. “You provided tech to the Major? I was under the impression you two didn’t like each other or some shit.”

“It’s complicated,” Taylor said, not wanting to dig into that mess for as long as she could manage. She ignored the pointed look Melissa was giving her as well. That woman was far too perceptive.

“This whole thing is complicated,” Amy said. “Like, what the hell is actually going on with the PRT and Protectorate?”

“There’s a lot more to this, for example, I’m reasonably certain Armsmaster has some leverage on Dragon,” Taylor said. “I have some suspicions as to what, but I don’t want to throw them out without Lisa’s input.”

“Out with it, Hebert,” Sophia said. “I heard some of that shit too, and she didn’t sound like her usual self when she talks at the meetings.”

Taylor huffed, taking a seat. “I think Dragon is an AI, shackled in some way to obey Armsmaster’s every whim.”

A series of curses filled the room, along with a fair measure of disbelief. Well, that theory was out in the wild among those who were essentially the closest people left to her in the world, barring her girlfriend who was sleeping off the worst of her injuries. One face Taylor was surprised wasn’t present was Riley. When had the little menace slipped out on them?

It was likely for a good reason, so Taylor wasn’t about to complain. She would probably pop up back in her lab to help with her shell’s repairs before long.

Given what they had just dealt with, and the odds stacked against them, just what options remained open to them? Hannah was listed as deceased and would be considered a Mastered corpse if she stepped forward, at least initially. Sophia was wanted for aiding a known criminal. Taylor was also listed as deceased and any attempts to prove otherwise would expose her as a remote piloted mass of flesh. Even Amy was likely being branded as either Mastered or turned Villain for helping get Militia out of the building.

The Undersiders were equally compromised just for being criminals, and Toybox wouldn’t be able to leverage much either, even if the organization was the brainchild of Hero. Her options for fighting back were few, and dangerous besides, Melissa was right, she needed time to recover and build everyone back up.

Idly, an idea came to her and she pulled up the footage of the Empire’s attack on her father, and saw something concerning. Alabaster’s skin looked off, lacking the proper monochrome. A quick reference of her files confirmed it, the man that had helped gun her down wasn’t Alabaster at all. Fuck, she needed to get that information out there, maybe it would give the Empire some leverage. It made her sick to even consider using the Empire, but she was lacking options. She then considered what other information she could weaponize, and a plan began to solidify.

“Amy, do you have access to your PHO account?” Taylor asked.

Raising an eyebrow, she retrieved her phone. “My phone’s been locked out.”

Taylor chuckled, connecting to the device, the lockout was lifted less than a second once her software got to work. “Text Vicky that you’re safe with Taylor, say nothing else, then get on PHO and tell them that Miss Militia was still alive in the PRT infirmary when you got to her. Hannah, post that you are recovering with the help of Panacea.”

“Belay that,” Jacob said, stepping into the room. “Make all those posts and all of this will be for naught. We don’t know when the next opportunity will present itself.”

“What do you mean?” Melissa asked.

Jacob sighed, a weary expression on his face. “Taylor, I’ll leave the choice to you, save your father by revealing your hand and risking worse losses in the future, or put the bastard that arranged this down for good.”

Taylor blinked, feeling the Major mirror it back in her lab. Just what had Jacob learned that would necessitate stopping her from using the few tools at her disposal?

Melissa frowned, then her eyes widened. “You spoke to them, didn’t you?”

He nodded, holding up the folder in his hand. “I have here the full profile of the man you know as Coil, his powers as well as his civilian identity. He can create two different paths via precognition and run them to see the outcome of each choice. We are currently living the path where he took every risk he could to eliminate his enemies. He already knows the Major survived and that they stole Militia’s body. He will be considering scrapping this attempt at his goals as a result. Release those statements and he would almost assuredly revert to the attempt where no risks were taken, but remember everything he learned.”

“He would use that information in future attempts and we would be none the wiser,” Taylor said softly, the implications hitting her like an eighteen wheeler. “Right now, the only true loss is my father, not that he knows it yet. He would learn that Amy and Sophia are with us, that Militia is acting against him, and that the Major is cybernetic at minimum. Nevermind the Undersiders.”

“Who knows how much of that he already knew,” Melissa said. “He has all the advantages if we force him to give up on this… Yet, your dad would live.”

“For how long?” Taylor asked, tears pricking at her eyes. “Who would it cost me if I did that? Would I be trading Dad for Lisa, or would I lose them both? Right now, I know what it cost me to gain this information, and I know I could have him back if I just gave it up…”

“It isn’t something to decide upon lightly,” Jacob admitted. “But if you do, I have a proposal that might be of interest. Riley, Kurt and I will be waiting in our room, if you decide to take us up on that offer, Melissa can show you the way.”

“Jacob!” Melissa snarled. “You can’t be suggesting what I think you are.”

“It will be her choice,” he answered, turning back to the door. “Legend has given his approval if you decide to take us up on the offer.”

As he left, Melissa cursed and Taylor was left with the most agonizing decision she had ever faced. Save her father and risk greater losses, or leave him dead and hope they can exact justice. The tears fell freely and she took what little comfort she could in Melissa’s arms.