“Wait, Section Nine?” Taylor asked. “I thought you were the Slaughterhouse Nine.”

Jacob chuckled, likely at some inside joke only a few people understood. “The PRT uses ‘sections’ to denote ‘off the books’ projects. Toybox is Section Six if you want to get technical, Section Nine is technically the second, but the name stuck.”

“I’m a member of six and nine? Please tell me that wasn’t an intentional joke…” Taylor grumbled.

Jacob laughed. “Unfortunately. Hero has a sense of humor that is a bit unique.”

“Try insufferable,” Kurt grumbled. “I’m just grateful the man likes to remain hands off with Toybox.”

“I still haven’t met him,” Taylor said. “Legend either for that matter, which seems a bit of an oversight given I’m now in the thick of the biggest conspiracy in the Protectorate.”

“Second biggest,” Jacob said. “Section One exists after all and less than a dozen people are read in on it.”

“Like me,” Vivian grumbled.

Melissa sighed, drawing eyes to her. “Don’t feel bad, I don’t know the full details either, just some broad strokes that Lustrum worked out on her own while the PRT and Empire were working to fuck her over.”

“Speaking of,” Taylor said, eyeing her mentor. “I have journals my mom left behind from her time in the movement.”

Melissa stood up a bit straighter. “She kept those? Oh, the sentimental fool.”

Taylor wanted to admonish her, but she spoke with a fondness that was rarely shown. More so, it didn’t feel like Melissa speaking, it reminded her of how her mom had spoken of Kimmie instead.

“You can let the others take control, can’t you?” Taylor asked.

“Keen eye,” Melissa said, though Taylor wasn’t sure it was her anymore, and began to wonder about past conversations with her mentor. “That was Fester. She and your mother were an item, once upon a time.”

“I’m aware,” Taylor said softly. “If you don’t mind, I’d love to hear some stories about her when time permits.”

“No time like the present,” Melissa said. “I think we’re more or less done here, unless you have more questions?”

“A million, but nothing pressing,” she agreed. Back at her shell, Cranial released the restraints and let her sit back up. The worst of her damages were patched up, though she would need to replace several parts in the short term. “It will be May before I’m ready to fight again, so I can be patient.”

“We’ll start planning the run for May, then,” Jacob said. “I’m sorry about all of this, I truly am. You’re a good kid, Taylor, and the last thing I wanted was for you to end up in this life with the rest of us.”

“We don’t always get to choose our lot in life,” she answered. “All we can do is rise to meet it.”

“Well spoken,” Jacob said, clasping her shoulder. “Rest and recover. We’ll get the bastards, that much I can promise you.”

“Thanks Jacob, that means more than you know.”

The couple departed through a portal, Riley hesitant to leave with them until Taylor promised another movie night once she was on more stable footing. Vivian followed, the group likely popping up in another part of Toybox for them to change from their rather recognizable outfits. Taylor was curious as to how many within Toybox knew the secret, and it wouldn’t surprise her if most of the members did. Harry almost had to, with how the Nine were likely using his own portals for swift movement. That they could connect across the country explained how the Nine always seemed to vanish into the night after each engagement.

Now they would be coming to her home for the second time in her lifetime. She hadn’t even been in grade school yet during the last run that saw the Teeth put down. A run that she now knew was cover to bring the Butcher on board at Lustrum’s request. Now, the legacy that was the Butcher sat across from her with a drink in hand and bearing the face of the mentor she had come to love like a parent.

It was a strange thing to acknowledge, that she had come to care so much for a stranger who showed her kindness. Knowing that at least two of the people in there had known her mother personally changed little and everything all at once. They saw Annette’s daughter and decided to take her under their wing.

The thought filled her with warmth despite the cold void left behind by the death of her father. She wasn’t alone, not truly. That didn’t change that her found family was possibly one of the most screwed up collections of people in the world. She had agreed to join the Slaughterhouse Nine, willingly and without reservation. Even knowing what they were, having lived around them for months, it still unsettled her that she was so nonplussed about it.

“How are you holding up?” Melissa asked softly.

Taylor looked up from her trembling hands, and she finally felt the dam break. She was on her feet and pulling Melissa into a hug in a moment’s breath and she wept. Heavy and wet, the weight of everything she had bottled up falling apart. She was raw, filled with anguish, and the stupid thought came unbidden. They would hold a funeral, for her and her father and she wouldn’t be present for it.

Likely a fake corpse would be crafted to fill her hole in the ground, she hadn’t missed the grim expression on Amy’s face when they last parted. Jacob knew what he was doing there, and the few people she cared about knew she was still among the living. Chris would approach Amy, to confirm what the Major had spoken to him.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

It had to be kept quiet, otherwise Calvert would be spooked and they’d lose the element of surprise. Taylor knew her plans would have to change, even as she continued to sob into warm arms. She wouldn’t be alone in the coming battles, and that changed things. She would need to sit down with Jacob in the days to come and craft plans within plans and prepare.

Bloody days lay ahead, and Taylor knew she would be in the thick of them.

Taylor eventually calmed, her tears drying even as Melissa brushed fingers along her scalp in a way that soothed her. She dozed, here and there, time drifting along. She purposely ignored the time readouts on her cyberware, content to just drift and not dwell on the fact that the Major stayed awake through all of it.

During those lucid times, Melissa told stories of her mother and the Lustrum movement. Many she knew from the journals, yet some were new and wondrous, or just plain amusing. It wasn’t a surprise that the time her mom wound up covered in pig’s blood meant for a dirty cop ended up omitted.

The stories about the murders, however, were less welcome, but still appreciated. Taylor would rather know the full truth of things than a rose tinted view. Lustrum’s movement hadn’t started out violent, but it sure as hell ended up becoming so, all because they were pushed into it.

The pause in the chaos that her life had become was much needed, and it let her ignore how the Major was acting without her input, or was it the other way around? She would need to ask Melissa about that, as she probably had some idea about what was going on given how many people shared her head.

“What’s it like?” Taylor asked. At Melissa’s inquisitive look, she continued. “Being the Butcher, having other people in your mind.”

Melissa hummed, closing her eyes for a moment. “Are you asking out of intellectual curiosity, or because you suspect something similar is happening with you and the Major?”

Taylor groaned, even as she felt a phantom sensation within her mind, almost as if someone had patted her shoulder. She very much didn’t want to think about that, and yet, when would a better opportunity present itself?

“Is it that obvious?” Taylor asked.

Melissa chuckled. “Had an inkling it might happen ever since you brought the Major’s shell online, then you had The Major interacting with Shadow Stalker and kept that part of yourself distant enough that she came into her own. Once you and the Major are both up to it, we can have an in depth discussion about what it means to be plural.”

Taylor was about to ask several questions, like how the Major was currently dozing off yet she was wide awake, when an alert stole all her attention. She sat up in such a hurry she half pulled Melissa up with her. Melissa quickly found her shoulders, pushing Taylor back down onto the couch with muttered assurances about how being plural wasn’t anything bad.

Shaking her head, Taylor dispelled that misconception.

“Lisa’s awake.”

----------------------------------------

“Hey Tay,” her girlfriend said, the stumps of her limbs wiggling. “I’d get up to hug you, but…”

Taylor didn’t have that problem, closing the distance in a blink, pulling her into a crushing embrace. Tears came again, because her girlfriend was alive despite the assurances, there was a part of her that doubted. Those quiet whispers were quashed, because Lisa was there, awake and fully alert.

“You’re hard-headed, you know that?” Taylor said, smiling despite the fresh snot running from her nose. She helped Lisa sit up, for lack of a better word, then found a seat for herself.

“Fifty cal to the chest and dome, a proper double tap,” Lisa acknowledged with her usual grin before it fell away. “Jacob was here when I woke, he filled me in on a few things.”

“I’m joining the Nine,” Taylor said without preamble. “Well, technically the Major is, I’m just going to act as support, but that isn’t much of a consolation. We have Coil’s name, we know the depths we missed before. I don’t intend to repeat my prior mistakes, I will build a monument to his ruin from the ashes. I paid too steep a price, and I sold my father’s life for knowledge and allies in the fight to come. I’m already damned, Lise, I just worry about what this next act will cost me.”

“We all knew the risks,” Lisa said softly. “You saved my life when you gifted me my cyberware. I moved my head just enough to turn a kill shot into a glancing blow. Without you, I’d be dead now.”

“Your shell is a priority,” Taylor said. “We’re going to war and I want everyone involved at their best. Time is on our side for once, Legend is making sure Calvert is complacent when the time comes.”

“Tay, stop.”

She chuckled bitterly. “I can’t. Not without forsaking everything we’ve fought for.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Lisa said, rolling her eyes. “You said we have time, so use it. Don’t let him win by losing sight of the small things. Live, if for no other reason than to spite the bastard. Once I’m back on my feet, we’re all having another little vacation day, free of work and worry. Maybe we can go to Cali this time, shake things up.”

Taylor chuckled, the thought almost absurd, but she couldn’t deny that it sounded nice. “Sure, but repairs and preparations first. I won’t be able to rest otherwise.”

“That’s fair.”

Silence stretched between them for a moment, eventually Taylor sighed.

“Everyone who knows the Major will need to be read in on the Nine before this is all done. Hannah, Brian, Rachel, Alec, even Aisha and Sophia. I wonder if Jacob realized the implications of that.”

“I think he did,” Lisa said, looking off into the distance. “This feels like a turning point for his little band of murderers, because that is what they always were. Maybe they can become something more with your input.”

“I’m a bit green to be changing a decades-old group like that,” Taylor said. “For all my tech, I still largely use guns, and those won’t kill most Brutes.”

“Then direct the tools that can,” Lisa said. “You’re a natural commander and have an eye for deployments. Use that strength.”

Thinking of things in that context, Taylor considered the tools she would have at her disposal. Even though they were called the Nine, they rarely had the full nine members. She knew five of them personally, with the Major making the sixth. She would need to ask Jacob about the other members, get a read on what she could bring to bear. The Undersiders would be among them, as would Stalker and Militia. Both would want their pound of flesh for everything that went down.

She would give it to them, as best she could.

First though, Lisa was right. She needed to rest. Getting up, Taylor scooted Lisa over and curled up beside her. Both of them had slept, but that didn’t mean they were rested. No, for the moment she would relax with her girlfriend. Despite the nagging voice in the back of her mind reminding her of what it had cost for her to have such a moment, she was glad for it.

Lisa couldn’t hold her, and that brought fresh tears to her eyes.

There would be a reckoning, just not today.

For now, she would rest.