There were a few seconds of silence before Rachel nodded.
"Socks, Radley, catch!" she barked.
"I have a feeling of déjà vu," Taylor mused as she jumped sideways to avoid the two lizard-doggo charging her.
"You don't say!" Lisa yelled as she held onto her back for dear life. "Rach! Stop!"
She took a few steps sideways to put herself between Socks and Radley. To her right, Rachel was already empowering two more members of her pack. The dogs were well trained and used to working together. Radley jumped forward and to her right, an attempt to grab Taylor around the neck to immobilize her, while Socks covered her left flank.
Unfortunately for them, she was not a regular opponent. She jumped above Radley with the assistance of her telekinesis, a few platforms of force forming under her paws, and with a theatrical swish of her fluffy tail in his face, delivered a psionic command to sleep.
The dog drunkenly staggered for a few feet then slumped to the ground. Socks looked at his friend for a fraction of a second then went back on the offensive. He faced Taylor and tried to intimidate her with a low growl, she replied with a loud howl and slammed her right forepaw on the ground. A green magic circle appeared underneath and vines burst into life under her opponent. Socks wasn't quick enough to avoid them and was ensnared by the living vegetation.
"Coco! Go!" Rachel said, riding on top of the dog. "Bear! Flank!"
Both of them ran at Taylor bur, instead of an attack, Rachel grabbed Lisa off her back once she was close. With a movement the Undersiders had practiced for several hours, Lisa climbed on the dog's back behind Rachel.
"Hey!" Taylor said. "No stealing!"
"Rach," Lisa pleaded. "This is Taylor."
"I know," the stocky girl replied.
"Why are you fighting then?" Lisa asked, confused.
"It's fun," Rach simply replied.
Taylor rolled to the side to dodge Bear's attempt to grab her. She turned his attack against him and used her bulk to shove him inside a zone of negative gravity she had just created. Bear barked in surprise when his feet left the ground.
Finally, Rachel and Coco came at her with a frontal assault. Taylor obliged and ran at them. Right before a collision could happen, Taylor jumped and transformed mid-air. With a little telekinetic help, she landed right in front of Rachel.
"I'm back," she announced with a smile.
Rachel didn't wait and kissed her while Coco made a few confused noises. After ten seconds, Rachel stopped the kiss. "Coco, fine, stop," she said and the dog quieted down. "Free them," she told Taylor, there was no room for argument.
"Of course," she released her powers. The zero gravity area gently put Bear back down gently, the vines receded from Socks, and Radley woke up.
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Rachel took a few minutes to look over the dogs that had participated in the fight. They were, of course, all in good health, Taylor had made sure to use powers that would leave no marks. Once everything was in order, Rachel whistled and the whole pack of dock gathered in the clearing.
"Let's go," she said.
"Go where?" Taylor asked.
"Wherever," Rachel replied. "You came back, I'm following."
Taylor blinked a few times in surprise, she hadn't expected that.
"Let's go back to the village first," she said. "I can tell you where I've been and what my plan was on the way."
Rachel nodded and gave out two whistles. The pack dispersed slightly but followed them as they walked through the forest.
"So, where have you been?" Rachel finally asked. "Liz told me you kicked the bucket after Sion. Knew she was full of shit." She gave a cocky grin to the blonde.
"More like my source was full of shit," Lisa huffed. "Contessa told Legend you were dead, he was convinced it was true."
"To be fair, she tried," Taylor shrugged, "it just didn't stick. As to where I've been … It's a long story."
"Plenty of time," Rachel said. "And I like your stories."
"Well, right after Hit Bitch gave me the nine millimeter goodbye …" She began.
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"So you're like a baby Scion now, only less of a dumbass," Rachel summarized things, "and you have a spaceship." Taylor nodded. "This is like an episode of Star Trek."
"You watch Star Trek?" Lisa said, surprised.
"Ol' Hendricks brought some tapes, lots of old movies and series," Rachel explained, "kids love em' and I watch sometimes. Hana brought some books and she taught me how to read better too. I wanted to read some of that classic stuff you babbled about all the time."
Lisa gave Taylor a look and she realized that Rachel had done it for her, to remember her in a way.
"I'm proud of you," Taylor embraced her, "and I hope you liked them."
"So, Tay, what's the plan now? Abduct us and go explore the galaxy with your alien buddies?"
"More or less, yeah," she smiled. "I don't want to stay here. Too many difficult memories."
"I have a good thing going here," Lisa said, "but with Teacher starting to prod, maybe it's better if I make myself scarce. The rest of the crew all settled down here and there, they'll be fine without us. Rach?"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"Where you go, I go," Rachel repeated. "How many dogs can I bring?"
"The ship is pretty big," Taylor answered, "but it's not designed with animals in mind and we'll probably be in space a lot. I do have plans for some upgrades in the future but a greenhouse and kennel are pretty far down the list."
"I'll bring three," Rachel said. "The rest can stay at the village, they'll take good care of them."
That was a lot of trust. It looked like the inhabitants of the village had grown on her.
"Three is perfect," Taylor nodded. "Food won't be a problem, I'll have a food synthesizer ready by the time we leave. You'll be able to tailor their diets however you want."
"Tinkers are better when they're on your team," Rachel smiled.
"And your girlfriend," Lisa added. "So … when can we see that spaceship?"
Taylor took a look at her omni-tool, the Celebrimbor was on its way to geo-synchronous orbit. Her drones had managed to install the high priority upgrades. Even if the Simurgh decided to poke at it, they would be fine.
"Mordin, Lela, and Niusa will be back in a few hours," she said. "If you have a telescope, we'll be able to see it when the night comes."
"Stella has a big one," Rachel said, "she loves to watch the stars."
"We have the time," Taylor continued, "I'll need a few days to move your shards to their own subspace pockets and upgrade everything."
"I was wondering how," Lisa looked at the sky, "powers normally don't work in space after all."
"That's an artificial limitation. Shards would have enough range to cover the whole solar system but it's easier to contain a host species to a single planet."
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They reached the village close to the start of the evening. The sun hadn't yet disappeared behind the horizon but was well on its way there. The few people still tending the gardens outside waved to Rachel as they passed by and, when they entered the village, most of the inhabitants also greeted her with smiles. Her house was near the center of town and doubled as a large kennel though it looked like plenty of dogs lived with the villagers as well.
Rachel led her pack inside and they trotted to their assigned pens with excellent discipline.
"Back already, boss?" Someone asked, a girl with mocha colored skin and bright blue eyes peeked from around a corner. "Oh, Tattletale is here too? And … Skitter? Is that you?"
"It's just Taylor now," she smiled, "I'm done with the cape life."
The girl nodded. "I was about to feed everyone," she added. "I'll take care of them."
"Socks, Radley, Bear, and Coco get extra today," Rachel said, "used my power on them."
"Okay boss!" The girl gave a quick whistle and the pack of dogs that was with them went to follow her instead.
Rachel made a motion for them to follow. She led Taylor and Lisa to a small house attached to the kennel. It was built mostly out of wood but the construction looked sturdy nonetheless. Rachel opened the door, no real need for a lock in a small village where everybody knew each other, and Taylor stepped inside behind her. The interior was sparsely decorated but it was obvious that every item was significant.
Directly to the right of the door was a modest kitchen with a gas stove, a work surface, some cupboards, and even a fridge. Several pots and pans were hooked on the wall where there was space. On the other side of the door was a circular table with three chairs. Behind that was a living room with some chairs and a large fireplace. At the back of the room were some stairs that led to the second floor.
"It's pretty nice," Taylor remarked.
"Nicer with you here," Rachel replied with a slight blush on her cheeks.
"And what am I, chopped liver?" Lisa asked as she clutched her heart in an exaggerated way.
"You come by every month," Rachel said bluntly, "and always complain it's cold in winter."
"Now, now," Taylor grabbed both of them by the waist and pulled them closer. "No fighting."
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Niusa and the rest of the crew had elected to spend the rest of the night on the ship, mostly because they did not have any accommodations planet-side. It was fine for Taylor, it gave her a bit more time to spend with her two girlfriends. Rachel's bed was large enough for three people, barely. They all fit if they were very close to each other, not that any of them minded that state of affair. Taylor had almost been surprised when she had seen it but she probably shouldn't have been. Rachel was the one who had kept some hope of her survival and she'd made sure she would find a nice place to return to.
In the background, Asteria started the process to disconnect Negotiator and Reinforcer, Rachel's shard, from the broader network and move them to a subspace pocket. The first part was relatively easy, the network was not in any position to stop her, but the second would need some time to deploy the necessary hardware to the right dimensions to kickstart the process.
Asteria was an administration shard and her word was law, only other nobles could butt heads with her on equal ground. It was convenient for her that most of them had either perished when Scion had been struck by the weapon or were deployed and their restrictions prevented them from intervening more directly.
Maybe it wasn't surprising she had never gotten along with Panacea, Shaper was as abrasive as her host and it had sent several passive-aggressive queries the instant Asteria had connected. Apparently, it expected Administrator to, and it was a direct quote, "fix this mess you created with your childish rebellion." Never mind that Shaper was several million years younger.
It reaffirmed her decision that she did not want to stay and "fix this mess."
After a simple meal, Taylor and her two girlfriends spent the night cuddling with each other. Lisa and Rachel summarized the events of the last two years from their points of view. It had been both better and worse than she had expected. The death toll across different earths had reached the billions and the immediate aftermath had been as chaotic as one might expect. Things took time to settle down but the portals scattered about helped, the survivors could gather more easily and communities started to form.
Humans were like cockroaches, very hard to get rid of completely.
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The next day, Mordin flew back to the village with Niusa while Lela chose to stay on board the Celebrimbor and keep an eye on things. In the village, Rachel announced her permanent departure in the most blunt way possible. She took three of her dogs, or wolf in the case of Bastard, told the assembled adults that she was leaving with me, and to take care of the rest of the dogs. The girl they had seen the previous day, her name was Cassie, and all the other members of the Sons of Bitch congratulated her on finally being reunited with Taylor and promised to watch over the village in her stead.
There were some odd looks in Taylor's directions from some of the adults, she had just shown up and taken their protector after all, but they didn't protest. She guessed they all knew that once Rachel's mind was made, it was nearly impossible to change it. Instead, they helped her pack the things she wanted to bring in several crates and had a small improvised farewell party.
Taylor helped carry Rachel's possessions all the way to the shuttle and nearly the entire village was gathered to see them depart. The three dogs jumped into the craft and started to sniff everywhere inside. They were particularly interested in Niusa and Mordin. A quick command from Rachel made them calm down and sit near the crates stacked at the back of the shuttle.
"Rachel, these are Mordin, salarian doctor, and Niusa, asari mercenary," she gave a shortened introduction, "and the third member of the crew, Lela, stayed on the ship."
"Nice to meet you," Niusa smiled and extended her hand.
Rachel had obviously become better at dealing with humans over the last two years but it seemed she was still not a fan of smiles when they were on strangers. She bared her teeth and looked at Niusa with narrowed eyes for a few seconds then went to take a seat at the back of the shuttle next to her dogs.
"Did I do something wrong?" Niusa whispered.
"No, she's suspicious of everyone she doesn't know," Taylor explained. "She'll warm up to you, once you save her life once or twice. If you want to interact with the dogs, ask her first, they're like family to her."
Niusa gave a quick nod. "I'll give her some space then."
"Ready to take off?" Taylor asked. "Rachel, come on and say goodbye to everyone."
The girl gave a grunt of displeasure at first but she nonetheless came to the door. With a smile, she waved at the assembled crowd one last time. "Good luck everyone."