"Chambers, do you mind telling us what the hell kind of situation you got yourself into this time?"

Those were the first words that met Felicity as she stepped into the cargo hold of a small and rather unassuming freighter with the innocuous name of Tripsetter. On paper, or whatever the Seosten equivalent was, the ship was carrying food stuffs for one of the more urbanized colony worlds. Earth was locked off from most of the universe, so food from the planet was considered a delicacy in the few places that could get it. Apparently there were a lot of hoops for just a ship to jump through in order to get permission to come to the planet, collect food, and go deliver it.

There was a really long waiting list, to say the least. All of which meant that the captain of this particular ship had owed Charmeine a pretty damn big favor for helping him get his own little, personally-owned vessel not only onto that waiting list, but right to the top of it. He owed her so much, in fact, that he'd barely tried to kick up any sort of fuss when she told him to help quietly smuggle some humans away from the planet, right out from under the eyes of all her superiors.

Of course, maybe he hadn't made too much of a fuss because he knew just how little it would end up helping him change Charmeine's mind, and how easily it would backfire if he pissed her off. Charmeine really didn't come off as the type of person who would shrug off that sort of refusal. Or any sort of refusal. Honestly, she didn't seem like the type of person who shrugged off anything. The woman clearly held grudges, and it would be stupid to jump onto her bad side.

With those thoughts passing briefly through her mind as she stood in the open cargo bay doors, Flick took in the sight in front of her. The rest of her team was there in the empty room, of course. Avalon, Sands, Scout, Columbus, and Sean. But there was also Jazz, Paul, Isaac, Gordon, Rudolph, and Douglas. Also Roxa, who had shown up at the hotel room while both of the teams were arguing with each other about… well, about Flick herself. Worse, she had shown up with Paul's body, while 'Paul' was right there with the group. That had caused even more arguments.

All of which had stopped --sort of-- when all of them had been teleported up into this cargo bay.

They were all about to work together to break out of the place and do some real damage to the ship when Flick appeared. Which led to Avalon's understandably exasperated question as she and the rest of the blonde girl's team stood slightly on the left side, while most of the other team stood slightly to the right. Except for Roxa, who was in the middle, holding her hands up to stop her own friends from trying to do anything drastic to Flick or the ship, at least for a few seconds.

"Okay, uh, hi, guys." Raising a hand to wave a bit awkwardly, Flick crossed the distance to the others, some part of her recognizing the way Jazz and the rest of that group tensed up into clear defensive postures. "So, there's a lot to talk about. But hey, I guess we have some extra time before we get out of the solar system and can make a jump, or a skip, or whatever they call it."

Well, that started a whole bombardment of questions from everyone, but there really hadn't been a great way to rip off that band-aid. Flick let them all shout at her for a minute before her hands rose to gesture for them to wait. Even then, it took Avalon and Sands both snapping at Jazz and the rest on that side to just shut up for a few seconds so Flick could explain the girl could actually talk again.

"Here's the thing, there's a lot to explain, so I'm just gonna take it from the top," she finally told them once they were actually listening. "These guys don't know about the Seosten, so I'll start with that and work up to the rest of it. Oh and uhh…" She took a small remote from one pocket and fumbled with it a little before finding the control she'd been shown. Once she did, several comfortable-looking chairs began to materialize around them. "You might wanna sit down for it."

So, over the next hour or so, Flick gave all of them the full rundown about the Seosten, the origins of Crossroads and the Bystander Effect, and what had happened back there in New York. That included telling them that she herself had secretly been possessed since she was a child, which was the source of her apparent immunity to anyone else possessing her. She told them about being taken by Charmeine to get her out of the way so Avalon could be blamed for attacking and even killing the others (with a couple bodies left for proof while the rest would have been taken to the Seosten worlds to be possessed and used as actual living warsuits.

When she got to the part about Roxa's old team being manipulated to see her as a threat in order to provoke the fight that would lead to all that, the other girl herself piped up to confirm that much while also admitting that she had been turned by a werewolf. Which was also why she'd been away from the school for so long while they looked for the ring of Anuk-Ite to hide her from the Heretic sense. She also explained that she'd seen the man who had been taking Rudolph away after Flick was captured, saved him, and together they had found Paul's body in the trunk.

Of course, that led to everyone looking back and forth between the dead Paul laying nearby, and the living one sitting right there with them. "Okay, enough of this shit for a second," Jazz quickly snapped. "I wanna know which of these is the real Paul. And I want--" Her voice caught, making the girl choke slightly. "I wanna know who's responsible for it. If it's a fake--fake body or a real one, the… the real one, I wanna know who made it. I want to know the truth, right fucking now." Her hand waved toward Roxa. "You're a werewolf, Flick's possessed or was possessed, you all keep saying shit like how these Sayaustin created the Bystander Effect and secretly run our whole world or whatever. But what I really wanna know right now is what happened to Paul!?"

"Well, obviously, I'm the real one right here," 'Paul' himself put in as he stood up. "You guys know me, so come on. You've gotta know that body isn't really me. It's obvious Chambers and maybe even Avalon have been corrupted. Roxa too. She said it herself, she's a werewolf now. They're trying to manipulate us, turn us against each other. This whole thing is just some big--"

"Shut up, Fetch." The sudden interruption came from Charmeine herself, who had just come into the room. "Shift back and go try to make yourself useful, the captain's got some work for you."

There was the slightest pause before 'Paul' offered a shrug. His form began to shift and twist a bit before blurring as he became a tall reptilian figure. Without another word, he strode past the Seosten woman, leaving Jazz and (most of) the others staring after him in disbelief, shock, and then rapidly-mounting grief as they all realized the body on the floor really was the boy himself.

"You can all get back to your tea party in a minute," Charmeine was already saying. "But right now, I need to lay out a few ground rules. You do not leave this area. The kid there has the remote to set up furniture so you can sleep, and there'll be food and stuff delivered for you." Her voice left no room for arguing or complaining. "The hatch right over there leads to the toilets and showers. You do not go anywhere other than this room or that one. Talk amongst yourselves, play games, kill each other for all I care. But no one leaves this cargo bay until I tell you to."

"Okay," Jazz snapped in a voice that made it very clear just how close she was to completely losing it right then, "I don't know who you think you are, but if someone killed our friend, I--"

"Someone?" Charmeine echoed, before obviously realizing, "Oh, right. I almost forgot. He's the one." Her hand gave a dismissive flick toward Isaac, who was just sitting there trying to blend in.

As everyone's eyes turned that way, Isaac himself jolted a bit, making a sound of confusion and disbelief. "What the fuck? Who even is this bitch? She's just trying to turn us against each other."

With a dangerous, toothy smile, Charmeine spoke slowly and pointedly, "Think very carefully right now, little boy. Who are you more afraid of being angry with you, these children, or me?"

The question hung in the air for a few long seconds as both stared at one another, but it was Isaac who blinked first. With a visible flinch, he stepped away from the rest of the group. "Yeah, fine, they came to me and I helped them. I helped them kill Pericles, and then I killed Paul cuz it got him out of the way. He was an annoying moralizing fuck, and it opened up a slot in the team for Fetch. Watching him manipulate you all was almost as fun as sliding that knife into Paul was." After getting that out, with the entire group staring at him in shock, he whistled. "Boy, I feel better now. I'll let you all simmer on that while I go help Fetch with whatever the captain needs."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Oh please," Charmeine scoffed immediately, "as if I'd trust a monster like you to do anything. The one and only reason you were useful at all is when you could spy on the children there. That's over."

Isaac stared at her in disbelief, hands flailing wildly as he snapped. "So, why the fuck did you make me blow my cover if having it was the only reason you fucks wanted to have me around!?"

"First, I never wanted to have you around to begin with, that was all Manakel's decision," the woman informed him flatly. "But he's not actually involved in this anymore. And the reason I wanted you to tell them the truth is so they might not feel as bad about what I have to say next."

Her eyes shifted to the rest of the group, who were all staring at her. Their gazes were wary at best, and outright hostile for the most part. She paid no attention to that, simply announcing, "You heard him. The boy helped my people kill your Professor Pericles. And he killed others besides that. His first victim was his own sister while he was still human. We found him because he was a monster. We recruited him because he was useful. Now his usefulness is over. But he has plenty of powers one of you could benefit from. Consider this a test. Don't disappoint me."

"Hey, what the fuck!?" Isaac blurted, even as she pivoted on her heel to walk back out. "Get back here, bitch! What do you think--" He stopped in the midst of trying to chase after her, as Sands, Scout, Gordon, Rudolph, and Avalon blocked his path. "Come on, you can't tell me you're actually falling for this. She's just manipulating you stupid dipshits, all of you. She made me say that stuff. She just wants to turn us against each other. It's Flick, she's the threat. She just-- we have to get out of this together. We're stuck here, just us humans, right? Guys? Guys?"

Striding away from the door after hearing that much, Charmeine spoke up sharply. "Come on then, kid. You said you wanted to make sure Blondie was okay, and she is. So let's go talk."

Tabbris, who had been told to stay outside the room and just listen as part of their deal, bit her lip while staring after the woman. She was torn, looking back toward the closed door where she could hear muffled sounds of conflict, before gulping as she pointed out, "But they're fighting. What if Flick gets hurt? What if one of the others gets hurt? You said he has a lot of powers."

Giving a heavy sigh, Charmeine turned back that way. "Look, kid, he's by himself in there. I took away his only ally. If Chambers and the other ten voids-damned people in that room can't handle one guy, I don't know what to tell you besides they clearly don't deserve to come along with us."

Tabbris clenched her small fists, hesitating again. She wanted to go back there, wanted to help Flick. Heck, she wanted to help the others even if they didn't trust her at all yet. She liked Sands, Avalon, Sarah-- wait, she'd started going by Scout since the last time Mama knew her, all of them. She wanted to make sure they were okay. If anything bad happened to any of them while she was gone, she'd… she'd never forgive herself. But this whole thing with Charmeine was just… really new and tenuous. Tabbris was afraid that if she pushed the woman too much, if she refused to go with her right now and talk, it might make things worse in the long run. Besides, Charmeine knew her mama, and wanted to help her. Flick would be okay in there for now, with all the others, right? This might be her only chance to actually save her mother.

Yes, her only chance to save a mother who had given her a job to do. Straightening and puffing herself up as much as she could, Tabbris informed the woman, "Mama told me to protect Flick."

Looking back over her shoulder as though surprised the girl hadn't already fallen into line behind her, Charmeine squinted as she processed that before giving an annoyed sigh. "Are you serious right now? You're not gonna let that go?" Her eyes rolled as she walked back that way, stopping in front of the girl. At first, Tabbris thought she'd be dragged along with her, but in the end, the woman just gave a short, dismissive flick with one hand to swat the side of her shoulder lightly. "Fine, whatever, just jump back into her if you're that worried about the useless humans. When it's done, get your ass up to my quarters so we can talk. And make sure you come by yourself."

As Tabbris beamed and thanked her, Charmeine remained silent. When the kid recalled right back to her human host, she muttered something about never understanding Sariel at all. Then she shrugged and went right back to walking away from the cargo bay. It was like she'd said, if the humans couldn't handle one of their own, they didn't deserve to come along on this trip at all. They would just be liabilities, and that was the last thing she needed right now. Or ever.

Besides, if worse came to worst and Sariel's kid ended up in actual danger, the emergency teleport button Charmeine had just secretly slipped onto her bodysuit with that little flick on her shoulder would activate and summon her right back to the woman's side. She might be willing to let the kid try to do what her mother asked her to, but she sure wasn't about to let that actually get her hurt. That was sort of the relationship she'd had with Sariel herself for awhile, actually. As much as possible, anyway.

If they survived that fight and did what needed to be done, they could move on to the next test, the next bit of training. And maybe, maybe by the time they found their way to wherever Kushiel was keeping Sariel, these idiot humans would prove themselves more useful than dead weight.

****************

In the end, Charmeine was waiting in her quarters for fifteen minutes before the kid made her way there. She knew the fight was over long before then, and exactly how it had turned out. But she wouldn't give her shit for not coming immediately, despite what she'd said. Even Charmeine realized the humans needed to talk about things, and Sariel's daughter could help with that. It was better for her to be there explaining what she could than for Charmeine herself to have to.

Once she finally showed up, the woman ordered the door to open and watched from the desk she'd appropriated as the kid came in. Before she could say anything, Charmeine spoke up to make it clear she knew exactly what had happened. "So, your girl didn't get the killing blow."

Tabbris had the nerve to grin at that. "I knew you'd watch and make sure they were safe!"

"They can all void-drop for all I care," the woman snapped, giving a quick headshake. "I needed to know if they all died so I could deal with the freak myself before he became a bigger problem. And now I still get to be disappointed about your chosen host. She should have been the one to kill him. Her or the heir."

"Avalon has an actual name, you know," the kid retorted, lifting her chin as she stared her down. "One I think you probably know pretty well, since you've all been trying to kill her for so long."

Squinting that way for a moment, Charmeine let the silence build just enough to make the kid uncomfortable before rolling her eyes. "Yes, her, whatever. I do hope that's not going to be a problem. I offered a truce until we find your mother, and I meant it. If she, or any of the others, think they can take advantage of my kindness, they can leave this ship right now."

"You'd go back or find a planet for th--" Tabbris started to ask, before realizing. "Oh, you mean leave as in go right out the airlock. Um, no, I don't think you have to do that. Most of them aren't very happy about what's going on, but they understand. I mean, sorta. They're still, uh, working it out a bit. But I didn't wanna make you wait anymore. Flick and the others are still explaining it, and umm… umm, well they sorta really need somebody to do something with Isaac's body."

"And the other one?" Charmeine asked curiously. "As I recall, there should be two bodies now."

Tabbris hesitated for a second before giving a short nod. "They want you to get Isaac's body out and do whatever with it. Just get rid of it. But they want to put Paul's body in storage so we can bring it back with us. They want to take him home when this is over. After we save Mama."

"Does that mean they all wish to be part of this rescue mission?" Charmeine couldn't quite keep the surprise out of her voice. Not that she tried that hard. "I would have thought most wouldn't care. But then, I would've thought you'd still be trying to make the Chambers girl understand that you weren't a threat."

The young girl squirmed at that, ducking her gaze and fidgeting self-consciously before replying, "She's-- I mean, we're all still working on that. We don't know who's going to help yet. But we know they have to stay with the ship, even if they don't want to be part of the mission. They, um, know they don't really have a choice. Right now, I think they just need time to talk about all that. That's kind of why I wanted to come up here anyway. You know, so I don't scare them."

"Oh yeah, kid," Charmeine agreed dryly, "I can see why they'd be terrified of you." With that, she rose and walked past the girl to head into the corridor. "Whatever, I'll get to them later. If we're really lucky, maybe a couple of them will kill each other off so we'll have fewer to deal with." When the kid gave her a reproachful look, she waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, don't stare at me like that, I've got my money on your girl making a good show of herself. Though I guess part of that would depend on which side werewolf girl throws down on, since she's the one who managed to kill the freak in there. Bet she picked up a fair assortment of his powers that way."

Deciding it was probably best to let all that go, Tabbris followed after the woman while asking, "Where are we going? Um, we as in the ship, and we as in the two of us."

Charmeine answered easily enough. "We the ship are going to a place where I know someone who can use your blood to find where Kushiel is keeping your mom. We the two of us are going to the bar, because you're going to tell me everything you know about that place. Then I'll go talk to the humans.

"And I'm not sure which of those things I'm gonna need a drink for the most."

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