Truce Ch. 10

"We're telling you everything because you're one...excuse the pun, one half of the anomaly in this scenario, the one thing we haven't figured out yet."

"The other half being?"

"Maelstrom, as you probably knew."

I didn't need to acknowledge as everyone present knew, but I didn't know if I was hoping the anomaly would be something else. Just hearing her name aloud made the awareness of the chill more present.

"She has her own agenda, one not in-line with anyone else's goals. And you have a connection with her that defies everyone else's expectations."

"People were expecting...that to happen?"

"No, we didn't know what to expect. Frankly, we were highly concerned that she would just be a reckless, or aimed killing machine. Thankfully she's not after that, but she is after something, and is using you to help."

"What makes you think she's using me?"

"The strong, psychic connection we felt at the hospital. The one so deeply ingrained in you," Sibyl spoke, staring at me as if probing my head. "I don't think I've ever felt a connection that strong in someone; I have to wonder how much autonomy you think you really have."

Whatever happened to me where more than one presence occupied my head was still fresh on my memory. I'd be surprised about that autonomy myself if I gave it more thought.

"You being down here proves you still have some though."

"What?"

Bear interceded, taking over the proposal, pointing to ceiling. "This place was built in-mind with protective safeguards, including layered material meant to shield from external psychic intrusion. If you're feeling different in the head than you were above, that's probably why."

Having my arms crossed weakly masked me rubbing my shoulders to take the chill that was really the absence of Meredith's mental heat; I dropped them to my sides as I gave away proving their theory right.

"As powerful as she is, why would you think she need my help?"

"The prevailing theory? Because whatever they're doing to maintain her Megarch genetic make-up, it's an ongoing process. She hasn't openly rebelled or done away with her creators because she knows she's dependent on them. But like Sway has used Radio, Maelstrom is using you."

"...but you don't know what she's after."

"Do you have any idea what that might be?"

"Wouldn't know; if she's got her own agenda, I'm not aware."

"Probably how she wants it."

Even while doing my best not to give much away about her to them, it was unfortunate right they probably were. It didn't make me think less of her, but it made me concerned for what she wanted; just being her sex-toy was too good to be true after all.

"You never told me exactly what you wanted from me."

"We want you to take your comrades back to Epsilon, to outwardly pretend like this conversation never happened."

"What? You want me to take everyone back there, knowing it's all a front for something bad? Why not just wake them up and tell them what you told me?"

"Because we can only prove our theory to a certain extent, but we don't know who is truly aware of what's going on. We don't trust the ones in-charge, but we don't know whom to trust below them; we don't want to have to persuade more of Epsilon like we did Radio, which may not fully last against a psychic like Copula. And we don't know if they'd believe us if we told them the truth, so they can just assume you escaped and found a vehicle to drive back home. We'd like you to stay in Epsilon, to observe and help us gather solid-enough proof that we can expose them, for the sake of your comrades."

"So you just want to stop them? The Megarchs and everything?"

"We want to end their manipulation of Hierarchs altogether, especially stopping the production of Megarchs."

"And Maelstrom?"

"...we don't have quarrel with her, as long as she doesn't have any quarrel with us."

I couldn't have asked for a more diplomatic, honest-sounding answer than that.

"...is saying 'no' even an option?"

Bear let Sway answer. "It is an option. You can not believe a word you've heard here, and take us for another group just trying to upend one of the better ones in Epsilon; early in your career at Epsilon, it would be hard to blame you. But at this point, I think you've seen too much to not give it weight."

As if to punctuate their point, flashes of walking down identically-built hallways, finding Kasdien at both came to my thinking. Instead of showing emotion, I took a deep breath, and tried sticking to reasonable thoughts.

"Back to Epsilon?"

"Yes, and like you implied, sooner would be better than later," Bear agreed. Getting up to head back to the van, I was happy that everyone was walking back with me, meaning we could walk and still discuss things.

"Stupid question, but any compensation I can realistically expect?"

"Officially, we can't offer you anything; we can't undo the legal custody Epsilon still has over you. Unofficially, we'll see what we can do for you."

"And what assurances do I have that I won't end up like Radio? Half-aware and manipulated like everyone else seems to be doing?"

"We wouldn't tell you this much if we didn't want you to know."

I would've argued longer for guarantees of full disclosure, but I did worry about what would happen to Epsilon if we didn't make it to them before Hierguild could, even despite the recent revelation. Radio and me got into the passenger and driver sides; Sway made sure his seat belt was on before waking him up with new suggestions.

"Radio, you will soon wake, ready to take Half and the others back to Epsilon. You know he's been informed in-full, and are still dedicated to rooting out the mole in Epsilon, now with Half's help." He nodded gently, accepting everything directed at him.

"How would I get in-touch with you about my findings?"

"Through your hospital visits to Radio."

"And if something goes wrong?"

"'Goes wrong?'"

"If they catch me doing what you want?"

"If you sense something is up," Sway took an old flip phone from Bear to hand to me. "Dial in the number programmed in, escape as quickly as you can, and we'll try to get you to safety. In the meantime, Radio will accompany you part of the way, but then back to his other duties. Radio on."

Javier came back to life as if nothing was awry, starting the engine. "Ready to go?" he looked over at me. "Yeah," I kept my freaked-out feelings to myself as the ceiling doors opened for us to leave. Just before the it fully opened, the heat I'd been used to in my head for I don't know how long filled my head again, but instead of a comfortable return, it shot into me like a missile that'd finally locked on to its target. Finally no longer searching aimlessly, desperately, Maelstrom's power got to me, and feeling it all at once set my brain on fire. I know I screamed in pain from my seat, needing something, anything to make it stop. I felt hands holding my face, and my eyes opened to green eyes that somehow began smothering the fire, dousing it in gentle waves of color, until the flames fought back.

Racked from a higher threshold of pain than I ever thought possible, my mind was happy to be mindless and robbed of the ability to feel. Green and orange going from fighting to melding, it went from numb to weird in my head as dueling presences paved a path of communication again, where I was the conduit for two mesmerizers to talk. I heard both Sway's and Meredith's voices, first in angry tones, then measured ones. Lacking the brainpower to appreciate any of the words, I just served as the road, resting beneath them until I was freed sometime later. Opening my eyes, we were back on the road with the sunset off in the distance, meaning I'd been out longer than I thought.

"You alright," Radio asked in earnest.

"Yeah, guess my mind was just...overcharged earlier."

"That much of a surprise will do that to you."

"No shit." We both laughed, finally taking in some levity. It sucked that I couldn't talk to him about everything, since Sway probably wouldn't let him accept things I knew that he wasn't supposed to, but knowing he was physically fine was a huge weight of me, and that kept me in higher spirits.

"Good to have you back in the field, man. You've been sorely missed."

"Good to be back, though I'm glad you're in the more need-to-know now."

I kept a larger smile to myself for his wording. "And I guess thanks for an induction into another secret organization where we can do some good."

"Heh, yeah, sorry. Epsilon is currently under construction; we'll get it fixed though."

"Yeah..." didn't dwell on that one, thinking I might have to be ready to help him accept some hard truths soon.

***

Took an hour or two, but I finally recognized familiar signs and landmarks that meant we were only an hour away from Epsilon. Driving down a back-country road, near an abandoned farmhouse serving as an old Epsilon fallback point, Radio parked the van, and had us both get out. The plan from there was to get back on the road with the van, while he would get back to his mission with another nearby car stashed away. While he was checking on his own getaway car, before I could even look back to check on my teammates, a voice in my head stopped me cold.

"Half?"

I froze in-place, not expecting to hear Copula's voice.

"Half!"

"Copula? Y-you're awake."

"Been awake for a little while, but playing possum. How long have we been driving?"

"B-been a while," I looked towards her chamber, and tried to keep from or sounding like I was panicking. She was waking up much sooner than we'd hoped.

"What's happened?"

"I-we escaped and we're on our way back to Epsilon."

"Thank god. I sensed someone else nearby, but can't get to them. Some kind of psych shielding. Are they Hierguild?"

"...kind of a long story," I answered without answering.

"Well don't worry. Epsilon is on their way to us now."

"What? How?"

"There's a transponder on my outfit I activated. Don't know where we were that's been blocking it, but it's finally picking up a signal now. Hopefully they'll meet up with us soon enough t-"

From out of nowhere, a bright headlight shone in the distance, and the van we were in started tipping over, as if someone was gently pushing on it. The van landed hard on its side, and I was knocked over a little bit from the passenger seat. Off in the distance, near where the bright light was shining, I saw figures walking towards us, followed by one walking around the van, big enough to block the view.

"Mountain?"

"Good evening Half, hope this hasn't turned your night sideways."

I cursed at him in Russian and I looked back to check on Copula and the twins. They were all awake, looking confused and bruised at worst, thankfully. But when I looked back, more figures appeared, emerging from the barn, looking like Hierguild brought more than just their Hierarchs. Walking towards the back, Mountain easily ripped the back doors out, and kindly ushered everyone to step out.

We all exited with our hands up, seeing we were surrounded. It looked like most of Hierguild was there to greet us, even Maelstrom, looking pointedly at us. Driver walked towards us with a big smile, walking a bruised Radio in handcuffs, still dressed in Hierguild garb, in-tow. The look of shock on my teammates faces topped mine, as he was the last person they expected to see, let alone see him walking.

"Quite a night, isn't it folks?" Driver spoke, annoyingly proud of himself. "I thought all that employee tire tracking stuff the guild had me doing in my spare time was nonsense, plotting activity routes of the mundane, so frigging boring. But I have to give them credit; all those tracks your 'incapacitated' leader made over time working for us, led to quite the revelation."

Seeing Radio's teammates approaching seething levels, Driver dug the knife in a little further, draping is arm over his shoulder as if they were old war buddies.

"But vet to vet, Radio, I'm a bit shocked; turning solider of fortune on everyone, all the positions you could've had with us, and you chose the lowest-paying one. Strange, but I guess it's the less tedious work they make you do. And it's hard to believe that your teammates didn't know about your second job, but judging by their faces and broken spirits, I believe it now. And so happy to be here to witness it."

Radio shook off Driver with medium effort, knowing he'd be shot if he put up any real fight. His head was up rather than down in-shame despite how bad everything looked, facing down angry gazes.

"I'm sorry, guys. I'll explain this l-"

"YOU'LL EXPLAIN NOTHING, YOU SON OF A-" Gerry tried to jump Radio from where he stood, but Mountain kept him firmly in place.

"Looking forward to sticking you all in a room for a nice reunion back at base, but for now, y-"

"FREEZE!" Headlights from the opposite direction of the downed van shone and started blinding people, Expender and the Epsilon guards arriving in the nick of time for an old-fashioned stand-off. Anyone that had a gun pointed it at someone else armed. Most of the Hierarchs stood close to each other, ready to square off.

Everyone looked nervous as hell, as if waiting for someone else to fire the first shot. Standing in the middle of a potential cross-fire, I was a literal dear-in-headlights, just waiting for something bad to happen. Looking around, everyone looked the same.

Maelstrom only looked half-panicked, concerned enough to take a few deliberate steps closer towards the Hierarch cluster in the center; she stopped, and the tress in-front of her face cycled through several colors till it lit blue, and a wave of that blue light spread through the area, helping her to take stock of where everyone was and how many. That got everyone's attention, including Copula to turned her head just in-time to see Maelstrom's tress and eyes turn orange, and hypnotic fire burned into the psychic; she gasped for a moment, but then went immediately calm as they continued to stare at each other.

Everyone went from waiting for a shot to be fired to waiting to see what Maelstrom was doing to Copula, and the reaction. Reaching out to the heat, surprised that her most protected secret was now out in the open, I asked from my own head what she was doing. She responded with a smile, turning her gaze towards me to fill my head with the gentler-than-earlier, but still insistent fire as well, and uttering familiar words that put me at just as much ease as Copula - "Worry not little moth - I am in-control."

Her soothing words came just in-time, right before everyone started noticing Copula started breathing deeper, lost in her own world, unaware and uncaring of everything else around her. The muscles around her eyes laxed, lids fluttering, but her gaze never escaped Maelstrom's fire, reflectively shining, almost pulsing in-time her breathing. All eyes were riveted to Copula, how she hugged herself, cradled herself in pleasure. Those closest felt her flex her mental powers, reaching out to everyone close by. Every Hierarch could sense what that fire inside of her was doing, enraptured by how she shuddered, bit her lip, how her eyes eventually fluttered closed, only to open moments later, vacant eyes exuding torch fire everyone could see.

Surrounding minds caught quick glimpses, flashes of moments in time of when she'd been affected before. But the connection to her power sucked part of my subconscious into the space Copula's mental avatar occupied.

***

Time in reality ceased as hypnotic fire burned all around us, carrying Maelstrom's essence as Copula could only stand and watch highlights of herself succumbing in visions within the flames.

"How scary was that for you?" a voice from the fire asked, revealing the memory of the last mission Maelstrom embarrassed Epsilon single-handedly, the one I was teased with second-hand. Her figure gasped at the voice coming from nowhere and everywhere, bearing a seductive tone, so interested in having her relive defeat.

"To be the last one standing? To know your doom was coming? To try to reach out to penetrate my mind, only to feel my absolute confidence in the inevitable. That confidence must've burned in you before my eyes did. Remember how you felt then? Remember the emotion that washed over you? The relief?" The way she shivered and failed hiding it showed how exposed she felt; unable to hide emotion in the fire, I felt the thrill of being exposed buried deep inside her, growing stronger by the moment. I know my own reaction was heightened as the moments gave way to her acceptance of the described memory. Her arms grew less crossed, hands beginning to search for stimulation.

"Relief, Rita. To know that it was coming, to know what was coming. To know you no longer had a say in the matter. You saw your future, and couldn't wait for it to become your present, giving yourself a present, presenting yourself before my gaze."

Watching the past vision, focused, steadfast Copula was almost instantly gone the moment her gazed locked on, fire burning away everything but surrendered, surprisingly-ravenous Rita. Repression kept her power and sexuality running like a controlled tap, keeping the urge for raging waters in check; it was useful until challenged by the shock of the Megarch's intensity, and what had driven her to that point. Rita's avatar slipped down to her knees as easily as she did for Maelstrom during her defeat, rewarding obedience with hot, phantom touches of pleasure. Freedom became the dominant emotion, her own hands grasping and her breasts and between her legs as she continued staring.

Maelstrom seemed so delighted, being the easiest taken down, feeling her wanting it, feeling the potential this held. Despite all the hands promoting pleasure in the fire, the Megarch's own on her head, stroking her head and face made her moan. "Our little secret," she heard in her own mind, nodding in agreement. After being commanded to sleep in the vision, her mind and her own powers work to keep this memory hidden until Maelstrom resurrected it.

"So relieved, so happy, to be free to let go, to be a woman, unsaddled with control of others, losing control to someone that understands, that encourages letting go, and giving in. Knowing how it feels, knowing the rewards for surrender and obedience, you would happily give in the next chance you got."

The vision the avatar witnessed shifted to when Maelstrom poured fire into Copula's deprivation chamber before ever reaching mine at Hierguild. There was no struggle from the enclosed psychic, no time to as the fire rekindled the memory, and the freedom.

"That's right Rita, free again. Free to surrender, free to obey, free to release control to me." The dumb grin across her face proved she found a much better way to cope with cruel, debilitating incarceration.

"I can feel how much you've missed this, wanted it, yearned for it. Obeying the need to keep this a secret has kept you happy, I can tell. But I can also tell inside how much you don't want it to be a secret. You hide it because you obey, but oh how you'd love to be told to share, to show people the pleasure of the real you."

All of a sudden, the pleasure of secrecy turned into the yearning for unrestrained expression, a spontaneous itch she so wanted to scratch. More fire went into her eyes, into her mind to modify the undefined control set, an actual plan for Copula ready to be put into place.

"Hiding it because you're told to is hot, but showing them all the pleasure that burns inside you would be so much hotter. So hot, that just being around you shows them the pleasure, gives them the pleasure. Imagine the beauty of it; a misunderstood soul burning so bright, others get caught in the inferno. When I allow, when you next see my gaze, when you receive my command, you will hide no longer, and spread your pleasure, and my power to those around. Spread love, life, and fire, at my command." Imperious authority colored the tone of her words at the end, demanding obedience, but it made Maelstrom smile that it was received like a loving caress still.