"Vi," said the scrawny man at the entrance, Huck. "I had hoped you'd come back."
"You filthy traitor," Vi growled, hands closing into fists, at least she had left her gauntlets behind, so there was less danger she'd punch his head off.
"That was me at my worst," Huck said, bowing his head before giving them a smile. "But the Herald has freed me of my past self."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jinx waved one hand in the air in a dismissive motion. "Come on, just take us to the metal man."
Behind the sisters, Taylor was already spreading her swarm through the entire place, her eyes not really paying attention to the man as she spied on Victor's commune.
Focusing on the man, Ethan's new senses noticed he was barely breathing, his heart beating only once every 20 seconds, even his scent was wrong, as if the hormones his body produced had stopped.
It made just looking at him… unsettling.
"I must ask you to surrender your weapons, this is a place of peace."
"I didn't bring any weapons," Vi huffed, starting to walk forward.
Ethan had told everyone about the rule and, since most of them were more dangerous with abilities than weapons, they had no problem leaving it all behind, then, when the man continued to stand in place, they all turned as one to stare at Jinx.
"What?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow, pure innocence in her face… they just stared harder. "Fine… stupid powers, why do I have to be the only one vulnerable."
Messing with her clothes, she put her arm all the way inside her pants and finally pulled out a small hextech pistol from somewhere, ejecting the hexcore before throwing it at the guy.
By her side, Isha started poking her, causing the blue haired girl to roll her eyes. "You don't count."
Finally, the man started to lead then into the commune. The entire place was… odd, round shaped buildings made of copper, some kind of cement and even colored glass were everywhere, grass and other plants growing from the oddly healthy looking soil.
Somehow, Victor had managed to purify the Zaunitte air, a small, pleasant wind flowed through the streets, people dressed in light colored clothes worked all around, helping others in tasks or just… building things, the same five dots on their forehead from where Victor had touched them.
"Creepy," Jinx grumbled.
Ethan kinda agreed, everyone seemed to be working together with unnatural coordination, man, woman and children with smiles on their faces… then he remembered what happened in the show and grimaced.
"I'm… not sure I like it either," Maelle said, turning to stare at a beautiful drawing in a wall with a frown in her face.
Taylor didn't say anything, but the way she frowned told Ethan a lot, she didn't like it either and was considering having to do something about it.
"It's not that bad," Pyrrha said, taking a second to look at someone forging a pan. "I know the remedy can be worse than the disease, but I've seen the pictures from before the Great War in my world, this isn't even close to that."
"Great War?" Taylor asked, somewhat interested in the history of such a different world.
"I told you Grimm were attracted to negative emotions?" Pyrrha asked, waiting until Taylor nodded. "Well, some of the kingdoms believed that by abolishing self-expression, they could control negative emotions and be safer… it wasn't pretty, and we needed a war to stop."
"The Herald has helped us, he connects us to something greater," Huck said, pausing to wait until they catch up. "You think it suppress us, forces us to be 'nice', you couldn't be more wrong."
Behind him, Jinx rolled her eyes and twirled a finger over her temple, but Maelle ignored her and asked. "Then explain it?"
"The connection, it doesn't take away anything, we're all still here, every part of us, even those pieces I thought I'd lost to the drugs," Huck smiled, a peaceful expression Ethan still found unsettling. "But I'm also there, connected to everyone else. We don't help each other because we're forced to, we do it because it's nice, and we can not just see, but feel the appreciation, it gives us meaning."
Ethan was trying to be open about it but, knowing that if Victor died, they were all going to either drop dead or become automatons, it really wasn't easy.
Finally, they arrived at the center of the commune, a huge circular building made of glass and some odd, web-like design, a large bell hanging from a metal arch in front of it, from inside, Victor walked out, his body made of metal, skin covered in a mixture of black and gold textures.
Huck stepped aside, nodding once towards Victor before starting to walk back towards the entrance, his pace slow and deliberate.
"Welcome," Victor said, voice without much inflection. "I did not expect you to come here."
"Little skinny for a miracle healer, aren't you?" Jinx said.
"You heard about us?" Ethan asked.
"There is a newfound hope in the lower city, I felt it from some of those who come to me for help."
"Could have used some of that help before," Jinx grumbled, kicking a pebble and aiming for the bell. "Must have been nice living up there while everything went to shit."
Victor turned to stare at her, then looked down, tired eyes going over the commune. "We all have our regrets," releasing a long breath, he turned and started walking, his cane hitting the ground with every step. "Come, let us talk somewhere else."
While walking, they introduced themselves, Victor knew about Jinx and Vii, but none of his followers had actually talked with the rest of them and he didn't even know their names.
Ethan took the chance to really look at Victor, in Arcane, he hadn't really known how to react to the man's arc, on one hand, he seemed to genuinely want to help, but there were so many odd things.
His followers, were they still people or did the healing damage their minds? And what about his hallucinations, Sky, was she the same woman killed by the hexcore, a figment of his imagination or something more sinister trying to manipulate him?
Victor's metal body made it difficult to read him, but Ethan's new senses were sharp enough to pierce through it… the man wasn't unfeeling, he was deeply depressed and disappointed, his body just going through the motions.
Finally, they approached a fountain, for once, there was pure water in Zaun, even if it had to be kept isolated from everything else. Victor sat on the edge of the fountain, looking down on his hand. "Are you here to stop me?"
"We haven't decided," Ethan confessed, standing a meter or so in front of him.
For some reason, Ethan's instincts were being annoying, filling his mind with a low level of alarm that made him want to eliminate Victor, even if he couldn't really articulate why. He didn't like it.
Letting the others take the lead, he stayed as far away from Victor as he could and that seemed to help, not much, but his instincts were more a small suggestion than a demand anyway.
Maelle looked around one last time, then sat down at the fountain and touched some of the drawings on the side of it, childish things made by the kids hanging around the commune.
Looking at the people working around, the smile on their faces, she couldn't help shuddering, the entire commune seeming to bother her the most between them.
By Ethan's side, Taylor crossed her arms. "What have you done to them?"
Victor stared at her for a second, somehow knowing how important the question was, finally, he answered. "They came to me, their bodies were flawed, ravaged by wounds, sickness, addiction… I helped them, made them better, augmented them beyond their limitations."
"But did they agree to that?" Taylor pressed, she had come here to have Victor look at her shard but, after looking at those people, Ethan didn't know if she was willing to do it anymore. "Are they even free to choose right now?"
"They did, and I don't control them," Victor said, seeming at least mildly insulted, although his emotions were still muted and his voice placid. "They're not playthings or specimens, they're humans. They stay because they're now part of something greater, not because they're forced."
"Can they? Leave, I mean?" Ethan asked, genuinely curious about the question. He knew they'd die if Victor perished, but how exactly they worked was never explained in the show. "You may not control them, but you said they're part of something greater… If that something has it's own wants, can they resist it? Would they even notice it's not their own desire?"
Ethan didn't disagree with Victor's augmentation, heck, if he was in cyberpunk, the only thing keeping him from becoming a full Borg would be the danger of cyberpsychosis, he was NOT attached to the human body.
What he really valued was freedom of choice, it wasn't even the loss of individuality that he opposed, if someone wanted to become a true hivemind, more power to them, but that was the key, they had to really want it.
He'd never do it, but to each their own.
Victor didn't immediately answer, his eyes flicking to the side as if he was seeing someone else beside them… Which Ethan suppose was answer enough
"You think you can fix everything," Maelle finally spoke. "You know what they want isn't good for them, that they're destroying themselves and you have the power to help, if only they'd give your way a chance, you know they'd see it too.
"Maybe some will, maybe you can give some a few more years, allow them to be happy or satisfied, but everything is finite and, in the end, will their lives have any meaning?"
Victor turned to look at her, almost on instinct, one of his metal hands slowly reached to touch her arm, but he hesitated, pulling back at the last moment and holding his cane with both hands.
"Booring!" Jinx said, making a third lap around the fountain. "Can we talk about important shit now?"
"You… have given me much to think about," Victor said, using both hands on his staff to push himself up. "But I suppose you also came to me for help?"
"Can you help someone without the whole…" Vi asked, waving at the rest of the commune.
"In a limited capacity," Victor confessed, looking over everyone with some interest. "But none of you seem to need my help."
They traded glances, but Taylor seemed in no hurry to speak, her swarm still studying the commune as she made her decision.
Jinx was also still looking at Victor with suspicious and Vi wasn't sure she fully believed their story, so Ethan was the one who spoke. "Vander... somehow Singed has been keeping him alive with shimmer for years, he's become more beast than man at this point. Could you help him recover?"
Victor seemed to think about the answer. "It is… difficult to say without seeing him in person, I can try to draw him out but, if his mind is subsumed, buried under instinct, I will need at least a connection."
"You need to make him into one of your zombies?" Jinx asked.
"No, but the connection is the first step," Victor said, ignoring the zombie jab.
"You know Singed," Ethan said, remembering the show. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"
"No," Victor answered after a short pause. "I expect the doctor to come here eventually, but he's always been very good at remaining hidden. If he's not at his usual laboratories, I can not help you."
Taylor turned away from her swarm, taking a step closer to Victor as she finally finished observing his small community. "Can you use your power without changing anything?"
"Again, in a limited capacity," Victor sighed. "I couldn't improve someone, but a single touch can be enough to see if something is wrong."
"I have… a passenger," Taylor eventually said after a pause. "It's not exactly inside me, but we're connected and it can influence my brain. Could you sense if there was anything wrong? Communicate with it?"
For a long moment, Victor just stared at her, maybe trying to sense her shard through his power, but then he adjusted his position. "Fascinating, I do not know, but I'm willing to make the attempt," looking at her, he offered Taylor his hand and waited.
------------
Taylor.
Victor had not been what she expected, hearing Ethan describe him and seeing his commune, she had expected robes, tinkertech devices, a more charismatic face… She had expected someone who talked too much and said too little.
Instead, she saw someone who looked tired but determined, a man trying to hold up the world with only his arms and too much intellect, someone dangerous. People followed him because they believed in his actions, not just his words.
Seeing it, she was concerned about what it would cost him... What it would cost them.
The people in the commune made Taylor grit her teeth, they looked like they had been mastered, but after observing them through her swarm, she saw they weren't completely under Victor's control, they still had creativity and will.
Still, something had been fundamentally changed about them and she didn't know what, maybe Victor worked like Heartbreaker, he changed their brains into wanting to be helpful.
Taylor sighed and, instead of taking his metallic hand, a mixture of purple and gold on his too thin fingers, she just… stopped holding back, releasing the hold she constantly kept on her power and letting it dominate the people around her.
As usual, her passenger's control bounced right off her companions as if they weren't even there, her power seeming completely unable to dominate them. Victor and Vi weren't so protected.
By her side, Ethan lifted an eyebrow, seeming to immediately notice what she had done, probably his improved senses. Taylor had noticed the way he turned his head whenever one of her insects moved unnatural, the way he seemed to always know she was watching, even the way he breathed.
Normal people simply took in air to survive, and he seemed to do that too, but sometimes there was a pause, a contracting of his eyes as if he was thinking that let her know he had an enhanced sense of smell.
With a glance from the side of her eye, she released Vi, Jinx's sister jumping away from her and almost falling into the fountain, her breathing accelerating as she did her best to regain control, keeping well away from Taylor's range.
"What was that!" Vi shouted, but Taylor was no longer paying attention.
Instead, she was focused on Victor, her power had some trouble grabbing him, as if his own abilities gave him some protection, it just wasn't enough, her passenger smashing through as if it were glass.
There was a brief pause and then, through him, she felt her control spreading through his commune until every single 'healed' or 'improved' person was frozen in place, their faces loosing expression.
The few who hadn't been affected by Victor's touch slowly noticed things, the entire camp starting to panic, but Taylor just stared deep into Victor's eyes, her own focus entirely on him, even her swarm seeming to break free.
Taylor couldn't read minds, she didn't get thoughts or even feelings when she controlled someone, her power was purely physical and, to her senses, those people were barely human.
When controlling Vi, and even Victor to a lesser extent, they had felt like large nodes in the middle of Taylor's swarm, hundreds of short signals filled their bodies, from muscles tensing, reflexes, sensory organs, autonomous movements… it was like controlling a thousand insects on one body.
The people 'improved' by Victor weren't the same, if a normal human felt like a thousand insects, those people felt like only a hundred, their bodies seemingly optimized for life such that they barely needed to breath and even those small, involuntary movements in the human body were gone.
But they were still themselves, she felt the same mental resistance coming from them as a normal person, the sensation only increasing as Victor himself seemed to recover and started acting, something deep inside him struggling to connect with her.
Taylor felt the moment he succeeded, the real world fading from her eyes to reveal an impossible tall crystalline structure, her power looming over her like a Titan, a mountain that dwarfed anything she had ever seen.
It felt, curious, conflicted… whole.
Victor stood beside her, most of his body a dark blur, only his face completely visible, a dark shadow hanging over his shoulder and either offering support or trying to manipulate him, Taylor didn't know.
On his shadowy body, blue lines started appearing, a constant stream of power being feed into his avatar and allowing him to, at least temporarily, push her passenger's power off, his entire body seeming to crack from the effort.
"What… are you," he gasped, extending one shadowy extending upward in wonder.
Taylor couldn't see her passenger's avatar, but she could feel the weight of it's attention press against her aura, her soul feeling incredibly small in front of the creature's avatar.
It felt like when she had faced Zion, like looking at a storm-front that could swallow a continent, large, inevitable and all too capable of swallowing her whole.
Somehow, she knew her passenger was leaning closer, almost as if to allow Victor to touch it, curious to see what would happen, it's very presence seeming to damage the fabric of reality.
The projection of the world seemed to flicker and crack, Taylor's eye caught glances of the outside world between the cracks, Ethan still looking at her, an oppressive void, a colorful city, golden sunlight hitting a myriad of houses.
[DATA]
Her passenger seemed to speak, a single world that contained more meaning than she could ever comprehend, even trying was a struggle, her mind unable to process the breath of detail. Victor's body seemed to glow brighter, the blue glow turning slightly purple.
Taylor stopped her power, at the end, when she had faced Zion, she had felt dozens of capes dying as their bodies gave out under her control, she recognized the signs of stress.
The Tinker stumbled, then collapsed to the ground as something more than blood started leaking from his eyes, his breath coming hard as she returned his control, his eyes wide with surprise.
Pyrrha moved, preventing the man from hitting his head and helping him remain sitting, her aura flaring as they touched. "Are you alright?"
"I… how is that…"
Taylor didn't know if he shared her vision, but the way he was looking at her, a mixture of fear and wonder. "Were you able to learn anything?"
"I…" Victor tried to talk, but he had to pause and swallow, using both hands on his staff to push himself up. "I saw… growth, and stagnation."
"Great," Jinx huffed, blowing a lock of hair out of her face. "Came for a healer, get a metal fortune cookie."
"Your passenger… I saw a fraction of it's life, a mere blink," Victor managed to say, his eyes still distant, his words loosing focus, becoming filled with wonder. "… The more I learn, the more I understand the vastness of my ignorance."
"Victor," Ethan interjected, causing the tinker to snap back to reality.
"I apologize, it's not every day one realizes how small we are," Victor shook his head, then took a deep breath and wiped a purple tear from his face. "Your passenger, it had been a mere part of something greater, crippled and bound by restrictions, now it's whole again."
"Any idea what it's trying to do?"
"Evolve," Victor said as if it was obvious. "It wishes to surpass it's progenitor."
Taylor just stared at the man for a few seconds, her mind trying to refute what she already knew to be true… her passenger was whole, the same thing that had healed and improved her body had also affected it… and whatever restrictions Zion had put in it were gone.
She didn't have a shard in her head, not anymore, she had a growing Entity.
Ethan seemed to give them some time to recover, but seeing as Jinx started pacing again, he spoke, probably trying to keep her from causing trouble. "If we bring Vander here, will you try to help him?"
"… Yes," Victor nodded, exhaustion starting to color his voice. "Now, I apologize, but I have much to think about."
Moving his staff, his first step seemed to falter, but then his body regained strength and he started to walk back to his house.
"Victor, it won't last." Maelle said in a raised voice, causing the man to pause, his head half turned. "I don't think I've a right to make the decision for you, but I know what it's like to try and hold everything together, to make all the decisions because I had the power and I thought I could do better… It won't last."
Victor didn't answer, he just stood there for a second, then continued to walk up the hill towards his resting place, his steps slow and steady on the uneven ground.
"So," Jinx said, jumping down from the fountain. "That was a burst."
"No," Pyrrha shook her head, still looking around as the rest of Victor's commune started to recover from Taylor's power. "Hearing it from Ethan is one thing, but we needed to see this, to see them."
"I guess," Jinx pouted.
"Victor did agree to help," Vi finally said, giving Taylor one last wary glance. "We just need to find him first."
"I'll work on that," Taylor said, finally tuning her back on Victor, she still had a lot of work to do.
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