Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Fifty-Three

She was born into the world in a cascade of faint lights, like moonbeams through shifting curtains.Her eyes opened, and already she knew some things. The woman, young, with hair plastered to her forehead and unmasked worry in her green eyes, was her sister. She was beloved, because she cared, because she had given her life, and because she was her ideal already.A glance around revealed onlookers, almost-familiar faces amongst a few that were not. Like visitors in a dream that had faded on awakening.“Hello,” she said and found that her voice was soft, gentle even, like wind over tall grass.“H-hey,” her Big Sis said. “Um, welcome to the family.”She smiled, feeling for the first time the corner of her eyes pinching and the way her cheeks became plump with the gesture, like ripe fruit filled with happiness. She liked the word ‘family’; it had weight, gravitas. “I look forward to being a good little sister,” she said.“Do you need a moment?” one of the unfamiliar ones asked. She was a tall woman, study though thin, with an air of professionalism about her that seeped through with every motion she made.“I... I think that would be nice, yeah,” her Big Sis said. “But, well, I can only afford so much of you time, and-”She was cut off by a swipe of her hand. “Forget it. And keep your money. An explanation once this is all done would be payment enough.”“We can do that.”There was a nod, and the woman left. With her was a young girl that resonated with the world around her, like a spider on its web that knew where every dewdrop rested, and a man with missing hair but confidence to make up for it. They left soon after, slipping out of the small room they were in and shutting the door behind them with nary a click.“So, ah,” Big Sis said. “My name’s Taylor. We should all introduce ourselves, I think.”“If that is what you wish,” she agreed easily. Not knowing her family; that left a pang in her chest that she just couldn’t accept. “I would love to know my sisters.”Big Sis, Taylor, nodded. She seemed better, more settled, though still tired. To think, she had only just arrived and already her sister suffered from it.A sister stepped up, soft smile like a fresh blanket over a warm bed. “I’m Crochet,” she said with a bow.“Hello, Crochet,” she replied. “I look forward to knitting tighter bonds with you.”The next sister snorted. Her ears, both large and cat-like, twitched atop her head as she sneered. “Stop trying to be so chill, that’s Crochet’s gimmick,” she said. “I’m Cheshire, the oldest and best ‘round here.”The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.“There’s no need to be so cattish, Cheshire,” she replied without any real admonishment in her voice. It was merely a statement. There truly wasn’t any need for such. They were siblings.The next sister nodded once. “Kon'nichiwa, imouto.” She stood tall and proud, the unbowed but immovable one, and yet there was something transient about her. She was the centre of attention for only a moment and yet it rankled her. “I am Poppu.”“Hello,” she said simply. If her sister wished not to be noticed, then she would not notice her.“I’m Remedy,” her next sister said. She had her arms crossed, a barrier to the world, though not one of stone and mortar but a wall of wind and unresolved fears. “I’ll be healing you when you get hurt.”“I will try my hardest to stay hale and hearty then,” she said. “With how you seem now, perhaps your healing is a hard pill to swallow.”“Oh my god,” the last of her sisters said. She was staring right at her, fox ears raised as if hearing the hounds and tail swishing behind her. “Have you been making puns this entire time?”She smiled. "I failed to notice, but you look bright eyed and bushy tailed enough to catch any passing wordplay."Big Sis choked on empty air. “Oh no,” she whispered faintly.Tattletail’s expression shifted, confusion passing like a haze before being burnt away by a sunbeam smile. “Oh, we’re going to get along so well!” she said as she gave her a careful, almost delicate hug."You're not carrying any cooties are you? I might ask Remedy to vixenate me just in case," she said. "I'm afraid I'm not quite kit-ted out for catching puns."Big Sis removed her head from where it lay betwist her hands. “I have the impression I know where this is going,” she mumbled. “Ah, do you have a name already?”She shook her head. She had yet to do anything to earn a name, unlike her sisters. The gift had yet to be bestowed upon her, so nameless she was and nameless she would remain. “I’m afraid that I don’t, not yet.”“That’s okay,” her biggest sister said. She reached down and carefully patted her hair, then ran her fingers through strawberry-blonde locks. “We’ll find you a great name. Ah, maybe something to do with your power?”“My power is quite super, yes,” she agreed. “Maybe something simple?”“Simple?” Big Sis asked. “You mean like a common name? Jessica, Olivia, Alice, Charlotte? Not something more... descriptive?”One of those had felt right, like the puzzle piece that just fit — with neither too much room nor too little and with just the right shape. “Alice,” she repeated. “I like Alice, for this time and place.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Four Meeting Faultline the first time had been a little stressful, but it had been a business transaction and Faultline and her crew had an excellent reputation. That, and she was only there as a sort of arbiter and councillor to help Taylor. She was on Taylor’s side because Taylor was going to pay her to be on her side.It was neat and simple and so Taylor didn't need to stress over it too much. Mister Anderson had been a bigger source of worry. He was, after all, the one with the money.Now he was barely a footnote as she entered Faultline’s impressive office. The older man was sitting in one of the chairs before a huge metal desk that looked like it could stop a tank shell.Faultline herself was sitting behind the desk and next to her was Labyrinth, the girl staring off towards the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing.Taylor had left all her sisters except Alice behind. She didn’t need them complicating things as they were wont to do.The girl was... strange. Which was exactly how she would describe the rest of her sisters, so there was nothing unusual there. Alice had a sort of dreamy look to her, like someone who was in the middle of an enjoyable daydream and only half paying attention to the world around her. Her pale greenish-blue eyes looked across the room with a single smooth motion, focusing on different things and places as if she saw things that Taylor didn’t. Her smile never wavered; if anything, it grew larger and more serene as she took in her progenitor. One of her progenitors.Alice was Taylor’s smallest sister. Not just the youngest. She was half a head shorter than most of the others, with delicate features and stick-thin limbs under a flowing white dress that was covered in fine lace. She looked like a porcelain doll that would crack at the slightest bit of jostling.“Sit,” Faultline said. She gestured to the chair next to Mister Anderson’s.Taylor sat, then she looked at little Alice — who seemed completely at ease despite the tension in the air — and patted her lap.The serene smile turned joyous as the girl moved next to Taylor, turned around, and raised her arms to be lifted up. Small as she was she would have had to clamber up the seat without help. She obliged the girl and placed her on her lap, then started running her fingers through Alice’s hair. Hair that was platinum blonde save for a few reddish streaks.“Alright,” Faultline said. “I would appreciate it if you could explain. It would save me the trouble of wondering, and make it a whole lot easier to decide how to act from here on out.”“We can’t fault that line of reasoning,” Alice said so smoothly and with such a whispery soft voice that Taylor was almost able to pretend she didn’t hear the pun.“I make sisters,” Taylor said. She raised her legs to the balls of her feet then let them drop a few times, making Alice bounce on her lap much to the girl’s amusement. “Sisters like Alice here. It happens whenever I touch a parahuman. Um. Shadows Stalker made Cheshire, Crochet came from Parian and so on. They’re... they’re real people.”Taylor reached over and hugged Alice closer. It was like hugging a bagful of delicate bones. “They have their own thoughts and personalities and Panacea said that they’re as human as you or me. It’s just that I... make them.”A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.“And when you touched Labyrinth it created this child,” Faultline said.“My name,” Alice said in her whispery voice, “is Alice. Big Sis let me choose it.”Faultline hesitated, then nodded to Alice. “A pleasure,” she said.“It is most assuredly all mine. I wouldn’t want my birth to fracture the relationship you have with Big Sis. Or leave any cracks in its foundation. And if you’re not both friends, then meeting with my progenitor will require navigating a whole maze of troubles.”Taylor closed her eyes. The puns were stealthy. Not even noticeable is she wasn’t paying attention. She could live with them. She lived with Cheshire. She could live with puns. “I don’t want us to be enemies either,” Taylor assured Alice.“I don’t see that happening,” Faultline said. Her fingers drummed a beat on the surface of her desk. “Your power is... frankly it’s one of the most dangerous ones I’ve ever heard of.”“I know,” Taylor said. “I can hardly afford to feed the sisters I have already. And they all sleep in my room. It’s going to be hard to fit even just one more in our lives.”“I’m sorry,” Alice said.“No, no, don’t you apologize,” Taylor replied right away before tightening her hug just a little. It wouldn’t do for her newest little sister to think she was unloved. “None of that. We’ve faced challenges before. We’ll work through them.”Faultline watched her, eyes fixed through the visor of her faceplate. The mercenary sighed and placed a hand on Labyrinth’s head. “This complicated things,” she said.“Not for me,” Martin said. “In fact it makes them far simpler. Less contracts or fears of having to wrangle permission from six different guardians for one.”“We, we can still do advertising work?” Taylor asked.“I’m not letting this opportunity pass me by. You making, having, more sisters only means more opportunities!”Taylor nodded, then refocused on Faultline. “And you’re... okay with this?”“What do you expect me to do? I’m not the PRT. I’m a mercenary, you’re a client. I won’t betray the information you gave me here today. And the idea of harming children is... distasteful.” She shifted on her seat. “Do you have room for all of them? Food?”“We should be fine for a few more days,” Taylor said. It wasn’t quite a lie. With the extra money from not paying Faultline she could stop somewhere and buy packets of ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese. The girls all loved that sort of junk food anyway.“And Alice?” Faultline asked. “She’s Labyrinth’s... clone. Labyrinth has some difficulties with her powers.”“I can see that,” Alice said, her voice somehow conveying a depth of sadness that had Taylor’s heart sinking. “My progenitor is both blessed and cursed with great power. I... have another though. My power extends over space and time. I will be fine, I suspect. My scope is narrower but my grasp deeper.”“Ah, we haven’t talked about that yet,” Taylor said. “I don’t even know what Alice’s power is.”“Oh,” Alice said. “I can make anything I see flow backwards through time. But time changes things.”“Ah,” Taylor said.Her sisters always made things complicated, but most of the time the laws they broke were moral or legal ones.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Taylor crashed back-first onto her bed, every muscle sore, every bone protesting wearily, every neuron in her brain sluggish. The day had started with a foiled bank robbery and had ended in a tense negotiation with a mercenary. It had been the single longest day in her entire life.Not the worst by far, but the longest. She wanted to lay back down, close her eyes and just sleep.Something, or rather someone, climbed onto the bed next to her and tucked themselves under her arm. Another weight simply appeared at the top of the bed and squeezed itself between the end of the bed and her head.For a moment she hoped that was it. Then two more forms climbed onto the bed and there was a scramble for places that ended with a crash as a small body hit the floor. Then the person quietly tucked into her side was yanked out with a squeak and someone else hopped onto the bed to replace her.“You bitch!” a familiar voice growled. “I’m older, get off.”Taylor reached over, grabbed her pillow, and stuffed it over her face.That was another sister’s cue to land on her as if she herself was a big soft pillow. Judging by the fluff rubbing against Taylor it was Tattletail. That, of course, sparked a war. One which was fought atop Taylor as if she was the western front; elbows and knees served as the artillery that would render her into a desolate wasteland.There was a crack and the mattress shifted a little. The war ended in a sudden and expensive armistice.Then the bed slumped to one side with a creak as one of its legs gave out.“Alright! Enough!” Taylor roared.By the time she was sitting up and glaring across the room there were six sisters that were trying hard to be the pictures of innocence-and utterly failing at it-standing in a row.“I just want to sleep,” Taylor begged. “Just, just some time off after today’s... todayness.”Five pairs of eyes focused on their feet. Taylor met the eyes of the only sister not looking away. “I could use my power on your bed,” Alice said with her ever-serene voice. “It could improve matters considerably. But if you’re hesitant, then I wouldn’t blame you for sleeping on the decision.”“Go ahead, sweetie,” Taylor said. She couldn’t be mad at Alice, she was too small and fragile-looking to be angry at. The others, on the other hand, had no such defence. Well, they did, but their innocent act had worn thin already. “The rest of you behave,” she warned.Alice’s smile transcended space and time as she prepared to do horrific things to both. She stared at the bed, then hummed. “If you want, Big Sis, I can make your bed while fixing it.”“Really?” Taylor asked. “That doesn’t sound time-related.”“Well, perhaps I’ll be cheating a little, just for you. If I rewind it back far enough it’ll be just the same as the last time you made it.”Taylor shrugged one shoulder. A sister ready-made for doing, or un-undoing chores. How about that?Alice beamed again and focused on the bed. Taylor watched as the blankets shifted; then, like a movie being rewound faster and faster, the blankets moved into place, beams of sunlight that had long passed flashed across the bed’s surface and the entire frame lifted itself back into place, whole once more.“It’s done,” Alice said with a sigh.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Taylor stared at the bed.“Um, Alice?”“Yes, Big Sis?”“My sheets were green,” Taylor said as she took in the checker patterned purple-yellow sheets now covering her bed. An outstretched foot lifted the edge of the blankets to reveal a wooden bed frame that was similar to her own, thought not quite right either. Hers had had flowers carved into the sides. This one had vines.“Did I do wrong?” Alice asked.“No? I don’t think?” Taylor said. She poked at the mattress a few times. It felt right.“Oh,” Tattletail said.Taylor turned to see the fox-girl with a hand over her mouth. “Spill,” she said.“It’s your bed, but not your bed,” Tattletail said.“That makes sense,” Alice said.“No, no it does not,” Taylor shot back. “Could you explain, please?”Alice nodded. “Of course, Bis Sis,” she said. “I made your bed go back in time, and since time is relative to this dimension in space my power rewound your bed from the past and brought it to the now, only it was a bed from another you’s past.”“So,” Taylor said as she wrapped her head around the concept. “You don’t so much rewind an object as get another version of that object from the past.”“I suppose that’s an approximately accurate description,” Alice said. “Though I do rewind the object, it's just that some core parts of it don’t remember what they should be, so they take examples from elsewhen.”Taylor’s head was beginning to pound. “We’re going to need to test this before you can use it more.” She walked over to her desk and picked up the first thing on its surface, an old calculator that smelled faintly of orange juice which she had been using for math homework. Taylor placed it on the floor. She entered one, then added one to it. Every second she pressed on equal until sixty or so seconds had passed.“Rewind that a minute,” Taylor said.Alice nodded. The calculator shifted a tiny bit on the ground.The display read ‘ten.’ A tap of the equal sign added up to eleven. “Okay,” Taylor said as she turned it around and inspected it for any changes. “Nothing seems different about it.”Tattletail was grinning the smug grin of a little sister that knew she was going to earn her pats for the evening. “Shorter time changes mean smaller changes to the thing being rewound.”Taylor blinked and considered that. It made a sort of sense, if she squinted and didn’t think too hard about it. Alice was the product of two capes, so her power couldn’t just be normal. “Can you rewind it a few hours?” she asked Alice.“It’ll only take a moment,” Alice said.The calculator shifted a little more on the ground, then, between one millisecond and the next, it was an entirely different model.Taylor picked it up and turned it on. “Still works,” she said before inspecting it more. It seemed to be a slightly better calculator, but not by much.“It’s good that you can still count on it,” Alice said. “I would have been disappointed to break Big Sis’s tools. I tried to reach for something better.”“Make... Alice, could you make my bed bigger?” she asked.“I could rewind until it’s bigger,” she said.Taylor grinning. She was starting to see some possibilities here. “And could you rewind my piggie bank so that it’s full again even after I empty it?”Alice blinked. “I could try. It makes cents that it would.”