“What do you mean Dahlia Namiko is your mother. That doesn’t make any sense! She’s not been pregnant lately!” Robert yelled.

“Bro, I was born before you. I was born on Earth! I’m your older sister.”

“You were born on Earth?” Robert paused. “I knew you were lying. I KNEW you were lying about the amnesia.”

“Lying because you kidnapped and beat the shit out of me.”

“I didn’t kidnap you or beat you?!”

“This time!”

“CALM DOWN.” Ms. Scarlet grabbed both of them and they both shut up… for all of two seconds.

“Not now, Scarlet. Not now.”

“I can’t believe she remarried that scuzzy meek, gray-haired twig.” Bec gritted her teeth.

“You’re obviously mistaken. My dad isn’t a twig.” Robert sighed.

“You know he dyes his hair?”

“How do you know that?”

“I have a picture of him in high school… had. It’s in that bag that I lost.”

Robert shuffled. “We need to find that phone.”

“You really don’t like your dad, do you? Since there is a distinct chance that he’s my new father, what exactly did he do to you? Torture you? For real? I hope my mom didn’t do that! She’s far too nice for that.”

“No. Dust no. She begged my father to ease off of me, but ‘this is a violent world and he needs to be strong, Dahlia.’” Bec winced. Robert must have a lot of pent up frustrations about Samuel if that’s the voice he’d use to imitate him. Also, how did that guy that looked like a breeze would blow him over end up sounding like the Hulk. Obviously, he’s been mainlining nanite steroids… actually, Bec was putting on muscle, too, now that she thought of it.

“So, it’s probably not a coincidence that I ended up stationed a stone’s throw away from here? Samuel put me up to it?”

Robert snorted with derision. “No, now that it’s all clear, this whole plot has Uncle Nkosi written all over it.”

“Oratile? He’s here? Of course, he is…” Bec leaned her head against the wall.

“The head of Lauds?” Ms. Scarlet interjected. “You knew him? Back on Earth?”

“You could say that. He welcomed me to my new job. He acted all showy, presenting this SensoLink thing that Sterling invented, and the next time I went to bed, bam, Dust.”

“You must have been on ice this entire time. Crystostasis’d for the last 100,000 years.”

Bec gave a sad chuckle. “That’s how long it’s been? You know, I was bracing for how long it’d been just to know how dead and gone my mom was. Turns out she’s been living a life without me instead of the other way around.”

“Well, this is a positively atrocious family secret that’s been outed.” Ms. Scarlet clapped her hands together to try to close this whole conversation. “Normally, I’d love those, but this is making me very uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Bec said at the same time as Robert said, “Yes.”

Bec lifted her head and ‘looked’ at both of them. “What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to shoot my dad in the ass.” Robert said with a *click* sound that made Bec think he just pulled out his gun.

“Can I come with you?” Bec asked.

“I was bringing you, no matter what. This is gonna be a big old family reunion. The first real one we’ve ever had. Only problem is that they’re definitely in the City. Ms. Scarlet, how soon can you get Bec ready for crossing the Suburbs.”

“Give me a year and I’ll give her a 10% chance of crossing with you, alive.”

“Good enough for me.”

“Woah woah woah, a year? 10% chance? That’s absurd!”

“Please Bec, with your regeneration, we can’t take a car since you’d die from the first anti-tank mine that we would hit. We will need to go on foot, quietly. You are not capable of that right now.”

"You say that like we’re guaranteed to hit an anti-tank mine? Can we get my eyes fixed?”

Robert laughed with his whole body. “Oh yeah, we’re going to have to cross with you blind.”

“You can’t fix me?”

“No one can in the Border. We’ve got limb and abdominal organ medics but who knew we’d need an ophthalmologist.”

“Well… shit.”

“Shit indeed.”

“Well, I don’t know about thaaaat.” Ms. Scarlet said. “I think I see a gem in the rough with Bec here. Robert, did you see how she reacted to us? She’s using her Word to see, rudimentarily. Can you imagine, Robert? What a year of relying on her Word will do to her fine control?”

“Shhhh. Don’t spoil the mystery so soon. If you say she can manage, then, by all means, Ms. Scarlet. Polish this turd.”

“Hey, not cool… bro.” Bec hoped Robert winced at that. “I was thinking about how much I needed my eyes when my Word came into my own. I’m pretty amped up, you could say.”

“Oooh, your word is ‘amp,’ isn’t it?” Robert said.

“Nice try, dumbass. Way to get baited.” Bec laughed. She’s been doing that a lot despite the abysmal circumstance. Maybe she was cracked.

Robert sucked air through his teeth. “Damn.”

“Is yours ‘analyze’ or ‘analysis’ or whatever.”

“Nah.”

"Damn.”

“You two are surprisingly similar!” Scarlet laughed.

“Our words?” Robert asked, implying she knew Robert’s word as well.

“No, no, no. You are both complete idiots. Come Bec, let us go to your room. Robert, please get Bec a lux meter, one that intonates, so she can tell when she’s glowing. This is not going to be a thing in the long term if I have any say, whatsoever.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m just a tech monkey, I guess. I definitely need to teach you a lesson on who is in charge here.”

"You can try, dear.”

Ms. Scarlet picked Bec up and brought her to her feet. Literally. She picked Bec entirely up and stood her up. “Follow me to your new room. You really don’t want to get lost in here. It’s a maze!” Robert walked off in the other direction as Ms. Scarlet and Bec. Bec was relieved to be free of that man, purely because she knew he was studying her constantly and she really didn’t want to lose that bet. For Al’s sake.

“Food though.”

“Always with the food with you!”

“Hey, we just met.”

“And yet I have not lied, have I?”

“No…” Bec conceded.

“We won’t stop in the cafeteria; we can stop at a snack machine on the way to the combat room.”

“I thought we were going to my room.” Bec had a sinking feeling. She could already tell that Ms. Scarlet was going to be a brutal tutor.

“If you can’t give me three possible reasons why I lied to Mr. Black in the next fifteen seconds, you will be getting NO snacks.”

Oh shit, Al, any ideas. I only have two! Bec stammered. “Uh, because you didn’t want Robert to know that we’re starting training? You may have wanted to start training right away so the things I learned to escape the cell would be crystalized. And… uh…”

“What if it was so she could talk to you without the risk of Robert following?”

“You wanted to train privately, and this might have been the only chance?”

“Hmm, all good reasons. Wrong, but good reasons.”

“Then why?”

"Lesson 2, Bec. If you can mislead Robert, you can mislead anyone. I was fairly impressed with the whole ‘amp’ ruse, but that only worked because he was underestimating you. I would very much like him to continue underestimating you… until this bet is over, of course. No protégé of mine will lose an intelligence Op even if she’s an infant.”

“I’m not that young!”

“Yes, yes you are, and don’t talk back to me!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Never do that either. Call me… Scarlet.”

“Yes, Master Scarlet.”

“Ho ho, you will find out, very quickly, that teasing me will only end in pain.” Ms. Scarlet gave a chuckle that could only be described as… ominous.

Al chided Bec. “What are you doing?”

I am testing the boundaries of our relationship. I don’t like that she thinks of me as a kid but insists that I refer to her in friendly terms. I think I can make her soften up to the prospect of me being a person worthy of respect. Maybe, she’ll even think of me as a peer and friend!

~~~

Thirty minutes later

“Waaaah, I miss my mommyyyyy.”

“SAY IT AGAIN.” Ms. Scarlet wacked Bec’s curled up body with a stick.

“MOOOOOOOMMY.”

“You fail. Do it again. This time, don’t lose track of me and, most importantly, don’t lose track of yourself!”

Bec stood up, covered in bruises and cuts, and lifted her hands up in a fighting stance.

“Watch me!” Ms. Scarlet bobbed and swayed. Bec was trying to follow her using the light and sound tricks that she learned. She thought she was getting good at sensing things as big as people and furniture with sound and the light she emitted was excellent for her to feel the contours of the large room around her. It was far too big for her to track with sound but with the light, thankfully, it didn’t seem to matter. She could feel the room around her, and she had started to feel the things inside it perfectly well. She felt dummies of some sort lining the far wall. A hoop of some sort, retracted, near the roof. She could feel all of these things clearly, so why couldn’t she track Scarlet!

Her tick-tacking footsteps on the hardened floor resonated and Bec turned to follow her.

tack tack

tack tack

tick

…

…

*THWACK* Bec got socked in the jaw and it rocked her world. She fell to her hands and knees. Dammit, I couldn’t keep tra—*whump* Bec was kicked in the gut so hard she flipped over and ended up on her back.

Bec continued the roll and started pulling herself up using the momentum of the hit when a kick shoved her hard and she slid across the floor spread eagle, barely avoiding banging her chin on the floor. The pummeling started. “Say you’re a failure. Say you can’t win in a million years.”

Bec cried out, “I can’t beat you. Not in a million years! I’m a failure!”

“Wrong. Get up. Don’t embarrass yourself.”

“I’m doing what you’re tell me to do, Scarlet.” Bec spit blood onto the floor.

“Don’t give me snark, you brat.” Ms. Scarlet was so… mean… When she fought, she was like a totally different person, what the hell? “You’re my protégé? What kind of bullshit did you pull to figure out my Word so fast when you can’t even figure out how to beat me now? Pathetic.”

“I’m not pathetic, I’m… I’m just getting warmed up!” Bec rallied herself.

“Bec, she obviously wants you to track her, but if you don’t, she really doesn’t want you to succumb to her mental games. I think she’s trying to get you to not lose spirit, most likely.”

“I know that.” Bec hissed. “It’s harder than it looks, okay?”

“Talking to that AI of yours? Sickening. Only virgins with daddy issues fall in love with their AI assistants. Do you know why? Because they’re stuck with them. No abandonment issues there.”

“I don’t have daddy issues!”

“That’s right, definitely a coincidence that he’s out of the picture. Didn’t even shed a single tear for dear ol’ daddy when you ended up on Dust? Isn’t that right?”

“Shut UP!” Bec tried to swing when she felt like Scarlet’s voice was closing in, but her fist only met with air. She had way overcommitted on the swing and, as her footing faltered, she felt a knee hitting her in the gut. Everything told her that she should crumble, but she steadied herself instead.

“But that’s not entirely true, now is it? You do have one absentee father, but you’ve got a new shiny silver one now, don’t you? Big manly Samuel Sterling, the Silver Star of the Towers. What do you think he’ll think of you? I hear he’s particularly compassionate to failures like you.” Her voice faded in and out, coming from different directions every time.

“Shutupshutupshutupshutup!”

“My, you’re turning red with anger. Literally. You’ve started glowing red. Just another failure to put under your belt. You’re going to have a lot of those, I’d wager.” Ms. Scarlet’s voice taunted endlessly.

“Bec, BEC! Calm down! Focus. Why is she disappearing? You KNOW her word, so how is she doing it?”

It could be a million things, Al.

“Pick one and answer it!”

Ok. Ok. Bec, focus. Can she teleport? Substitute herself with the air around her? Wait for it, waait for it!*THWACK* Bec took a strike to the back of the head. Dizzy, Bec still found it in her to pivot and dive in the direction of the strike to grapple with Ms. Scarlet. She grabbed on to her and dug her fingers into the rubbery throat… Rubbery? Fuck, it’s a dummy. A blow to the back of her neck caused Bec to fold like a broke poker player on his last hand of the night.

“You were trying to wring my neck? Very rude.”

“Fuck you!” Bec kicked out towards the voice as she laid there on the cold, smooth floor. Feeling around, she found the base of another one of the dummies and pulled herself up using it.

“Oh ho, you sure you want to talk to your master like that?”

“Fuck you, master… more like… uh… ass-ter,” Bec retorted. “I’m not putting up with your abuse if I can help it. I’m on to you!” Bec leaned back onto the dummy, which rocked back a little, but it was heavy enough to hold her up. Hands up, she prepared.

“On to what?” The voices faded in and out. “My trick?”

“I’m on to your tricks,” Bec waited until the tapping of the feet faded out and she swung.

“Tricks, PLURAL!” Bec threw all her force into this strike. She struck not with her fist forward, but her elbow back, connecting with the dummy. Shockwave. The dummy’s rubber exterior burst and the metal frame within shattered,spraying metal shards everywhere.

Bec’s ears rang. Her arm screamed with pain, but she kept her one good arm up, protecting her face. It was a combination of the savage beatings and the adrenaline coursing through her veins that left her ragged and on edge. She tried to calm her heart as it beat through her chest. Blood had begun dribbling down Bec’s damaged arm. It was, without a doubt, pouring from her as it had only been a moment, yet she could hear blood dripping to the floor. Bec was breathing hard and drenched in sweat.

“Ow.” Ms. Scarlet said, her voice echoing in the quiet hall.

“I hit you?” Bec sighed in relief.

“A little. Hard not to when you just explode a dummy. I did not expect that. How did you know I’d be behind the dummy?”

“I wish I could say ‘it was simple’ but it was anything but. It was mostly luck, if I was going to be honest.”

“Explain.”

“I had this theory that you were teleporting around, I wanted to test it by grappling you and seeing how you got out of my grip. When I realized I had grabbed the dummy, I knew you were teleporting something somehow. I had hoped that you couldn’t just swap yourself with the air, but I realized that was a foolish limitation. The fact that I felt other dummies as I got up to my feet made me realize you weren’t swapping yourself with the dummies or anything of the sort. You were moving me around…” Bec held her broken arm against her chest. “I leaned on the dummy to make you reveal that fact to me. I thought you wouldn’t be able to move me without touching my body, but I realize now that you can swap me with the air around you, no touching me required. Robert mentioned teleporters and their range being… exceptional.”

“Smart enough… Still doesn’t explain everything.”

“Yeah, yeah. So, I was leaning against the dummy and I knew you’d either had to reveal that you were moving me… or do your second trick.”

“My second trick?”

“I figured out that you were doing at least two different things to keep me disoriented. I was looking for one, but you were slipping my senses even as I leaned on the dummy. I think you are subduing my light and sound. You’re using subtlety to go quiet and dampen the sound that hits you. The combination of the two was making it impossible for me to track you. I hoped you would try to hit me in a demoralizing way, so, the second I lost track of you, I figured you’d try to attack me from behind the dummy. You know, to embarrass me. You’ve been playing emotional games with me. I’m not really sure how I stopped taking your shit in the end, but I just got tired of the emotional havoc.” Bec tried to shrug, but it was too painful.

“Hmm. I guess I was getting a little predictable.”

“How bad did I hit you?”

“Nothing I can’t recover from.”

“Damn. You are a very… very tough lady. Huhuhuhu.” Bec collapsed and fell unconscious. Presumably from blood loss.

“Nice job, Bec. You could’ve killed a lesser woman with that move.” There was a steel bar jutting out of Ms. Scarlet’s stomach and out her back, missing her spine by an inch. “Missed the lungs, spine, heart. Did shred my bowels, though. That’s a nasty attack, for both you and the victim, Bec.” She grabbed the bar and pressed down on it, pushing it through her body until it was flush with her abdomen. It turned to cotton balls, and most fell to the floor at her feet, soaking up blood that had dripped to the floor. Pressing on the wound, she focused for a moment as the cotton balls morphed into flesh, bone, and organ meat. “She was wrong about half of it, but impressive, nonetheless.” Ms. Scarlet smiled as she looked at her new protégé, lying face down in a growing pool of blood.