//------------------------------// // Greene with Envy // Story: Greene Fields under Red Lights // by Europa //------------------------------// Greene The train arrived, and she was still awake. The others were slowly waking up, roused by the sound and feel of the slowing train. She was out in a heartbeat, dancing and cackling throughout Ponyville before the other equines could even register she was gone. She soared past the roofstops and charged down the streets, her feet leaving a trail of red and white, the wind behind her sending equines' belongings flying as she laughed. She left Ponyville and danced around Fluttershy's cottage before shooting into the Everfree Forest. She hopped over a patch of Poison Joke, skipped past a timberwolf pack, and jumped over a ruined castle. She lost herself in her movements, jumping high and sprinting and rolling around, until finally she returned back to Fluttershy's cottage. She leaped out from the Everfree Forest and, as she landed, slammed her fist into the road, cracking the dirt and sending out a rolling wave of soil. "Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked as the shockwave picked her up and tossed her a short distance away. By the time she got to her hooves Elizabeth was already there, picking the pegasus up in a bone-crushing hug. "Um, E-Elizabeth?" she whimpered. Oh. Fluttershy was afraid. Elizabeth dropped her to the ground and leaped to the roof of her cottage, which rattled menacingly under Greene's weight. She stood and looked out over Ponyville, at the equines moving about, boarding the train. Further there was the city and castle of Canterlot hanging off the mountain, and while not even she could make out individuals, she could still see the buzzing noise of moving equines there. She could do it. She could do it. She could leap into their midst and Bless them, and then go repeat the process elsewhere again, and again, and again, until her children numbered in the millions, and then she could repeat it with the other species. Nervous energy burned bubbled burned in her chest. She could do it right now. Why not start? She looked back at Fluttershy. She was sitting down, her forelegs slightly spread out as she looked at at Elizabeth. With another hop, she reached Fluttershy again. "Fluttershy," she whispered, her echoes as loud as her voice. She traced her fingers along the equine's cheek, the yellow fur parting around her fingers. They locked eyes. "Um, hi, Elizabeth. You seem, um, happy. I-If you don't mind me saying," she stuttered, leaning back. "Don't mind," she said, summoning her new Blessing to her fingertips. She moved it to the surface of her skin and prepared to push it into her dearest best friend... ... a spike of fear stopped her. She pulled her Blessing back in. The equines were not nearly as broken as the Similars. They'd been kind to her when her former species had been cruel, shared a meal with her when they'd imprisoned her. But... they were still broken. It was why she had to Bless them in the first place. She'd been attacked by four equines. Granted, it was out of a few thousand, an infinitely better ratio than the Similars had, but some of them... yes, some of them would reject her Blessing. Violently. It made sense; it was a wonderful change, but it was also a big change. The equines preached and practiced harmony, and while her Blessing would bring that, some would certainly see it otherwise, even if it was only the transition - the painful transition she could do nothing about - they'd find issue with. However good good good they were, they were still broken. She stepped back from Fluttershy and bit her lip, looking left and right. She knew this must be so strange to Fluttershy, how she was acting acting acting, but she couldn't help it. "Need need need to go," she rasped, forming a plan in the blink of an eye. She bolted, but stopped immediately after and looked over her shoulder to the now-confused equine. She smelled fear, fear she had caused her best friend. "Will you be okay?" she asked gently, eyes softening. She nodded. "Oh yes, I'll be fine. Really." Fluttershy would be okay. Good. Elizabeth bolted again. The equines this time heard her coming and got out of the way quick enough. She came to the Golden Oak Library in less than a minute and opened the door, barging in and ignoring the jingle of the bell. Twilight Sparkle and Spike were... she sniffed. In the kitchen. That meant she needed to find the books she was interested on her own. She needed to learn things. She needed to know how to convince equines who thought she was wrong that she wasn't. There would be some; there were some. And she didn't know how she could do that, or anyone who could teach her that she would let, and that left... ... books. She wasn't very fond of books. For one thing, Twilight Sparkle liked them. For another, they were boring and dull and took much longer to teach her than a person who knew the same thing could. She wasn't entirely sure how she knew that, but the sinking drowning choking that came with trying to find out discouraged her from trying. And lastly, they involved her sitting there not moving when she could be out there spreading her Blessing! Still, that didn't stop her. She looked through the bookshelves and eventually found a book that seemed about about about right for her purposes. How to Win Friends and Make Peace with Enemies by someone named Silver Tongue. She pulled that out and turned around... ... it caught her out of the corner of her eyes, and she stiffened. She debated with herself. She'd done it before. Reveled in it, in fact, whenever her children shattered a Similar nest, or on those rare rare rare occasions when she'd taken part herself, throwing boulders at their flying machines and ripping them apart with her bare hands and drenching herself in their blood. She unashamedly enjoyed the feeling of shredding those who'd do her children harm, but... The Majesty of War by Emperor Screch. It was a thick, brown book, the title gold with the image of a griffon on top and below, facing in opposite directions. She knew what it would be about; it was obvious. She pursed her lips. She really really really didn't want to have to do that. Against the wretched Similars, it had been different. But the equines... no. She would never. But they weren't the only ones on this world. Certainly, the minotaurs with their technology - she remembered the thing ambassador Tungsten Mind arrived in - resembled the Similars most. It... wasn't too hard to picture they may react the same way and she'd have to respond in kind. She was fairly confident in her ability to do war. After all, stinging-bullets couldn't pierce her Blessing. Tanks couldn't drive over her Throwing Children. Similar soldiers, even when they escaped the wrath of her and her children, were trailed by her Blessing. She'd lost before even beginning in her first Home, but when the Time for Waiting ended and she escaped to the island city, she had the Similars on the run, and it was only due to her poor poor poor mad Wayward Child that she'd lost. He was not here. Even if the equines repeated what the Crystal Heart did to bring her here, they clearly had no control. The chances of her corrupted son coming to Equus were not even worth considering considering considering, especially since they had no reason to repeat what the Crystal Heart had done to her. If any race on this world tried to attack her and her family, she was confident in her ability to win. ... but was she? She'd been confident before, and the thing she hadn't hadn't hadn't expected had ended her. There was no Curse on this world... but there was Celestia and Luna. They were immensely powerful, and that meant there could easily be other gods that wished her harm. Her memory flashed to the mural of Discord, and she shivered in fear. She'd need to account for that. Somehow. Later. If she ever needed to. She hoped she didn't. Se realized her attention had drifted, and her eyes now rested on a completely unrelated shelf about cooking. She eyed The Majesty of War uneasily, and reclined against the nearest wall, which creaked under her weight. She gently held the book, opened it and - "Oh, hello Elizabeth!" chirped a female's voice. "I didn't hear you come in." Face unmoving, she snapped the book closed. Over the top of it, she glowered at Twilight Sparkle. "Good." "Well, better late than never. Welcome to Golden Oak Library, Ponyville's public library. I see you've already got a book picked out. If you need help finding anything, let me or Spike know." "Will," she rasped, opening the book again after shooting one last glare at the scientist. She began skimming through it, almost immediately bored and impatient. She didn't care about the personal accomplishments of the author, she didn't care why the methods worked, she just wanted to know what the methods were! But she had to be patient, even if she didn't like it. She couldn't risk skipping something important. Harmony theory... ... search of attention... ... strong voice for strong people... ... ethos, pathos, logos... She could hear Spike and Twilight Sparkle eating breakfast upstairs when the door rang again as more equines entered. Three of them, and their hoofsteps were very close to each other, so they were small. She shut the book a second time and smiled when she heard their voices. "Howdy Elizabeth!" Applebloom chirped. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were on either side of her. Elizabeth lowered the book and smiled. "Applebloom," she said, placing the book back in its place in a single step. This was more important. "Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle." "What're you doing in the library?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head sideways. "Reading," she rasped. Wasn't it obvious? The children looked at each other. "... about?" Sweetie Belle asked. "How to convince those broken I can fix them," she said simply. She blinked. "What're you doing in the library?" she asked, parroting Scootaloo's question. "Miss Cheerilee assigned us a science project," Sweetie Belle explained. "A nonu... um... gah, I can't pronounce it!" she said, stomping a foreleg. "Non-Newhoofian fluid," Scootaloo enunciated. "Some stuff that's solid when you're hittin' it, but turns to water when you aren't." She blinked. "I think. Sounds weird. Anyway, we were hopin' Twilight could tell us about it." She paused. "Hey Elizabeth, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Non-Newhoofian fluids, would you?" "No, don't," she said sadly. She was disappointing children. How could she not be sad? "Sorry." She grabbed and opened her book back up, but didn't break eye contact with the children. "It's alright," Applebloom said. "Do ya know where Twilight is?" Elizabeth sniffed the air once. "Telescope room." By then she found where she'd been in her book before the three children had arrived. She kept reading, but couldn't help but smile at the fact that the children were around. Still... the thought of the equine children now made some thought twist at her heart. She ignored it and continued reading. After all, she had so much to do to make sure that she wouldn't fail fail fail a third time. As more equines filed through the library looking for books, directed by a recently returned Spike - Golden Harvest for a book on repairing hoes, Time Turner for a book on how to wash pink paint out of fur - Elizabeth kept reading. The sun outside reached the top of its blinding arc, and she finished the book, setting it back in its place. The three children, at around that point in time, came charging down from the stairs, covered in an odd white substance, with a whisper-still-loud of "Cutie Mark Crusaders chemists yay!" They then charged out the library, and Twilight Sparkle walked down the library, coming to a rest next to Greene. "Um, Elizabeth, can I ask you for a favor?" "Favor?" she asked, snapping her gaze towards Twilight Sparkle. "For?" "Those three are going to be mixing cornstarch and water together, and knowing them they'll probably taint the town's water supply with it or something. Can you go make sure they don't do anything that gets out of hoof? I know they really respect you, so I was wondering..." "Time with children," she said simply, brushing past Twilight Sparkle and saying nothing more as she brushed out of the library, ignoring Twilight Sparkle's goodbyes and saying of how she owed Greene one. Once outside, she looked around. Equines were walking around, giving greetings to each other as they passed, sometimes stopping for a conversation. A gray pegasus put a letter into a mailbox, the metal of which was dented, and took off. Mayor Mare spoke with an equine, and her wonderful hearing picked up things about tax rates and renormalization due to lack of reconstructions. All around, they walked and talked, filling the air with noise and smell, but finding the children she was searching for was easy easy easy. They'd gone to Sweet Apple Acres, and she opened the door to slip in. "Howdy Greene," Applejack greeted. Greene ignored her and entered the kitchen to find the children handling a bag of what looked like a white powder. They'd filled a bowl with water, and it now rested on a stool. "Corn starch?" she guessed. The three of them jumped and turned to look at her, dropping the bag to the floor. It had, fortunately, fallen on its base, so none of the corn starch fell out. "Yep!" Sweetie Belle said. "We're gonna mix it with the water and make some of that, uh, stuff." She pouted and lowered her ears at not being able to pronounce the word. "You wanna watch?" "Watch," she said, eying the bowl of water - which had rattled dangerously when the bag of cornstarch was dropped - with distaste. Hesitantly, she approached it. She poked its dry outside with a finger and spread a splatter of tendrils all along its outside. Still with only one finger attached, she moved the bowl to the ground, pulled her warmth inside, and stepped back. "Won't spill now. Will watch." "Alright!" Applebloom said. "Lift!" The three equine children children children once again listed the corn starch and propped it against the bowl. Scootaloo was at the lip, holding it up and keeping the water from spilling. Elizabeth watched as they poured cornstarch - whatever that was - into the water and then righted the bag. "Now we need a spoon," the earth pony said. In a flash, Elizabeth threw open the nearest drawer and reached in - she was lucky, it was the right one - and handed Sweetie Belle a wooden spoon about the length of her forearm, which she grabbed in her mouth. "Thnk thoo!" she said, trotting over the the child-sized bowl and plopping in the spoon. Elizabeth, with a light push, slammed the drawer back in. They stirred it for a while, until eventually Sweetie Belle stopped and spat out the spoon. The white powder and water had mixed together into a white... slop. What was so special about it? Scootaloo picked it up in her hooves, bouncing it back and forth after sitting on her haunches. "Okay, this is seriously awesome!" she said, the stuff hardening into a ball as she passed it back and forth between her hooves. "Come on girls, pick it up and start tossing!" She threw it up and bounced it off her forehead. It landed, and immediately started to melt. Elizabeth watched the equine children mess around with the goop, and she frowned. They were... happy. Not as happy as they could be, but still happy. It made something tighten in her chest. "Hey Elizabeth, try this out!" Applebloom said as she let a ball trickle through her forehooves. "Really cool!" She slapped the puddle, and Elizabeth could see it turn hard and resist the child's hit. She frowned. On one hand, that stuff was made with water. But on the other hand it would make Applebloom happy. "But, water," she complained weakly. "Oh, right." Applebloom giggled nervously. Sweetie Belle tried to make a caste around her horn, but it dribbled off and she closed her eyelids to keep it from getting in her eyes. Scootaloo kept bouncing her ball in her hooves. "Ya'll don't hafta if ya don't wanna." "Good good good," she muttered. Sweetie Belle had gotten it out of her eyes, and was now playing with it on the ground, drawing it into shapes. As Elizabeth kept watching, she frowned more. These children were... happy happy happy. They'd been raised well, either by their parents or the rest of the family. What had she done? She couldn't even keep her children safe and alive for more than a year! Not once but twice, and the second time she hadn't even lasted two weeks. "Alright, ya'll remember what Miss Cheerilee wanted us to write about with this stuff?" Applebloom asked. She hadn't realized it before, what with going around and snipping essence from equines left and right, but now now now that her goal was so close at hand, so close, she began to think about it. Was it even worth it? Those she Blessed she protected and fixed, but if she failed then they'd suffer. They'd be afraid and lost and cold cold cold. Could she even take that risk in good conscience? How? She had no successes! These equine children were already doing well, they didn't need her messing things up! She scrambled out of the suddenly-too-small house, unaware of the equines calling to her, of Applejack shouting after her or the orchard whirling past her. She stopped in the middle of a forest and took a deep breath. Color drained out of the world... ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Fluttershy "T-Thank you, Lily," she stammered, putting the flowers in her saddlebags. They'd be good for the salad she was planning to make. Now it was really time for her to go back home, it'd be lunch time soon... The first roar split the air. A keening, crashing shout that echoed faintly through the streets and instantly stopped all activity. Fluttershy panicked and dove behind Lily's stand, the other flower ponies joining her. For a moment after the roar ended, there was dead silence. Then it came again. After about a minute of repeated roars and silence, Fluttershy noticed that those screams were familiar. "Elizabeth!" she gasped, darting out from behind the stand and walking through town in search of her friend. She looked around. Ponies were slowly starting to ignore the repeated roars. This was Ponyville, after all. Stranger things happened. She found Rainbow Dash near Stirrup Street, perched on a cloud looking around. "Rainbow!" she panted. "Where's Elizabeth?" The other pegasus landed next to her. "I don't know about Elizabeth, but whatever's causing those roars is in Whitetail Woods. Wanna come with me? I'll teach it to mess with - " "No Rainbow," she said desperately. "That's Elizabeth roaring." Dash's ears perked up. "Really? Sheesh, she's got some lungs on her." She pointed in a vague direction. "She's thataway, just look for the giant red fog coming from the forest. But Flutters, don't ya think you should wait for her to calm down before looking for her?" She shook her head, mane flopping and - eep! - uncovering her face. "Oh no, I think she might be hurt! I have to go see her. Um, goodbye Rainbow Dash. T-Thanks for helping." Rainbow smiled, closed her eyes and waved a forehoof. "Ah, don't sweat it 'shy." "O-Okay," she stammered, taking to the air and angling towards the direction Rainbow had pointed. At that moment, another roar, a little louder now that she was a little closer, rumbled through the air. Far off in the distance, Fluttershy spotted a cone of red mist rising above the treeline. She gasped, and closed in. Once inside Whitetail Woods itself, she landed and began trotting. As another roar came to a close, she felt her stomach drop and the barest bits of anger flicker in her veins. Color faded slightly, and then returned with the next scream. Fluttershy shivered. Elizabeth wasn't in danger, she was furious. She didn't know what had cause this. Elizabeth wasn't exactly the paragon of emotional stability; sometimes she barely reacted to world-altering news, other times she reacted wildly to things ponies thought was nothing. The next roar forced her to flatten her ears against her skull. Leaves fell from trees and branches rustled. She grimaced as angry thoughts filled her head, but continued on. She spotted Elizabeth in the middle of a large clearing, a clearing that she knew for a fact hadn't been there before. The upturned trees at the edges - she hoped no animals had been there when that happened! - confirmed this. She watched as Elizabeth, with her back to Fluttershy, clenched her fists and raised them. Gray and white tendrils - color was fading again - whirled around Greene like a tornado, until with a flash of orange-red Elizabeth roared to the sky, a conical crimson shockwave blasting into the sky, the wind and hatred at herself for being a failure forcing Fluttershy back. The scream cut out and Greene lowered her hands, but immediately began to prepare another roar. "Elizabeth!" Fluttershy shouted before she could unleash the next one. She stepped into the clearing as the world again descended into grayscale and loathing. Greene snapped the top half of her body around and stared at Fluttershy. The pegasus stepped back when she saw that Elizabeth's irises were as radiant yellow as the sun, but even as those sulfurous eyes burrowed into her soul color returned, and Elizabeth's eyes returned to their smothered-green tint. The foreign anger in Fluttershy's body faded, only to be replaced by deep sadness. The Evolved fell to her knees and stared dejectedly at the dirt. Fluttershy tentatively approached. She hadn't seen Elizabeth this sad since she learned that her virus made ponies sick, instead of strong like it made her. "Elizabeth, what's wrong?" she asked. "I-If you want to tell me, of course." "Don't," she whispered. Fluttershy sat next to Elizabeth and laid a hoof on her lap. "Alright, but you know you'll feel better if you talk to me." A few minutes passed. Finally, Elizabeth said one simple word. "Failure." "What is?" she asked. "Me, failure failure failure. Can't keep children for a year, can't for two weeks. Failure failure, ruined them, sad and cold. Ruined them..." she trailed off. Oooh, she thought. "Elizabeth, you're not a failure. You're a wonderful parent, and the fact that you're so sad about it proves that." "Still failed," she mused. "Once, twice, can't try thrice. Can't dare." "Are you afraid that you'll mess up your family again? N-Not that I'm saying you messed it up before, it was the humans that attacked you. But, um..." "Afraid of that," she rasped. "No success, doomed to failure." Elizabeth's rasping echoes seemed to dim by the second. "Greene," she cooed. "You won't fail. Did you have anypony to help you on your world?" She paused. Then, "No..." "You have friends here, Elizabeth. Friends who care about you. Alright? You don't have to be afraid." Suddenly, Elizabeth turned to Fluttershy and grabbed her. She grasped Fluttershy's withers with both of her scorching hands, and her small eyes burned into Fluttershy's. "Promise!" she hissed. Torrents of fear and hope and never-succeeded-never-never-never and I-can't-do-this-on-my-own battered Fluttershy. "P-Promise what?" she stammered. "Promise you'll help," she rasped intensely, echoes rising again. "Can't do this alone can't can't can't!" Elizabeth let go and relaxed, looking down. "Fluttershy... help." She nodded instantly. How could she say no to that face? "I promise Elizabeth, I'll help you." Greene's face lit up like the sun. "Will?!" she asked, as if not expecting that answer. The pegasus nodded. "I will. I'll help you with your children, Elizabeth. Cross my heart," she said, performing the correct motions. "Hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Mercer Red and black soared through the air as the predator glided. He restabilized his mass and landed with a heavy thud on the nearest rooftop, springing in an instant. With that leap he reached the other end of the housing complex. He grabbed the biomass inside of himself and made it lurch forward, sending him flying forward. His insides squirmed queasily at being forced to do that, but the moment his feet touched the building's wall that faded. He dug in and in a gravity defying maneuver sprinted straight up. His prey hung limply from his right hand, swinging left and right as he continued his mad dash across the skyline of Manhattan. He reached the top of the skyscraper, a trail of shattered glass in his wake. Alex Mercer flipped, his prey flipping with him. Once upon a time, he'd have to watch for helicopters up at these heights, but he'd shattered Blackwatch's power years ago. And while he kept his ear to the ground enough to know they'd started rebuilding, he'd put the fear of Zeus in the 'fearless' military branch. He leaped off the skyscraper and spread his limbs as far as they'd go. He began shooting small amounts of himself out with immense force, so the biomass drain was unnoticeable but still generated lift. He knew that several of the New Yorkers below would have their smartphones out to take a video of the mysterious Monster of Manhattan, and he also knew that the resulting YouTube, FileFront and whatnot videos would get taken down within a few hours. Too bad for the government that Dana kept a very good collection of the ones she found before they were taken down. She'd even compiled them on her laptop: The Hall of Alex, she called it. He had no idea how she did it - okay, he did, but that didn't make it any less impressive that she could constantly and safely save any videos of himself without looking for them as soon as they went up. Even if that method caught more than a few kids pretending to be him. He landed on another building, and saw his destination one street over. Dropping into a nearby alley, he focused. He dissolved, the feeling of relaxing into a human-shaped mass of rippling black followed immediately by the moment of focus to assume to form of Theodore Anderson. He walked into the street, his quarry still dangling helplessly in his hands. Nobody gave him a second look, except for the angry drivers that swore at him and threatened him with death (Ha!) as he simply walked across the busy street. Once in front of the building, he began to climb. Not his usual digging-fingers-into-bricks climbing, but rather finding footholds and ledges to use pull himself up. Several people took videos of him, but it would just go up as a video of some crazy parkour enthusiast. He slipped open the window and crawled in to his home, dragging his prey with him. Walking over to the couch, he plopped the grocery bags in his right hand onto the coffee table. He wished it was Dana's turn to get groceries, but he had to concede that he could get them a hell of a lot faster than her. Besides, she could put them in the kitchen. In a flurry of red and black tentacles, he shifted back into the form of Doctor Alex Mercer and looked around. As far as Manhattan apartments went, it wasn't too bad. After the Outbreak five years ago, with a final death toll of nearly 95% of Manhattan's population, it was fairly obvious that the cost of rent plummeted. A couple postmortem bank accounts later, he'd secured Dana and himself a halfway decent apartment. Upper East Side, a restroom and a shower (Only one of the inhabitants needed that, after all), walls a shade of alabaster white, with a view over Central Park, the trees slowly greening as spring dawned. Or at least there would be a view, if the apartment wasn't on the wrong side of the building. Halfway decent. He'd climbed into the living room, where a 3D TV was hung on the wall, and his keen eyes noted that it was tilted one thirty-fourth of a degree to the right. Across the TV was a well worn grayed out couch, with several springs broken. He most certainly did not break them by sitting on the couch and forgetting he weighed ten times more than a human on the best of days. He walked into Dana's computer room, as she called it, and immediately got a bad feeling in his 'stomach'. The spartan room was a lot like the safe house she'd hidden in before that damned Leader Hunter got her, and he always looked once to the right, in case he heard that tell tale rumble a second time. The walls were almost bare, and the paint was chipped. There were a few photographs of him and Dana taken in a photo booth, after she'd threatened him with a squirt gun. The only light after he closed the door behind it came in the form of undulating light from Dana's laptop, but that was more than enough for him to see everything in detail. There wasn't much detail to see. There was a black swivel chair with the stuffing falling out, and a mahogany table he'd gotten with his stolen/inherited bank account. The table was occupied by several empty soda cans, and laptop showing some website about various news organizations. The chair was occupied by the one thing that mattered to him more than his own well being. "I'm back," he said. The swivel chair snapped around to face him. "Jesus Christ, Alex! You scared the shit out of me. Again." Dana exclaimed, one hand clasped over her heart. He winced like a kicked puppy. "Sorry," he muttered to the ground. She waved it off. She'd gotten used to it over the past five years. "It's alright, I should be used to it by now. You're just doing what you always do." She turned back around and muttered under her breath, "Sneaking around like a fucking creep." He winced again. "Sorry." "Look, it's alright." She clicked something, and the page changed to a more reddish hue. "Anyway, I got this offer from Fox - " "And you're going to take up another story about how the military needs to do something about 'The Monster of Manhattan?'?" he asked skeptically. "Oh Zeus," said a sickly sweet voice from all around him. "Don't be so critical. Not everything revolves around you, after all." He whipped his head around, until he spotted the source of the sourceless voice laying down on a wall. Laying down on a wall. He was a little boy, maybe six or eight. He had sandy blonde hair, a little on the long side but still short enough to not be criticized. He wore a white button-up shirt three sizes too large, greyish-tan jeans, and no shoes. He laid against the wall as if it were the floor, with a hand raised in front of him as he inspected it, turning it back and forth. This little fucker was the source of the bad feeling in Alex's gut, a vibrating pull as if the small figure were so immensely powerful he created his own gravitational field. "Really," Pariah said, his voice again coming from every direction at once, even though Alex saw his mouth moving. "You go out and brutally murder a few thousand people, and you get the status of terrorist, monster, and creepy guy. You become the goal of all evolution on Earth, nobody says a thing!" Pariah threw his arms back, which in his position corresponded to up, in exasperation. "There's no justice in the world." Alex rubbed his temples through his hood. It would be nice to pretend Pariah's talking gave him a headache, but not even humans could get headaches from talking to other humans. All the same, he rubbed his imaginary headache away. "There's no justice in the world because nobody's heard of you," he snarled. "A fact that you were quite adamant on keeping true." Pariah rolled his glowing purple eyes. Both Mercers had silvery blue eyes. Dana's were simply that color, while Alex's flickered with inhuman malice. But Pariah's lavender irises simply smoldered, like pastel cigarette butts. "Yeah yeah, and you wanted to hold me out to the world shouting 'Simba!', didn't you Lexi?" He flashed a beautific smile on his smug little face. Alex bristled at that name. He fucking hated that name. He could just picture it. Sitting on a rooftop, looking down at the streets below. They call me a killer, a monster, a terrorist... Lexi. God he hated that name. And no, he most certainly hadn't wanted to do that. When he'd first met Pariah, he had only intended to eat the little creep. Pariah laid his hands along his lap and shook his head. Limply across the wall hung four black tendrils that extended out from the older viral abomination's back. One of them was held out - up for Pariah - and fiddled with a Rubik's Cube at the end, idly turning it this way and that. Dana thought they were creepy as all hell, calling them 'Some Slenderman shit'. Alex just thought they looked stupid. "Oh, Alex," Dana said, distracting him from his one-sided glaring contest with Pariah. "Check this out before I leave. You too, Parry." Pariah stiffened, and all four of his tentacles reached out to their full Slenderman-y extent. He stood 'up' from the wall, looking 'up' at Dana. He flung the Rubik's Cube into a corner. "I told you never to call me that!" "Yeah yeah. I wanna show you this before I gotta get to work." She clicked the play button, and the video started. It was another one of those 'fail compilations' she liked so much. Dana apparently, in her spare time, found sadistic pleasure in the failure and agony of other human beings. ... screw genetics, they really were siblings. After a few minutes of Dana laughing maniacally, and Pariah snerking, the video ended. Both turned to him expectantly. The silence was filled by the whispered memories of those he'd consumed. "Um, it was..." Damn it, if he said he didn't like it, Dana would make the Disappointed Face. Anything but the Disappointed Face. "... funny?" Apparently that was enough for Dana. She smiled broadly, and instantly it was like the sun shone in the small room. "I'm glad you liked it!" She pulled herself out of her chair and began to search for her business clothes. "Anyway, I gotta get down to the station. Apparently there's something going on in Germany - " "Have fun," Pariah said, still pretending gravity was sideways for him. Of course, Alex knew how he did it; he clung to the walls in the same way when he ran up walls, and the rest was just moving his limbs carefully. "Remember," Mercer said as she opened the door, letting in light from the rest of the apartment. "If you find any leads..." Dana's face turned grim. "Alex, I know you're worried, but face it. She's not back." "But I can't hear her anymore!" he countered. "Everyone else I've eaten - " Dana cringed. Damn. " - I can hear, but I can't hear her anymore. That means she's back!" "Or that she's really gone now," she said. "Alex, I know you really don't want to take any chances, but face it. Greene's not exactly the kind of person to lay low. It's been a month. If she were alive, we'd know about it." "Dana's right, brother." Pariah's face turned worried. "Mother's not alive. She took out eighty percent of Manhattan in a week and a half, and that was at an exponential rate. If she is back, then she's nowhere we can get to her or she can get to us. Let it go." Alex Mercer growled, red and black flickers warping around his body. But, but Elizabeth Greene! The one who'd taken Dana and nearly infected her! The one who'd tried to destroy the world and enslave humanity to her will. The one opponent he'd ever fought - really fought, not suffered from like the Parasite or run from like the nuke - that had ever gotten him close to death! How could he let it - He saw the look of genuine concern on Dana and Pariah's face. He growled, but relaxed and stopped his tendrils. "Fine, fine." Then he looked at Pariah. "Get off the wall." "Of course, Zeus. I know how uncomfortable that makes you." And then Pariah jumped and 'landed' on the ceiling, upside down. His four tendrils hung in a cluster along his back, but they were going up by Alex's perspective, not down like gravity wanted them to. Dana laughed, and Alex growled, forming his claws and facepalming with them. "... I should've left you with Blackwatch." He really shouldn't have been complaining. When he first tracked down Pariah, he'd expected him to be a psychopathic Runner like his mother, Mother. Instead, he'd gotten the most powerful being on the planet to be his ally and, more importantly, protect Dana. But... "Aww, I love you too Zeus," said his voice from all directions. ... on the other tentacle, Pariah was a prick. Dana laughed again. "Alright, alright. I really do have to leave now." Pariah let go of the ceiling and landed on the ground like normal people. "Try not to destroy the island while I'm out." Pariah wrapped his arm around Alex's waist and pulled the younger virus to him, who instantly glowered beneath his hood. "Don't worry Dana, we'll be good. Scout's honor," he said, making the gesture. Alex snarled. "... take your arm off or I'm ripping it off." Pariah tightened the grip and leaned his head onto his side, making Alex glower lower. Dana rolled her eyes, her coat concealing her home clothes, wallet in her pocket. "Fucking viruses," she sighed, and then she opened the door into the hall and swept out. Alex waited ten seconds for her to get out of earshot. He changed his claws to a thick mass of gray muscle and backhanded Pariah away from him. Before Pariah could slam into the wall, he air dashed forward, the momentum canceling out and letting him drop to the dead-sunflower color carpet soundlessly. "You wound me, Zeus." Pariah's body flickered with black tendrils - not red and black like Mercer's own, just black - and a hole opened in his chest where a human's heart would be. "Deeply wound me," he said in a strained voice before closing the void. "Oh fuck off Pari - " He cut off, his arms turning back to normal. There was... a sensation. A feeling in his gut, like when he'd been hit by a thermobaric missile by that bastard Taggart. It was the feeling that somewhere, somehow, something utterly horrible was about to happen and there was nothing he could do about it. Pariah looked worried, his back tendrils slightly raised. "Zeus? Are you alright?" "I think so," he said, staring off into space. "It's strange. I don't know why, but all of a sudden I have a strong urge to comfort small horses."