Prophecy Approved Companion

Now, it would be hard for a normal person to tell when Squiggles was grinning. The lack of lips and the multitude of pointy teeth made it difficult to discern that she was not, in fact, baring her teeth, but she was just excited about whatever’s happening. The drooling and the tail wagging were the main things someone not intimately acquainted with the sharktopus would look for to determine mood.

But none of the outsiders had the requisite knowledge to decode Squiggles’s mood.

“That’s okay; we can do this some other time,” Bazzacco said, raising his hands as the mascot happily drooled.

“What did you want to ask her about?” Qube took pity on the man. After all, he was trying to be considerate towards Squiggles; that automatically earned him some leeway.

“Uh, just some questions about studying her as she grows in intellect and whether or not she’d be interested in — well, there goes the chair.”

The whole meeting hadn’t taken that long, all things considered. But in the short amount of time they’d been in the room, Squiggles’s chair had been through a lot. First she’d squeezed herself into it, scraping it with her various crowns, then she’d jumped out of it rather hastily, which hadn’t done it any favours, and, Qube was displeased to note, the sharktopus appeared to have been gnawing on it during the negotiations.

All that it had suffered with the dignified silence of a piece of furniture. But the violent thrashing of a sharktopus tail turned out to be beyond its limit, and it shattered into pieces.

“That’s really quite impressive,” Bazzacco said as one of the chair legs flung itself into a wall and started rotating in place.

“She’s a very impressive girl,” Qube said, with as much pride as a parent whose child had just exploded a chair could muster.

Squiggles, released from her wooden prison, started dashing around, before settling down between Qube and the Chosen One.

“It’s almost like a cat,” Professor Dinto said with a laugh.

“She’s much more intelligent than a cat,” Qube mentally ruffled herself.

“Of course she is,” Bazzacco said soothingly. “I suppose I’d better ask you, since you’re her guardian. Would she be able to be monitored, and engage in structured play, so we can observe how she learns?”

“As long as it’s not harmful to her,” Qube said dubiously.

“Not at all,” Bazzacco reassured her. “If anything, once she’s matured a bit, I think she’ll be a real hit — ah, she’ll be extremely popular with kids. Those that are into deep sea creatures and that sort of thing. I seem to remember she’s quite fond of children. We could have controlled interactions with them, help them see what our technology can do. It would be great PR. Ah, that means public relations, the view the public has of, uh, Squiggles.”

Qube considered this. “As long as one of us is with her, I don’t see any problems. She’ll be allowed to stop as soon as she wants, though.”

“This is ridiculous,” Major General Coyle muttered to herself.

“Nothing wrong with them setting the terms of their engagement,” the Chosen One said, suddenly entering the conversation.

“It’s a monster, it doesn’t need parental supervision,” Major General said dismissively.

“Surely monsters require the most supervision,” Sencha Bard quietly interjected.

There was a pause, then the Major General gave a short, sharp bark of laughter, causing Sencha Bard to rock back in surprise at her reaction. “You’re right,” she said to the startled Bard. The red Ruth looked at Qube, and something about the shift in her body language made Qube nervous. Major General Thompson, no doubt also sensing the change, sat up straighter.

“But who’s going to supervise the Mascot, if you’re all off doing your own things?” Coyle asked Qube.

Major General Thompson nodded. “Especially yourself. As the flagship of this project, a single version of yourself can’t exactly be expected to be everywhere at once,” he added, in a very reasonable tone.

Which is why it was a mystery that his reasonable tone was met with a sudden air of hostility.

“No,” Alex said firmly. “No replicating. We couldn’t do it perfectly, even if we wanted to. Who knows what variables it would introduce.”

“He wants to make twins of you,” the Chosen One said to Qube in an angry undertone. “Same as how you make twins of Temple items.”

“Is that possible?” Qube whispered back.

“There are ways,” Major General Thompson said casually, although it was unclear if his answer was in response to Qube or Alex. “If there’s enough interest in it. It’ll happen eventually, anyway.”

“She can’t consent right now, she doesn’t have enough information or context,” Alex snapped back. “Unless you plan on treating her like property, you’ll need her consent.”

“And I believe we’ve already covered the downsides of treating us as property,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar pointed out.

“Yes, yes, we’ve discussed that,” Major General Thompson said, dismissing the Hunter with a wave of his hand. Not only was it rude, but it ran completely counter to the sympathetic looks the man had been giving them earlier.

She’d thought he was with them. Even though some of the other team members were hostile, having a higher-up who was for them had felt like a measure of safety. But he was just as quick to dismiss their points of view as the others.

“I thought you were on our side,” Qube said, hurt. Immediately after saying that, she realised that this might have been another verbal trap, designed to draw out reactions. But the looks of genuine confusion from the outsiders stopped that line of thought.

The hostility that had been building deflated. In the face of Qube’s wounded expression, the slight tremble of fear in her voice, and the barely-held in tears brought on by a long, long day, the outsiders gained various guilty looks.

“They are very young,” Professor Dinto said to the others. “Very, very young.”

“I feel like I just kicked a puppy,” Brigadier Kennedy muttered. “And I didn’t even say anything.”

“You should see her when she’s being understanding,” the Chosen One muttered.

“We’re not on anyone’s side,” Major General Thompson replied gently, reaching out and patting the space in front of Qube. It was the closest he could get to her without getting out of his seat. “But I promise you, each of us wants this to succeed.”

“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe in the project,” Major General Coyle added. She sighed and rubbed her face, pointedly not looking at Qube.

“It’s true,” Major General Thompson continued kindly. “Both Coyle and myself have put a lot on the line to make this happen. We’re trying to figure out what will and won’t work. But I promise you, I promise you, we want what’s best for everyone. And that includes you, and your friends.”

Qube continued to regard him silently. She no longer had her blind belief in authority figures; she knew they could make mistakes, or make the wrong decisions. And she knew that there were going to be a lot of pitfalls ahead of them. But she didn’t have a lot of power here.

Could she put her life in their hands?

Did she have a choice? She could either trust them, or not.

“It won’t just be them making the decisions, either,” the Chosen One added, reaching over and taking her hand.

That’s right.

There was always another choice.

“I want my village restored,” she said abruptly. “That was promised to me.” Technically, it’d been the Chosen One who’d promised that, not anyone else, but that was semantics.

“We can do that,” Major General Thompsons said, then looked at Alex. “We can do that, right?”

Alex nodded.

Qube licked her lips. The red Warwick had made a promise, without knowing it was actually possible. Why?

“Squiggles is learning a lot, but she’s still a baby,” Qube continued. “Until she can speak up enough to say if something’s wrong, one of us will need to supervise her.”

“None of us would have a problem putting our work on hold every now and then to help our sweet pet out,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said.

“Understandable,” Thompson said. Coyle looked at Squiggles, sitting happily between the Hero and Healer, and her face almost imperceptibly softened. Qube was now more sure than ever that the earlier discussion had been designed to test her, possibly attempting to provoke her into lashing out. After all, insulting the team pet would be the fastest way to rile anyone up.

“Even if we’re doing our own things, we’ll need a way to stay in contact,” Qube said, controlling the fear that spiked in her at the thought of being separated from her friends.

“That can be arranged.” Coyle finally resumed looking at Qube, a calculating glint in her eye. “The world you come from will remain available to all of you. As will your village.”

“Anyone from our world who wishes to ascend should be allowed to,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said. “As well, we would need to be able to return as needed to help establish a new form of governance. One less reliant on a single point of power.” The two Major Generals made eye contact with each other.

“You’ll also have to repair all the damage you’ve done to the various people,” Qube said. She closed her eyes, and saw the Evil Emperor’s face. Was he still in the Chosen One’s backpack? She opened them again, banishing his image. “And the people who’ve been forced into doing damage,” she added.

“Once we’ve determined how this initial stage has gone, we can look into what resources that would require,” Coyle said.

“Fine words, containing no certainties,” Sencha Bard said smoothly.

“I don’t like making offers I can’t back up,” Coyle said, continuing to look at Thompson. Thompson gave a small smile.

“You’ll just have to trust us, as we’re trusting you,” Thompson said.

Only they weren’t fully trusting them, were they? Each of the party members had been leashed, either with a promise or a threat. Even them agreeing to restore the village wasn’t because it was the right thing to do. It just meant there was something they could take away from Qube, if she misbehaved.

Her hands were trembling. She tucked them under the table, trying to stop them from curling into fists. Something about this whole thing, negotiating to be treated as a person, felt humiliating. She was scared, angry, and feeling gross about everything that was happening.

The Chosen One reached under the table, and placed his hand over one of hers.

“There’ll be safeguards in place,” he said to the outsiders. “On both ends.”

“Trust, but verify,” Coyle replied dryly. She looked at Qube. “I also think you’ll find your priorities will shift once you enter the real world.”

Ice flowed within Qube.

“I suspect your priorities will also shift, once you grasp how real our world is,” Definitely Bad Guy replied to Coyle. “One of the first lessons I learned was that just because something was magic, that did not mean it was not real. Or that it could not affect others. I am aware that our world was created using your ‘tech’, but that does not make the outcome of your Grand Working something easily dismissed.”

That’s right. This wasn’t a Good vs. Evil scenario. Or even a chaos vs. order. It was part of an evolving situation.

The quest, with its easily understood stages and clear goal, was over.

This was the start of something new.

“We’ll take the first step together, and then renegotiate from there,” Qube said firmly. “None of us know how this is going to go, so we’ll have to take it one step at a time.”

They weren’t powerless. The outsiders, the Devs’ realm, wanted their cooperation. They wanted to study them, and have them help out in various roles. They had leverage on everyone in the party, but everyone in the party had something they wanted, too.

For all their airs of assurance, the outsiders were frightened enough of them that they’d come into their world, and tested each member, wanted ways to control them. They’d clearly passed all the tests, and so now it was time to take the first steps outside their world, for them to test the Devs, and those who stood above them.

“Very well,” Coyle said, and Qube could tell the woman understood her resolve. “If no one has any further questions, then I believe it’s time for us to move on.”