by L. C. Mawson
“What’s wrong?” Claire asked as she noticed that Em had a frown.
“There’s a problem with the tracker.”
“A problem?”
She nodded, shifting her weight from side to side. “I should have noticed it earlier, I’m so sorry that I didn’t, I just-” Her words started to run together, becoming unintelligible.
“Em, what exactly is wrong with it?” Claire asked, cutting her off.
Em nodded, messing with her hair. “The signal was a fake. Has been for a while now.”
“How long?”
“The last original signal was from three days ago. Then the fake one was spliced in.”
“Do you have a location from the original?”
Em shook her head. “I reset the signal, but it hasn’t moved. I think the monster’s dead.”
“Could it have been removed?” Serenity asked her.
“No. If it had been removed, there would be no signal at all.”
“Okay, well, this is salvageable,” Serenity said.
“How?” Claire asked with a raised eyebrow.
Em let out a whine of protest. “No-o-o... Sere, come on.”
Serenity gave her a confused frown. “I still don’t understand your dislike for Perception. Surely he is the Aspect most like you.”
“Maybe that’s her problem,” Jealousy ventured. “She can dole it out, but she can’t take it.”
“Take what?” Em asked, her tone sharp. “He only picks up on stuff I’m mirroring anyway.”
“So why the complaint?” Serenity asked.
Em groaned. “It’s nothing, I just... Fine. Whatever. Call him. Just get it over with.”
Em stormed out of the room, leaving Claire more than a little confused.
“So, what exactly just happened?” she asked.
Jealousy shrugged. “Don’t ask us. She’s always been like this when we have to call Perception for help. He’s nothing but nice to her when he’s here, and she’s nothing but mean back. We don’t really get it.”
“Weird,” Claire muttered before deciding to follow her sister.
CLAIRE WAS SURPRISED to find that Em had retreated to her floor, instead of the Control Room. Though she supposed that if the signal was no longer working, there was nothing for her to do up there.
Claire knocked on the door. “Em? It’s me.”
“Lita, let her in,” she heard through the door.
She entered the room to see Empathy sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table with a tube of coloured sweets in front of her. She was dividing them up by colour into neat rows.
“Hey,” Claire said, sitting down at the other side of the coffee table from her sister.
Calling her that still felt weird. Sister. Familial words didn’t belong in Claire’s vocabulary. They never had. Though she had to admit that it was... nice. As if a piece of her had been rotting away without her realising and was now made whole.
“Want some?” Em asked, indicating to the sweets.
“Yeah, go on.”
Em split the neat little rows into two, giving Claire exactly half of each colour.
“Are you going to tell me why you don’t like Perception?” Claire asked.
Em groaned. “He’s just... I don’t know.”
“There has to be a reason why. Did he do something?”
Em shook her head. “He just... He’s not...”
Claire held back a sigh, wondering if Em would ever be comfortable enough to tell her.
Em stayed silent for a few moments before continuing with, “I wish you could remember.”
“Yeah, well, whose fault is that?”
She'd meant it to be light - just a joke - but Em flinched as if she'd just been slapped.
“I didn’t mean...” Claire trailed off with a sigh. She didn’t know how to fix her mistake.
Em seemed to recover anyway. “No, I deserve it. I just...” She got up, moving over to the table by the wall, where a few picture frames were placed. She picked one up and brought it over, passing it to Claire.
It took Claire a moment to realise that the family in the photo must have been theirs. Her mother, who looked like an older version of her, was standing next to a man she presumed to be their father. A small girl, about five years old, was balanced on his hip. In their mother’s arms was a baby, no older than two years.
“This is us?” Claire asked.
Em nodded. “Yeah. I don’t really remember but... about a year after this was taken, the Aspect Program came knocking.”
Claire frowned. “Does it run in families or something?” she joked as her mind worked, trying to put the pieces into place.
Em didn’t reply.
“So, our father is an Aspect? That’s why they never found any record of him?”
“Yup. He left when we were just children. Maman was... I don’t know. Her best friend moved in for a few years. Helped to keep everything together.”
Claire nodded, not having another response. She found it difficult to be angry at a father she hadn’t known existed until this point.
“He’s Perception, isn’t he?”
“He was.”
Claire looked up at her, seeing that Em was clutching at her arms, as if desperate to hold herself together. “He died. About a month after I became an Aspect.”
“I’m sorry,” Claire said, unsure of what else to say.
Em glared at her, looking angry.
“What? What’s with the look?”
Em’s frown deepened, though her gaze dropped to the floor, her knuckles whitening as she clenched her fists. “You just don’t get it.”
Claire shrugged. In all honesty, she wished that she did, but she didn’t understand Em’s feelings beyond her grieving for her father. But he'd died five years ago.
“He left!” Em spat, as a way of attempting to explain. “You used to call him Bastard! Maman would scold you for it every time, but you kept at it because she was terrible at hiding the fact that it made her feel better!”
Claire sat silently, not knowing how to respond. So, she wasn’t grieving him? Or she was, but wasn’t letting herself because she was mad?
“He shouldn’t have left. It wasn’t fair.”
But you left too, Claire thought, confused over Em’s vitriol. Unless she’s not just mad at him. Maybe she’s mad at herself too.
It made a certain kind of sense, she had to admit. Em might just be using him to channel her guilt. Which then conflicted with the fact that he was gone. But Claire didn’t know what to do with that revelation. If she pointed it out, Em would probably rebel against the thought. She clearly wasn’t in a place to face her hypocrisy.
“Are you just going to hide when he arrives?” she finally asked.
Em shook her head. “I can’t. He needs to know how the device works.”
She sighed, picking up a book from her shelf.
“Hey, have you ever read this?”
Claire took that to mean that the conversation about Perception was over.
CLAIRE DIDN’T CARE about Perception showing up. She really didn’t. She didn’t know him and she had no strong feelings towards him. Why would she? She hadn’t known the man he'd replaced. This was Em’s hang up, not hers.
And yet, she couldn’t stop stimming as she waited for him to arrive. She was humming while she went through her old ballet exercises, taking pleasure in the spinning motions. It was calming, though why she needed calming was a little beyond her.
“He’s here,” Em muttered as she entered the room, folding her arms as she came to stand beside Claire, standing exactly so that Claire was blocking her from the view of the doorway.
Claire hadn’t been sure what she'd expected, but she realised that it definitely wasn’t the short man with sun-kissed skin who entered. His light brown hair was receding a little, though he didn’t otherwise seem to be out of his mid-twenties. He wore a plain jeans and t-shirt combination and Claire thought she wouldn’t have looked twice at him in a
crowd. Not that she ever tended to look twice - she barely looked once - but he seemed unnoticeable even by her oblivious standards.
“Perception,” Justice greeted as he entered.
“Justice,” he replied, his voice just as plain as his appearance. “Concern for your young teammate clouds your judgement. You worry why she still distrusts me and you doubt your own ability to trust.”
Justice flinched a little at that. “I have to trust my teammates,” she reasoned.
He simply nodded. “Who will I be accompanying?”
“We don’t want a fight,” Justice told him. “You, Serenity and Love should be able to investigate the lost signal without causing trouble.”
“There is a new Love?” he asked.
Claire stepped forward. “That would be me.”
He turned to face her and she found his gaze disconcerting. Not that she was great with eye contact anyway, but she couldn’t keep his for more than a moment.
“The eyes hurt, like trying to look at the sun. You hold for as long as you can, but you have to look away, for fear you’ll be blinded.”
“Pretty much,” Claire said with a shrug.
“You worry for your sister. She’s letting old wounds tear her apart, ripping open the scars and pouring in the salt because she believes it will cleanse her of her sins.”
Em let out an agitated sigh. “Or my sister’s putting words in my mouth. And stop talking as if I’m not here.”
“But you’re not,” Perception answered simply. He indicated to Claire. “You’re a cracked mirror, latching onto the first best fit and refusing to let her leave, for fear of losing the reflection closest to your own.”
Em let loose an expletive that raised everyone’s eyebrows before she continued on. “Just shut up and let me show you how this machine works.”
He nodded, thankfully remaining silent.
“The injectors will be still latched onto the creature. Just follow the coordinates and you should find the body. Can you figure out where the creature went before it died?”
Perception shrugged. “I will not know that until I see the creature. If it is still in one piece, it should a fairly simple task. The more mutilated the corpse has been, or the more it has decayed, the more difficult it will be.”
“Right, well, if you’re no use, then you’ll have to bring me back the original device. It’s locked onto the creature, so you’ll have to cut out the flesh. Do not cut any of the injectors, okay?”
“I understand.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll believe that when you’re back with the device,” Em said before storming out of the room.
Vengeance looked a little disquieted by the shocked silence that followed, eventually breaking it with, “Well... Good luck.”
SERENITY AND CLAIRE stayed secluded in the back of the dropship. Claire regretted not being able to see the Wastelands below them, but she also didn’t want to risk initiating a conversation with Perception.
“Is he always this... creepy?” Claire asked as the dropship finally landed, keeping her voice low so that he wouldn’t hear.
Serenity nodded. “Oh yeah. Em’s the only one who outright refuses to work with him, but he creeps everyone out.”
Their conversation was abruptly stopped by the ship landing and a sudden rush of salty air entering the dropship as the door opened.
“What’s that smell?” Claire asked with a frown.
“The sea,” Perception told her. “The signal stopped at the coast.”
Claire got out of the ship and found that they had landed by a large ruin. A huge structure which she realised after a few moments had been a castle. A real castle.
It was what lay beyond the castle which caught her attention, though. The ground gave way at the other side of the structure, dropping down to an expanse of deep blue which stretched as far as the eye could see. No walls to obscure it. Just blue and then a slightly lighter blue.
“The sea,” Claire eventually said, remembering the word. “That’s the sea.”
Serenity nodded. “That it is. Be thankful we don’t have to venture out into it. Not all of the creatures dumped here were land-based.”
Claire nodded, though she didn’t really absorb Serenity’s words. She'd approached the edge of cliff, close enough to see the pale beige surface below, which the sea was languidly washing up and down upon. Claire felt like she could watch it all day, calmly moving in and out. Rhythmic. Like breathing.
“A new world full of new wonders,” Perception said, making Claire aware that he was studying her. “A life locked in a cage but you only traded one cage for another.”
Claire sighed, knowing that he was right, though she would have liked a moment more to admire the sight in front of her before remembering what she'd given up for it.
“So, where’s this creature?” Claire asked.
Perception nodded to the beach below. “Down there and around the corner. Watch out for any others.”
“Come on,” Serenity said, making her way down a rather steep, stone slope. It looked almost as if it had once been man-made, though now it was on the cusp of crumbling.
Claire followed behind her and almost fell over as she stepped on a mound of the beige substance and it gave way beneath her feet.
“What is this stuff?” she asked, irritatedly realising that she wouldn’t be able to avoid it if it made up the majority of the surface below.
“It’s sand,” Serenity said. “Haven’t you seen it in old vids?”
“No.”
“It’s just finely crushed bits of rock. You’ll get used to it.”
Claire gave a disbelieving look as she made her way down the slope, hopping from one clear patch to the next.
After a few moments, Perception spoke up. “So, Empathy is your sister?”
“Yep,” she answered, distracted by having to concentrate on the ground beneath her.
“Do you know why she dislikes me?”
“The Perception before you? He was our father.”
“Wait, really?” Serenity asked before giving an irritated sigh and offering out her arm to Claire. “Here, I’ll keep you steady.”
Claire took a hold of her arm gratefully, daring to step on the sand once more.
“Earlier, you were worried about her,” Perception noted. “She was angry at your father for leaving, yes? And then she left herself.”
“And then he died,” Claire finished for him. “She worried that, once I found out the truth, I would be just as unforgiving with her as I was with him.”
“She has to know that’s not true, right?” Serenity asked. “I mean, you two are fine now.”
Perception cut in at that. “She is letting her guilt overwhelm her. Love forgiving her will do little if she cannot forgive herself.”
Serenity gave a hum of agreement as they reached the sand below. It was even more uneven than the patches on the stone had been. Claire wondered if there was anything beneath it, or if the sand just went on forever. She also wondered why they weren’t sinking down into it.
“Go over to where it’s wet,” Serenity said, indicating to the darker patch near the sea. “It’ll keep its shape better.”
Claire did as she was told and was surprised to find that it was almost as solid as the pavement above them.
“Careful!” Serenity warned, but it was too late.
Claire let out a startled squeal as the lower part of her calves were engulfed in freezing water. As the sea receded back, she found that her shoes now squelched as she walked.
“Eww,” she complained, trying to shake out the water to no avail.
“Sorry,” Serenity offered.
Claire shook her head in dismissal, though her look of disgust was stuck on her features.
“So, how are we going to get Em to forgive herself?” Serenity asked her as they moved up the beach.
Claire shrugged. “I was just going to wait until Perception was gone. She’ll probably work through it once there’s not this huge
reminder. I figured I’d just hang around and try to reinforce the idea that I’m not mad at her.”
“And you think that’ll work?”
“Well, if you have any better ideas, I’m all ears.”
Serenity turned to Perception. “What do you think?”
“I think Claire needs to talk with her sister. Empathy will try to fight against any more obvious attempts to get her to let go of her guilt. She thinks it’s her deserved punishment. However, I do not think such attempts would be entirely in vain.”
Serenity frowned. “Claire?” She turned to Love. “I take it he means you?”
Claire nodded.
“Her name’s Love, not Claire,” she corrected Perception.
“She doesn’t think that,” he said simply.
Serenity turned her frown to Claire at that. “Is he right? Are you fighting this?”
Claire gave a reluctant shrug. “I just... I’m having a little trouble with the name thing. It’s no big deal.”
“Well, no wonder you’ve been struggling with your powers.”
Claire became indignant at that. “Hey, I managed just fine when we put the tracker on!”
“But it took you far longer than most to manage that. Love, you can’t remain out of balance-”
Thankfully, Perception shushed her at that, indicating that they should get behind the outcropping he was now hiding behind. As they looked beyond, they saw a group of monsters eating the corpse of another.
“None of them are cannibalistic species,” Serenity said under her breath, clearly disquieted.
“Maybe it’s whoever is giving them orders?” Claire asked.
Perception closed his eyes in concentration. “He invades their minds, taking hold and pushing against their instincts. Into the cities, he tells them, not to feast but to find. Locate them all and kill them. Leave no trace. He calls them back only to protect himself. Turn on each other, he commands, when he fears they’ve been compromised. It’s against every instinct they have, but they obey. They can’t not.”
“Who?” Claire asked. “Who is commanding them?”