“Miu, go take care of your teams. I’ll be fine from here on out.”
“I understand. Victoria, you’re now on detached duty to Felix for the day. Felix will not give you orders to the contrary, or my earlier threat will be carried out.”
Fine, she can come. So grumpy.
“Understood,” Victoria said loudly.
It took him thirty minutes to figure out how to get out of his new powered armor.
He didn’t deny it was exactly what he needed to stay safe, but he still didn’t like being closed up in it.
It was pretty fricking cool, though, by his own estimation. The armor made him actually feel like a superhero instead of a manager.
The elevator doors pinged open into the sausage room.
Hard-faced Andreas looked up from around the room.
They all wore different clothing in different styles and tastes. Every single one of them bore Andrea’s face, but not all of them were Andrea. They weren’t even an Other.
They were all battle scarred. A number of them looked like they’d been burned, shot, broken, or worse.
Before Felix could do or say anything, Andrea stepped out in front of him and immediately crossed the space between the two groups.
“Hello! Thank you all for coming. Thank you for helping out. It wasn’t my goal originally, but things happened.” Andrea wrung her hands in front of herself, her tail hanging low between her legs.
“I… I want to start by saying sorry. You all volunteered for your burden, and I allowed you to take it. That doesn’t make it right, or any better.”
The Death Others had taken a few steps back from Andrea when she’d entered. He finally came up with a reasonable assumption that made sense as to why.
They weren’t afraid of her, they were afraid for her. Absorbing them would bring back everything they had taken on themselves to begin with. Their sacrifice would be nullified.
“I…” Andrea trailed off, her head dipping down.
Felix cleared his throat and stepped up beside Andrea. Setting his hand on her shoulder, he gave it a light squeeze.
“I’m Felix, Felix Campbell. Andrea is my slave. She has been my trusted lieutenant as both Myriad and herself. She’s also my friend.
“I have the power to modify the abilities of any person I own at a cost. Andrea asked me for only one thing. To be able to selectively choose what memories come back to her when she absorbs an Other.
“I granted that wish.”
Felix gave the Death Others his best smile, trying to meet the eyes of each one.
“To that end, one of the first thing Andrea did after getting that power was to call all of you. I believe she wants to ask if you’d be willing to return to her and rejoin the Andrea collective. She’d probably weed out any and all memories neither of you want, and you’d simply return to being an Other.
“Please keep in mind that Andrea is still a slave. And if you were to rejoin her, you would become a slave as well.”
Felix released Andrea and stepped back into the elevator.
Putting his foot in front of the doors so it wouldn’t close, he continued.
“I’ll have a conference room set up in ten minutes for you to discuss this situation at length. I’ll also have food and drink sent up.
“As well as Andrea’s mini traveling kitchen, if you suddenly decide you want pancakes.”
A number of Death Others smiled at that. At least a little.
Pulling his foot out of the door, the elevator dinged and closed.
Felix sighed and hit the button for his office. He’d need to go book a room and move some things around for them to get what he had promised.
“You can modify powers? I mean, we’ve heard about it, but… hearing it from you directly…” Victoria said slowly, as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to say anything at all.
“You’re alive, aren’t you? You got turned into a goddamn lightbulb. You should be dead.”
“I… I was dying, wasn’t I? I was. My heart… it hurt so bad.”
Felix moved his head a fraction to catch Victoria out of the side of his eyes. She looked pale.
“Yeah, you were dying. Fixed you all up, though. Good as new, no damage at all.”
Victoria shook her head, and then smiled. “You saved me.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
Chapter 26 - Smith -
Looking up from his office terminal, he saw Andrea standing in the doorframe.
“How’d it go?” Felix turned his eyes back to the spreadsheet. Lily had sent him over the finances involved with purchasing out the entire street.
Only the two stores on each side of his own refused to even discuss the matter. Nor did they owe anything, giving them no leverage at all over them.
They really did open them up just to get us. Next we’ll need to find out if they had any involvement with this attack. If they did, I’ll send a herd of Andreas over there.
“They’re all with me again. I am… we are… thankful.”
“Hah. Good. I kinda figured they would rejoin you. I can’t imagine a reason why they’d stay.
“You all cleaned up, then? No death memories?”
“None. We kept all of our memories outside of the deaths. They… are not all pretty, but they are us.”
“I’ve heard that before. Or something to that effect. Uh… ‘the sum of what we are, our experience, is what we draw upon to make choices. It’s what we use to defend ourselves from doubt. We compare them to things we’ve done previously and judge it based on what the outcome had been then.’ Or so I remember it as.”
Felix closed the spreadsheet, pulled open Lily’s email, and gave her a quick reply. Sending it off, he locked his terminal and turned his attention on Andrea.
“They had many questions. Mostly about you.”
“Oh? That’s surprising. I thought they’d want to know more about what memories you’d strip from them.”
“No, we share memories, for we are but one person. It’s… complicated.”
“I suppose it is at that.”
Andrea came in from the doorway, walking his way slowly. She’d changed out of her normal corporate attire and was in a tight pair of jeans and a tank top.
It was very much not in her normal style.
Andrea had that girl next door thing down to a science. This was more like—
Lily.
“Well, is there anything else you need? Actually, before you answer that, I had a question. If an Other is wearing clothes, where do they go? And gear? Say, if they had a knife?”
Andrea came up to stand directly in front of his desk. Placing her hands on the wood, she leaned forward over it.
Felix kept his eyes fastened on her face, her different-colored eyes.
“Any fabric goes… somewhere. Everything else ends up on the ground. We can recall the fabric from wherever it goes so our Others are dressed.”
“Oh, how odd,” Felix said, leaning back in his chair, away from Andrea.
He was well aware of the women around him. Aware of their appeal. He wasn’t stupid to think that they wanted anything from him like an actual relationship, though. They all had their own moments where they teased or flirted, but that was where it would end and he knew it.
“We should build an Andrea armory. Where you can store all your Others’ gear. That way they can arm up and move quickly.”
Andrea tilted her head to one side, her hair cascading down to one side. Her ears twitched on the top of her head, swiveling backwards and then forwards towards him. Then her nose twitched as she made an audible sniffing noise.
“How many Others do you have, exactly?” Felix reached over and thumbed his terminal to life. He opened up an email to Felicia and started writing a quick letter about creating an armory for Andrea and her Others.
“Three hundred or so now.”
Felix entered that it’d need to hold three hundred sets of full tactical gear and sent the email.