"Door" Rebecca said, after she had finished getting herself dressed in her Alexandria guise. At her command, a rectangular portal simply appeared, right in the middle of her bedroom. She didn't miss a beat stepping through it as though it with the same casual fluidity as anyone else might walk through a normal door they'd just opened, and then it closed behind her without a sound.
On the other side of the portal was a conference room, with two of her colleagues already sat around a table. One was an ordinary-looking man. He looked, by all rights, like an accountant. Rather fitting, considering this 'accountant' happened to more or less run the entirety of the world's finances behind the scenes. He was the member of their group dedicated to the task of making sure all of Earth Bet's regularly scheduled disasters did not completely collapse the economy.
One thing he did not look like, however, was a cape.
The other, a black woman in a simple lab coat, was the leader of their organization and also the only unpowered member of their group. The idea was that, in order to save humanity, they would need a human at the helm. Parahumans like the rest of them simply couldn't be trusted with the job. A notion Rebecca herself actually agreed with, given all the first hand experience she'd had with how broken most parahumans are.
"Rebecca," their leader, simply known as Dr. Mother, greeted her. "Contessa finally cleared one of the Oracle's documents for us to read. The content... well, see for yourself. It will become immediately apparent why she only gave us one document."
Rebecca nodded, and did not waste any time in conversation. She immediately sat down, and took the manilla folder in front of her to look at the contents.
She had been waiting for this for a long time. It had only been a week since the Oracle had distributed her reports. It had turned out that the security standards for the Oracle's Lv. 4 classification was to classify everything at Lv. 5, just to be safe, and then have Contessa sort out what the rest of their organization could and could not see.
In part, she could respect this. She had seen enough evidence that the little girl behind these reports really was just that. Simply a normal 12 year old girl, who would make all the mistakes expected of a child that age, who also happened to be in possession of a thinker power that gave her access to an incredible trove of information.
She had already made several missteps, being new to her power. But, what missteps she had seen were small, and it was clear she was being cautious to a degree that could be seen as incredibly respectable for a child her age.
Compiling the information to be sorted out by adults who would know better was one such admirable precaution. She was unsure if the child had come up with it herself, or if perhaps she'd been advised by someone who was acting as her minder. One of these Unseen who she had likely joined specifically to act as protection against Cauldron.
It was an unfortunate thing that this obvious potential boon they could have in their fight against the true threat so obviously had her back up when it came to them.
Not that she could really blame her. Rebecca's own 12 year old self would certainly hate her. If her 12 year old self had the same powers she had now, she'd be running through this place and ripping every room in this den of evil to pieces, not even caring for the consequences. As an adult, Rebecca often had the urge to do exactly that. She was ashamed of what she had become. But, for the survival of humanity, she had to press on.
Thankfully, the Oracle had not done anything rash, when she so obviously knew everything they have done. Little hints in her Lv. 3 and lower classified reports have told Rebecca that much. But, it seemed she also at least understood the threat they were facing well enough not to do anything destructive with that information.
She sighed and opened the folder, and then began reading.
Oracle Report
Classification Lv. 4
Endbringers
This is a transcription of certain material from the classification Lv. 5 Endbringers report, approved after review to be appropriate for those with Lv. 4 clearance.
According to the Oracle Reports, the Endbringers are a device used by the Thinker entity, also known as Eden, to disrupt major population centers and drive a native species to greater conflict in service to their data collecting efforts.
In a normal cycle, they would only make an appearance far later on after the first appearance of parahuman powers. Exact dates are uncertain, but the reports indicated a high level of confidence that their appearance this early in the cycle is highly atypical for the entities' behavior.
The reason for this early appearance is because of the vial program. It seems that a vial containing a power capable of directing other shards has been unknowingly handed out. The master who summoned them is, himself, unaware that he is the one responsible for the Endbringers and does not consciously direct them. They are also not a projection of his own power. They are created by an entirely separate power belonging to the Thinker, which this parahuman has only influenced indirectly.
The identity of this parahuman is known and was mentioned in the Lv. 5 Oracle report, but the path has indicated it is not currently time to reveal this parahuman's identity. Their identity will be provided verbally at a later time.
Important points to note at this time are 1st that the death of the master will not result in the elimination of the Endbringers. If anything, the Endbringers are directed at this time, by the subconscious of the master who sees them as destroyers, which is what is currently focusing them on the destruction of one city at a time.
The death of the master will halt the regular destruction, and instead release them to act on their own initiative. The Simurgh in particular is of major concern should this occur.
The Oracle does not know the exact intentions of the Simurgh, but states their intentions seem to include the destruction of Scion, potentially for some drive at further freedom.
Events after the destruction of Scion are unclear, as alternates of the Oracle have a 100% death rate on any timeline in which the Simurgh participates in the battle against Scion. However, there are some timelines in which one Victoria Dallon accomplishes some feat of time travel, and later speaks to an alternate of the Oracle, in which Dallon notes she is from a future in which the Simurgh presented herself as a major threat two years after the death of Scion.
Alternatively, the Oracle also presents strategies on how we might be able to utilize the master if kept alive in a manner which would allow us to kill the Endbringers. There are several matters that must be made note of for this strategy to work.
There are a total of twenty shards which produce Endbringers in the Thinker's network. One of those shards is confirmed to produce twin Endbringers, for a total of 21 Endbringers. Killing any one of the Endbringers while the master is still alive and has not yet gained control over the side effect in his power that summons them will simply result in them being replaced by one of the 17 Endbringer shards waiting in the wings.
Another matter is that a 4th Endbringer will make an appearance in 2012.
As for the method by which to kill them, these impediments being what they are, there is an aspect to how shards power themselves that can be exploited to kill off the entire network of Endbringers before they even show up.
All Shards function by harvesting energy from alternate versions of Earth, and using those massive quantities of energy to enact whatever reality-defying feats they perform in their host's world. Or, strictly in Earth Bet in the case of the Endbringers.
In other words, their energy reserves are limited to the energy of one planet plus whatever stores the shards have within themselves ahead of that.
That is how things are for shards under normal circumstances. However, the shards that are a part of Eden's network are effectively dead. They are no longer harvesting energy. All they have is the energy they had in reserve from the last world the entities visited. This means that, while any shard in Eden's network is more powerful due to a lessening of their restrictions, they have a far smaller energy supply.
The Endbringers, however, have a special relationship with the shard held by the Master. It is able to supply them with energy. However, this is a two-way street. If the Master remains alive, he can, in turn, learn how to syphon energy from the inactive Endbringers. However, it is recommended that he first practice this technique on Behemoth or Leviathan, in order to avoid accidentally summoning the other Endbringers ahead of schedule.
Of the Endbringers, Behemoth and Leviathan are among the more straight-forward in terms of the powers that will be seen, and the Simurgh among the most esoteric. Of the other 17, some will trend more toward one end of that spectrum or the other, but most will be between the two extremes. As such, simply going through killing each before draining them of power is likely a bad idea.
It is worth noting that the more esoteric abilities also represent a far more severe power drain to the remaining Endbringers. The Simurgh, however, is quite likely the largest power drain of any of them.
Her precognition operates on the principle of real-time modeling of all activities of all people world-wide, and using that information to extrapolate future behaviors based upon this collection of all data on Earth. The energy needed to perform these calculations is extreme. What's more, the Simurgh is never inactive. She is modeling the activities of all life on Earth at all times while other Endbringers, even the more esoteric ones to be summoned later, will have periods of complete inactivity and, in the case of some like Behemoth, even the ability to regain some energy between periods of activity.
Rebecca was drawn out of her reading by the sound of a fist banging loudly against the table. She looked over to David, who had arrived at some point after she did. But, with the right thinker power, he could likely get through it a lot faster than she could.
"God damn it," he said. "So, this is saying that regardless of what we do, in both cases, we need to let that sadist remain alive to ruin the lives of more people? I can't..." His hand curled into a fist once again.
"I see you have reached that part," Kurt, AKA The Number Man, said.
"I finished reading the whole damn report, but yes, I'm sure you know exactly what part has me so angry," David growled.
Rebecca set her own document down after scanning the rest. It looked like she'd covered most of the substantive material, and so she felt now would be a good time to join in on the discussion.
"I believe you may be missing the other major important point raised by this material," she said.
"Yes, I agree," Dr. Mother said. "Whether or not the Simurgh is killed is not even close to the key issue here. I am very concerned about the notion that the existence of the Endbringers may be entirely our fault."
"Yes, that was a rather concerning revelation for me as well," a woman said as she walked in the door. Despite not having even been present for the conversation up until now, she just picked it up as though she'd been here the entire time. Rebecca was aware this was an illusion created by the woman's power. Contessa was simply saying the right words at the right time, to achieve the effect she wanted. Fortuna, the woman beneath the power, truly did not actually know what they had said before her arrival. She likely didn't even know what she was responding to, other than context clues she might be able to pick up.
But, her power still knew, and that was good enough for the purposes of this discussion.
She did not have the mental energy to concern herself with such peculiarities of her colleague's power anyway. She was still trying to digest the biggest revelation in regards to the new information she'd just read. A revelation that Dr. Mother had quite accurately pointed out.
She sighed and put her hands in her hair.
"Contessa. How certain are you of the accuracy of this information?" She asked.
"I questioned my own power on that subject. The material presented in this report is accurate."
A knot of despair gripped Rebecca's guts as the last thread of hope was denied to her. She really wished that this was another mistake on the part of the Oracle, just like with the Dallon report. But it seemed as though that was not to be.
"It's no wonder that girl has taken steps to keep us at a distance," Rebecca muttered in a voice that was low, but carried just enough that she was fairly sure her colleagues could hear her. "Even to the extent of joining a group of what is likely the most brutal capes that can still be tentatively called 'heroically aligned.' It's because she wanted nothing to do with us, beyond what little minimal communications she concedes are necessary for the good of the world. I... I knew that was probably her objective from the moment I heard about the Unseen, but... but now, I can't help but feel her choices were objectively correct."
It was with a herculean effort of will that Rebecca managed to avoid driving her fist right through the conference table. She felt a sudden resurgence of her own 12 year old self's destructive urges toward this facility. What was it all for if, with everything they've done, they are ultimately the ones responsible for the slow death of the world to the Endbringers?
David sighed. "Contessa! You said in the report that you would tell us the name of the master verbally. Who is it? The matter with the Simurgh aside, we finally have the means by which to fight back against those monsters! If it's our fault they exist, then all the more reason we should start doing what we can immediately! We can finally start taking the fight to them!"
"Yes, I will tell you who the master is. But first, you must decide. I have been running a path, to minimize bias on your decision as to whether you will kill or attempt to recruit the Endbringers. Once you have made a decision, I will tell you the identity of the master. If the decision is recruitment, I will only tell you after he has been eliminated."
That flicked a switch in Rebecca's mind, and suddenly she was hit by a revelation so shocking it snapped her right out of all of her lamentations and doubt.
Won't tell us the identity of the master. Why? The answer was obvious. The master was one of them. That's why the master's name would bias them.
She'd been using masculine pronouns, so it wasn't her. It also can't be Kurt. He's a natural trigger, not a Cauldron cape. That only leaves Keith, who is not here for this discussion, and David. And if she had to bet, someone who had 'all the powers' seemed far more likely than someone who was simply a very versatile blaster, breaker, and mover.
"Of course we're going to kill those bastards!" David growled.
"Well, hold on now," Dr. Mother said. "Let's not forget what our ultimate goal is. We would never have dreamt it might be possible to actually recruit the Endbringers for our final battle. And according to the report, they would also cease their destructive activities immediately once the master is killed. It might be worth considering."
"It's also worth considering what this might do for our chances to cooperate with the Oracle," Rebecca said. "I didn't manage to finish reading the report, but I got to the part where it said 100% of the Oracle's alternates die during or shortly after the final battle if the Simurgh participates. I have read enough of the Oracles Lv. 3 and lower reports to know, she does not use the term '100%' lightly. In fact, she does not use it at all from what I have seen. This is the only instance where it has ever come up. I find that rather concerning."
"It seems almost like she may have something to hide. The Simurgh, I mean," Kurt said. "Think about it. If there is any being who might know there would be future alternate versions of itself, and also that a certain other individual would have the ability to report on what their future alternates would do based on their own action, it would be the Simurgh. This sounds to me like she is eliminating a method by which information can be transmitted."
"Exactly!" David said. "If we cooperate with that Sadist, we may very well be trading one threat for another."
"All very good points," Dr. Mother said as she sat back, and then looked to Contessa. "Well then, how about we ask you? Do you have enough information to run a path on how our chances against Scion would be improved if we recruit the Endbringers?"
"A 12.3% improvement to our chances if we kill the master now and gain the aid of the current three Endbringers. This improves to a 13.82% increase if we wait three and a half years, at which point the fourth Endbringer will make an appearance. Killing the master will also halt the appearance of new Endbringers.
"However, if we manage to secure the cooperation of both the Simurgh and the Oracle, our chance of success... varies, depending on the path. However, the lowest result is an 78.36% chance of victory in the fight against Scion."
Depending on which path. That's right, the Oracle had a form of low-grade thinker defense, especially against precogs like Contessa. When she tried to path that girl, or anyone who would interact with her over the duration of the path Contessa was running, she had to run more than one path on the same person or objective. The actual number kept varying, with numbers ranging between two and seven. The current theory was that this was a product of the girl's reported power to see alternate versions of herself. It seems each one generated an additional path that Contessa needed to observe.
And she really did need to run all of the paths, or else she'd get no result at all. And each path had different steps too, some of them contradictory to each other. This made it possible for Contessa to get information on the girl, but her ability to achieve their desired results by following just one of those paths were... dubious, and they'd decided it would be unlikely to work.
"So, the path with the lowest chance of success is nearly 80%," Dr. Mother mused.
"But would she go along with it?" Kurt asked. "I know I sure as hell wouldn't. You saw the report. It may be an 80% minimum chance of success, but it's a 100% chance of her death. Asking her to go into battle beside the Simurgh is the same as asking her to die."
Rebecca chose to remain silent. They were not just talking about whether or not to talk the Oracle into dying, they were also talking about whether or not to kill the man sitting right next to her. She was relatively sure of that. She did not want to advocate for his death. She also did not feel she had the right to push for him to live. His death would simply be the evil they'd done over the decades finally catching up with them. Their judgement.
And so, she said nothing. She was sure she was doing exactly what Contessa's power predicted she would. She would be able to read through the situation no matter what, so the entire situation was orchestrated so she would remain silent and not give her input as the others made their decision.
"What is the average number of steps to secure the Oracle's cooperation assuming we recruit the aid of the endbringers?" Dr. Mother asked.
"There are... hmm..." Contessa trailed off and paused for an abnormally long period of time. "Something major just changed. I cannot see all of the paths.
"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked, sitting up and paying a lot more attention now.
"Do you mean to say there are fewer paths?" Dr. Mother asked.
"No. Actually, the number of paths has increased. I need to run nine paths in order to view her at the moment, and four of those paths are dark to me. Blind spots."
"Only just under half of the paths are blind spots?" Rebecca asked and furrowed her brow. This had to be one of the strangest results they'd ever gotten from her.
Kurt tapped his finger on the table. "You would expect it to be an all or nothing thing. Either all of them are visible, as they have been up until now, or none of them are. How can it be only a portion of them?"
"That girl is a collection of a large number of this world's secrets. That is the true value of her power. She can be exploiting anything," Dr. Mother said. "It just happens to be very inconvenient she picked now of all times to put whatever this new thinker protection is into effect."
"Well, I would suggest we reconvene the meeting later, in that case," Kurt said. "It just became even more impossible than it was previously for Contessa to gain any reliable results in influencing the Oracle. I feel we should assume any intervention by her would be no more successful than if Keith or Rebecca went to her. And you already know what my thoughts are on the matter."
"I'm inclined to agree," Dr. Mother said. "With Contessa rendered ineffective, this complicates a lot of things. We are going to need to consider this a little more carefully."
In other words, keep trying to come up with ways to recruit both the Oracle and the Simurgh. Dr. Mother's face said it all. She heard that number, 80% chance of victory, and she wants to chase it by any means she can.
"I'm going then. Door!" Rebecca said, and then beat a hasty retreat from the room. She didn't want to spend another minute in there.
She sat down at the desk in her home and began going over work emails from her civilian role as the PRT director to work through her frustrations over the meeting she'd just left.
Well, next meeting is probably going to go very differently. She felt relatively sure David was going to cycle in several thinker powers and use them to find the identity of 'the master' mentioned in those reports, and discover it was himself. The question is, what would he do when he found out?
She couldn't rule out the possibility he might decide to even take his own life once he finds out. That would make the decision for the rest of them. And it disgusted her that she still couldn't bring herself to do anything to prevent it if that was what was going to happen.
AN:
Cubist seemed to get a little confused on a few points during the Beta read, and I'm not really sure why, or really how to fix the issues. I like to think that maybe he was just sleep deprived or off that day and most people won't be confused by these points, but just in case, I guess I will write up an explanation for the points that he was confused about for anyone else who has the same issues.
1. I did what I could to address one of the issues. He seemed to be confused by the language about the shards 'having the energy of an entire planet plus whatever they have in reserve' to somehow mean they harvested the energy in the past and are not harvesting it now. So, I decided to draw a contrast between the Thinker and Warrior network shards. (Also, I changed the thinker network shards to no longer be actively harvesting, to make it more plausible to kill them as I realized this would make their weakness feel more immediately evident.)
But, yeah. The way it works is that, at least the shards in the Warrior network, hare currently actively harvesting the energy of alternate Earths.
2. The Oracle = Taylor Hebert. Not Dinah Alcott. I think he just forgot what fic he's reading, but I can see maybe some other people might have this issue as well since it's been a bit since I've posted an update. So, yeah. Clarifying that matter.
3. The Lv. 4 classified Oracle reports are all written by Contessa. Lv. 4 reports are basically Contessa's summed-up versions of the Lv. 5 reports with all the information that the Eye considers harmful for Cauldron to know about cut out. It is also worded from Contessa's view, so that's why there's an explicit mention of the path in the document.
4. Canon makes reference to Contessa asking her power questions and getting instant answers. She used this feature to identify that Imp was following her. I'm pretty sure it can also verify the reports are accurate.
EDIT, AN 2: Also, I am aware that Canon Contessa does not have the ability to give % figures. Their reportings on certain actions increasing their chances against Scion were a product of asking Dinah. However, a lot of writers do write her as though she has that ability. So, I made the decision this is her power evolving. Any time she has to path around something, she is able to give a % figure for success instead once her model to path around it is good enough. A perfect model means that she has a 100% chance of success, thus there's no point in giving a % figure.