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Taylor had to give credit where credit was due. Tattletale’s men were more capable than most of the gangs she’d encountered in the last ten years. They’d been on the lookout for any unusual insect behavior and almost noticed her bugs a few times.
That being said none of them had been Thinkers and small insects like gnats are hard to see at the best of times and very few people think to check the edges of their shoes.
Tattletale had set up her current headquarters in one of the Endbringer shelters that had been built after Leviathan’s attack. It had never been used for its intended purpose. But then again nobody needed Endbringer shelters at all now..
She cataloged everything in the room with her bugs. Stacks of papers, a smaller pile of those smart tablets Taylor still found awkward to use. And a small bottle of strong painkillers tucked away in a desk drawer.
A half-smile and half-grimace formed on Taylor’s face. Lisa was still willing to keep working at a problem past the point of exhaustion. Memories of dealing with Coil, the Nine, and Echidna flashed through Taylor’s mind without her consent.
Her bugs picked up movement and Taylor straightened up in her seat.
Taylor mentally shook herself out of her memories. It only took a few minutes for Lisa to work through her security checkpoints but it seemed to last much longer for Taylor.
Several emotions bubbled up inside of Taylor. Worry that after all this time Lisa wouldn’t be the same person she remembered. Hope that she was. Excitement that she’d get to see one of her oldest friends that was still a friend. Fear that it would be like Emma all over again.
Taylor’s swarm buzzed and crawled about with an increased fervor.
Tattletale opened the reinforced door and stood in the doorway. She was wearing a mask but Taylor recognized her bottle-green eyes. She stood there, her lips pursed in thought for just a moment but then that all too familiar grin formed on her face and she strode into the office.
“You know this isn’t how the script is supposed to go,” said Lisa as she sat down on the only other chair in the room. Taylor had stolen the one by the main desk. It was comfy.
“I’m the villain here,” Lisa continued. “I’m the one who’s supposed to break into your seemingly secure place to have a face to face meeting. Then we’d banter a bit and I’d slip away before the Protectorate knew I’d been there.”
“Has anything happened the way it was supposed to in our entire lives?” asked Taylor, a small tired grin on her own face.
“Fair point. I guess if things had gone to plan it would be fair to say both of us would be already dead about a hundred times over,” said Lisa. Her grin remained but her eyes scanned Taylor’s mask for clues for her power to work over.
“You’re staying in Brockton Bay.” It wasn’t a question.
“I’m being punished for ten years of good behavior,” said Taylor. She let herself reminisce about the immediate chaos that occurred when Jack Slash and Scion were taken down by Cauldron. The death of Eidolon and the near destruction of Dallas.
How things almost broke but despite everything they didn’t. How things stopped getting worse. How maybe things were getting…better. Taylor hoped Lisa’s power was picking all of this information up because she wasn’t sure she could put any of it into words.
Not without crying like she hadn’t done in years.
“The Protectorate has sent me here with the explicit goal of getting you to surrender into custody and to relinquish your control over the portals,” said Taylor after what she hoped was a productive but silent relay of information.
“And yes they’ve kept my hero coworkers busy up in New York, helping out with the Elite remnants. So it’s just me alone with a bunch of people we terrorized years ago,” Taylor shrugged. “I’ve handled worse conditions.”
Lisa was quiet, her grin fading into a thought frown. Then she surprised Taylor by taking off her mask and rubbing at her eyes with a groan.
“I knew the situation here was a sore spot for the heroes but I guess I’d hoped they’d worry about the more serious stuff first and save Brockton Bay for later like they did in the past,” said Lisa.
“I was surprised too when they told me the plan,” said Taylor honestly. She thought for sure they would have sent her and her team to Los Angeles to try to keep the peace during the resettlement efforts.
“So that’s why you’re here in the city, but not why you’re in this room,” said Lisa, focusing on Taylor. She didn’t put her mask back on. Lisa’s face was mostly how Taylor remembered it. Pretty and freckled.
Though now there were a few small scars that weren’t there before. The last few traces of baby fat had changed into something slightly fuller. The dark rings under Lisa’s eyes weren’t new but they did seem deeper than in the past.
“You missed me,” said Lisa. There was a trace of something in her voice that Taylor couldn’t identify.
“I missed all of you. Even Alec from time to time. Though I’m willing to admit that’s almost certainly nostalgia coloring everything. Mostly because I can distinctly remember wondering if I’d have to kill him for getting too close to Aisha,” said Taylor. It wasn’t a joke but Lisa chuckled anyway.
“So what are your bosses going to do when I say no thanks?” said Lisa seriously. Taylor inhaled slowly.
“I’m honestly not sure,” said Taylor. “Director Rennick was fine working with Piggot and Tagg, which is something of a mark against him, but I’m sure you’ve already heard that he’s seriously considering retiring. I imagine you’d have a better idea of his reaction than me. If he does retire then I don’t know.
“I think part of the reason they sent me was to encourage Rennick to stay. I tend to make PRT Directors nervous.”
Lisa laughed again and Taylor found herself relaxing even as her Master-Stranger training echoed in her mind to not give Tattletale time to think or speak.
“How will the rest of the Undersiders handle me being back on the other side?” asked Taylor. “I already know Bitch will probably punch me and leave it at that. Aisha will probably do something gaudy and audacious like graffiti the inside of my apartment and me while I sleep. But the rest…,” Taylor trailed off.
“I can handle them,” said Lisa seriously. “I’ve been careful in getting new members so unless someone is completely braindead nobody will put up more of a fight than we need to. No punching below the belt,” Lisa stopped midsentence as she looked at Taylor.
“You’re disappointed,” Lisa said. Taylor could practically hear the gears in the blonde’s head spinning as her power supplied information.
“You really think breaking up the Undersiders will be better for the city,” said Lisa with something akin to horror.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve had to deal with here or what information Cauldron told you before they went dark but I can tell you, Lisa, things aren’t the same as they used to be,” said Taylor quietly.
“Would you mind moving your hand away from the panic button on that desk?,” asked Taylor, a quiet plea entering her voice.
Lisa very pointedly kept her eyes focused on Taylor’s masked face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said with a challenging lilt to her voice.
“Yes you do,” said Taylor as she leaned forward slightly. “What’s got you puzzled is why you didn’t notice that I already knew.” Lisa's gaze narrowed and then she leant back in slight shock.
Her power oh so helpfully informed her that Taylor had had several similar experiences in other villain lairs in her travels as a full member of the Protectorate. It also informed her that Taylor had marked multiple areas as potential panic button locations only for Lisa’s seating choice to give away the exact location.
As much as Lisa’s pride was pricked she couldn’t help the grin that regrew on her face.
“Your poker face has gotten better since the day we met.”
“I should hope so,” said Taylor. She then surprised Lisa by taking off her mask and pulling out a spare pair of glasses.
Lisa looked at Taylor’s face. Something had changed. The burning purpose that had replaced the awkward and gawky 15-year-old had been in turn replaced with something less intense but still resolute. She also got a proper look at the few gray roots in her former teammates' hair. Stress induced, Lisa’s power supplied.
“I've been running all over the country dealing with so many villains for years now,” began Taylor. “At some point I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things even Brockton Bay didn’t have the time to teach.”
“Like what?,” asked Lisa, even as her power began to feed information. Information that caused Lisa’s heart to take a strange turn.
“Things like being able to stop and process things without breaking completely,” Taylor admitted, her voice growing vulnerable. She met Lisa’s gaze.
“Learning to deal with regrets and I can and can’t change,” Taylor got out of her chair and started to close the distance between the two of them. Slowly. Lisa didn’t move.
“Learning that I can allow myself to want more than just getting ready for the next miserable crisis. That I want the people in my life to be more than just tools that I use or force to do only what I want,” Taylor took one of Lisa’s hands gently and gripped it with both hands.
“And?” said Lisa, her throat suddenly constricting and her train of thought derailing cataclysmically.
“And that I need to tell the people I care about just how important they are to me.”
Taylor leaned in and kissed Lisa. Lisa’s power flooded her with unnecessary information but she’d gotten better at ignoring it at inopportune times.
Taylor broke the kiss off and rested her forehead against Lisa’s.
“Thank you, for being there at my lowest. Thank you for caring when almost nobody else did. I—”
Taylor’s next words were cut off by Lisa kissing her back and grasping at the back of Taylor’s head. Lisa’s power helpfully told her that Taylor had been surprised by that.
They exchanged several kisses back and forth and for a moment the rest of the world fell away. The only thing that mattered to either of them was the other.
Much to their mutual disappointment something electronic beeped as it received a message. The pair broke apart but still held each other close.
“I thought you’d have found someone else as driven as you,” confessed Lisa. “Some man or woman once you realized how much you liked looking at both. A hero who’d be at your side like some goddamn fairy tale.”
“Most of them only saw Weaver or Skitter. I made it very hard for anyone to see past that. But you saw Taylor even back when she wanted to be anyone else.”
“This is going to make both of our lives a lot more complicated,” said Lisa after a while. She didn’t want to say those words but she knew she needed to. Taylor was quiet for a while. Lisa tightened the embrace, ignoring the hard armor plates and focusing on the softness of Taylor’s cheek.
“I know,” said Taylor. “We’re going to need more time to figure everything out, aren’t we?”
“We’ve got some time,” said Lisa. “Nobody expects either of us to deal with each other immediately. We’ve got a lot of fingers in a lot of pies and you’ve got teammates you have to break in.”
Taylor chuckled ruefully.
“I knew no matter what happened tonight things would get complicated but I did hope something would come up that would make everything a lot easier for me. Brockton Bay never fails to let me down.”
“That’s why you need me,” said Lisa stealing a quick kiss.
“I’ll arrange a dead drop so that we can leave messages for each other. At least until we can make something convincing to explain why we have each other's phone number,” said Lisa.
“Neutral territory for appearances sake. To show we’re willing to cooperate but don’t fully trust each other,” added Taylor.
The pair continued to hash out the details for their future meetings, enjoying the physical presence of each other. But eventually time passed and Taylor had to leave.
Lisa had one final question for Taylor.
“I figured you got through the bunker entrance by eavesdropping on my guards but how did you get the code for this door? Only I knew it.” Lisa pouted as her power answered her question.
“You still use the same password from back in my days,” said Taylor with a small grin that Lisa found irritatingly familiar.
“Get out of here, hero,” said Lisa with a petulant wave.
“Only till next time, villain,” said Taylor with a small smile that said everything it needed to.