Recidivist

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OFFICER HOGAN: Recording is live.

COMMANDER: Good. Is the implantation done?

OFFICER HOGAN: Binding complete. Variance minimal.

COMMANDER: Wake the temps.

magic sound, murmurs and shuffling sounds of a band of Blades awakening

COMMANDER: Eyes front! Take a moment and let the memories of the briefing take hold. Welcome back, folks. You should be recalling what this job is.
As always, you'll retain no memories of this action, and if you do the assignment well, you'll wake up tomorrow with a fat deposit in your bank account. If you are injured, that deposit will be fatter. If you are killed, it'll be in your beneficiary's account and fatter still. This mission's parameters are a lot stricter than usual. You'll get a live briefing now to reinforce why. Hogan?

OFFICER HOGAN: Sir. Approximately 14 months ago, one of our organization's primaries was... temporarily incapacitated. This gap in control resulted in a number of imprisoned threats being loosed. Since then, the majority have been recaptured or destroyed. Our target today is the last of the iono-level threats. Incorporeal by nature, but able to possess a host in order to interact with the world. We've been tracking it as it jumps from person to person.  These hosts have predominantly been active serial killers operating along the east coast and southwest of the United States and Northern Mexico.  A total estimated body count of 71 since its escape.

We've pinpointed what we believe to be its current host, and local law enforcement has been alerted.  They are on “standby and support” while we do our thing. You may have noticed that your operational procedures for this mission are extremely precise. Every anticipateable path has an exact response order. You are to follow these to the letter, absolutely no independent thought or improvisation will be tolerated. This is not because of a lack of faith in your abilities, but a total belief in our target's. This thing sees the damn future.  It sees possible paths of its prey, and consumes them one by one. We believe it can use the same ability to escape. If you have a choice to make, it will pick the future that is more advantageous to it, so we have left you a minimum number of possible choices. Its code name is Schism Hunter.

COMMANDER: Suspect is in a mostly-empty apartment building, fortunately a small one. Three floors, five units per floor, plus two basement, 17 units total. Six occupied, including superintendent. Civilians are expendable for the purposes of this operation.  Our target is in 202. We'll drop in a delta pattern around the building; team one, secure both exits. Team two, clear basement and first floor. Team three, clear third floor. Teams two and three, meet and converge at 202 entrance. Exact layout and expected occupancy should be in your memories. Home base is this van. When you have the suspect in custody, bring him here, and our resident expert will contain the fugitive.

Luca: Expert?

COMMANDER: You've met it. That makes you the expert in my book. Any questions? Good.

OFFICER HOGAN: T minus three minutes.

Ingram: Luca, stand up straight, you’re an expert.

Luca: Fuck off.  You wouldn’t be making jokes if you’d seen what this thing was capable of.

Ingram: If you fail I’m the one throwing down to the death with this thing so I’ll make all the jokes I like thanks.

COMMANDER: Thank you for the final briefing, Hogan. Keep sharp. Suspect's name is Henry St Martin. Even if he doesn't have our fugitive in him, he's a killer.  Psychotic.  A minimum body count of four. We also believe he has a victim imprisoned at the moment. Best case scenario is he’s a maniac with a hostage. We are never cavalier with civilian lives, but... well, the contingency protocols are in your memories. Follow them exactly.

OFFICER HOGAN: Mark!

COMMANDER: Team two, go!

Sound of running boots, driving

Teams one and three, go!

Sound of running boots

Ok people we are go, we are operation go.  

beat

You're sure you can contain this thing?

Luca: As sure as possible. The containment crate has the same runic setup that held it when it was in Hawkins. No reason to think it won't work again. Just make sure he's alive when you put him in; we can't risk killing him and setting it free before it's within the sigils.

COMMANDER: Copy. After it's inside?

Luca: I mean. Hawkins was dead.

Ingram: Once the body’s in the box you’re clear to terminate.

COMMANDER: Right. I never fully get used to this.

Luca: Me either. And I'm in it full time. Probably best that we don't feel normal yet.

Ingram: Honestly it IS for the best, you don’t want to leave this guy trapped alone in a box with this thing.

COMMANDER: Yeah, I supposed you’re right.  But hey kid, but if you-

Female screams, indistinct

Luca: What-

COMMANDER: Hold on... shit, that's our hostage.

OFFICER FARADAY: Sir, we have movement.

COMMANDER: Hold fire, that’s the hostage.  She’s coming out.

OFFICER FARADAY: She got out on her own?

COMMANDER: Hell, that simplifies things. Ms Carstew, here!  Get down

LYDIA: What? Who the fuck are you?  What is all this?

COMMANDER: We're the cavalry.

LYDIA: You're here to kill him?  

COMMANDER: We are here to put an end to the situation.

LYDIA: He was... he had a knife, and he... then your guys kicked the door in, and he… went for them. I bolted.

COMMANDER: You did great.

Team lead, report.

OFFICER FARADAY: He's fighting like a cornered rat. Karl’s dead, sir.  I don’t know how the fuck… but he’s dead.  

COMMANDER: Okay, we’re coming in, every little bit helps. Ms Carstew, stay here.  This is Luca and Ingram, they’ll keep you safe.

Luca: I don't-

Ingram: We’ve got you.

LYDIA: Whatever, just get him... Jesus Christ, is that a metal coffin?

COMMANDER: Containment crate. We get this guy, we put him in the box, he stays in the box. Now, if you'll excuse us.

(Running boots)

LYDIA: Shit.

Luca: Are you okay? Can I get you anything? We don't have much, but I have bottled water.

LYDIA: Hm? Oh lord, yes please. He's been keeping me tied up in a box not much bigger than that… Nice to see he has one of his own.

Luca: Yeah. Sometimes things work out. Here, sorry it isn't cold.

LYDIA: So long as it's wet. Thank you.

Drinks

Oh damn, that's good. So… you don’t look like cops… SWAT?  

Ingram: We are a specialized response team.

LYDIA: How did you find him?

Luca: We've been running a wide resonance energy sweep.

Ingram: interrupting The surveillance state is only mostly bad.  Camera’s everywhere these days.  We’d been closing in… it was you going missing that gave us the last hint about who he was.

LYDIA: Ironic Glad to help. How long have I... been missing?

Luca: Four days.

LYDIA: Shit. I don't know what I expected. I was just jogging, y'know? Just jogging. And he came out of NOWHERE, hit me with something, threw me in a trunk. Then it's all... hazy. Four days.

Luca: I know it’s perfunctory but… we are very sorry for what you’ve been through.  

LYDIA: Nothing's felt real for a while… I think I’m in shock… how can you tell? I'll probably get more pissed later. What are you guys? Detectives? 

Luca: Uh... 

Ingram: FBI.  Mindhunters.  This is Marty, I’m Rust.  Been after this guy a long time… Can you tell me how he was acting?

LYDIA: Oh, y'know, kinda weird but he's sweet deep down. I'll probably give him a second date, pickings are slim these days.  How the fuck do you think he was acting.  He hit me over the head and put me in a box.  He’s a fucking animal. 

Ingram: That tracks

LYDIA: No, shit, sorry I just can’t… I thought I was gonna die… jesus christ…I feel like I just woke up from a fucking nightmare. Thank you. Oh God, thank you. You finally came.

Luca: Yeah. You're safe now.

LYDIA: I don’t think so… Not until I’m far fucking away from here.

Ingram: We can’t leave just yet… we are on standby, but we will get you looked over by medical as soon as we can… 

Luca: Is there anything else you can remember?  We will need to take your statement and sometimes its best to try to get the memories while they are fresh.

LYDIA: Yeah… sure umm… it was all so fast… But when he grabbed me, he was angry, y'know? Violent. Like he was in the middle of a fight and I stumbled into it. He was muttering all this crazy shit.  I remember getting stuck with something and then I couldn’t move,  but I didn't pass out. He was... he was treating me like meat. Not like a person. Like I was a big slab of beef he was throwing in a freezer.  I don’t remember much, I think I kinda whited out, but a little after he put me in the box, he started acting different. Quieter. Calmer, but still nervous, y'know? Started really looking at me. That was almost scarier. Before, I figured he was going to kill me. Then he got... uncertain. And I didn't know what he was going to do.

Luca: Interesting. Did you see the change? Or was he just one way, walked away, and came back different?

LYDIA: I was locked in the dark a lot. He opened the box one time, and looked different. That was probably just after it took him over.

Luca: What?

LYDIA: The pretense begins to fall away

And then, your soldiers kicked the door in, I jumped into her.

beat

But you suspected that didn’t you?  You still let me get this close.. So you’re trying to save her then?

Luca: We are.

Ingram: No sudden moves monster…

LYDIA: Lydia is dehydrated and weak from the imprisonment, but I can burn up whats left, you’ve been trying to figure out if you can pry me loose and get me in that box without killing her.

Ingram: We want to save her, but you’re going in the box one way or another.

LYDIA: You’re not as confident as all that.  Violence is always a gamble.  You know.  Or you would have acted by now.  I’m sitting very close.  You never should have let me sit this close.  If use her as fuel I’ll be VERY fast… and at least one of you isn’t going to leave this van… but you’re in luck, because I want to talk.

Luca: You do?

LYDIA: Yes. You know, you did a great job here. All those soldiers, and they're moving like clockwork. Like machines. Not giving me much to work with. Their paths are so solid, so boringly solid.

Ingram: So how did you get past them?

LYDIA: Oh, Henry. Henry's a bag of squirrels at the best of times, and he just spent three days with me running the show. Standing in the back, fully experiencing everything, no control over any of it. He's pissed, and started out a lunatic, so he's not planning at all. Just fighting. I released every drop of adrenaline, endorphins and left some other less terrestrial chemicals inside too.  He’s just a bag of broken bits, but you’d have an easier time bringing down a moose.  Everyone was focused on the violence so nudging Lydia and me out of the building and into this van was easy. 

Luca: What did you want to talk about?

LYDIA: The human delivery is fading away and something alien is emerging

I have grievances… long beat  Do you have any idea what it was like, Luca? I spent decades in the cold. In the dark. Locked away with the echoes of Justin Hawkins, caught in a crack, unable to dig out. Then, whatever happened slipped, and out we fell. Get picked up by you people as a frozen corpse, called back by your Von Sid, finally able to feel and see and touch and ACT again. And you lock me in a room. Okay, that's tough, but it beats the void. I get hope again. Then, Von Sid locks me in his being. Inside HIM.  Inside his own body… between waterfalls of ancient sand and fragmented light and I'm trapped. Just riding, seeing what he sees and feeling what he feels and unable to choose ANY of it.

Luca: It was exactly what you do to people.  If you’ve seen and  understand how terrible being trapped without choice is… why won’t you stop?

LYDIA: angry, not hearing reason Six months. Six MONTHS, Luca.  Do you have any idea how long six months are for someone who experiences time in a branching lateral web?  A long fucking time.  

While I was trapped in his binding I was with him, you know.  Locked in a cycle of the old man puttering about, with you or Pip or who-the-fuck-ever, hunting your little monsters, fretting over your future and the world's future, whispering sweet nothings to his beloved husk of a lover and hoping against hope that the husk would whisper back. Eating sandwiches, and petting his cat, and shitting and pissing and humming songs that don't exist anymore in languages long dead, and me stuck next to him the entire time SCREAMING. And then that... that THING, that beast attacked and I went flying out! Like litter out a car window. I landed... somewhere, and I lay there for a long time, still unable to act. Finally my strength returned, and I moved on the first person I found, and I split them a million million ways and I consumed them a million million times, and I felt like myself again. But I knew I wasn't done with you people. I wasn't free, not yet. I laid a trail, let you track me, waited until I had a path to follow where I could close, like you are right now…

I want two things from you. Give me those two things, and I swear I'll let you live. I'll just go, and this time I won't leave a trail, and you'll never find me again. Hell, I'll even let Lydia go, and you'll get your hostage back safe and sound.

Luca: How do I know you'll keep your word?

LYDIA: If you don't give me what I need, I'll push these hands into you and rip you to meaty shreds before your mage behind me can harmonize a single note of incantation. And Lydia's in here, Luca. She's screaming next to me right now. She'll feel me do it, she'll feel your blood spray onto her as your skin tears apart and spills your insides out. And then I'll leave her, screaming over a wet pile of You. Do you believe that?

Luca: Yes.

LYDIA: Why do you believe my promise of pain, but not my promise of freedom? It's the same Me making the promise.

Luca: ...what do you want.

LYDIA: Need. I need two things. First, I need to know why Voncid did that to me.

Luca: Did what?

LYDIA: Why did he trap me in his mind?! He didn't do that to anyone else, I was alone. He killed so many things he didn't consider worse than me, he imprisoned others in the Ardent, he defanged them and let them go, he had so many options, but why did he lock me away IN him?

Luca: I don't know! He didn't tell me why, he didn't even tell me he'd done it!

LYDIA: Then tell me how to go back!

Luca: What do you mean, how to go back?

LYDIA: How do I go back to how I was? How do I stop... stop FEELING like this?

Luca: I don't know what that means!

LYDIA: That first one I found, after Voncid's tearing, she was... I tore her a million million ways, and consumed them all, and I... I'd done that before. It didn't matter, because I always left one. The others, that I made and consumed, when I was done they never existed. It didn't matter what I'd done. But now... now I felt them. They were scared. They hurt. Even though they never existed, their hurt had. They didn't... your fucking language, there's no TENSE for what I mean, what they felt still mattered even though it vanished as I ate! So I ran. I tried another person, made two branching paths and hunted him down in one, and he was so scared, so scared. I used to revel in the fear, the intensity of it, the purity of it, but now... I killed him quick, and ate him, and left the other one, the real one, to shiver and go along his way. I couldn't even split him a second time. The fear in his eyes, the HIM I killed... it hurt. I thought maybe it was because they were innocents, whatever that means, as close to innocents as exist. So I sought out evil people. Killers. Hunters, in their own little way.

Luca: Serial killers.

LYDIA: Yes! The trail I left you. I didn't make any of them kill. I found the ones who were already killers. I hunted them. Consumed them. They were the worst of people, I thought turning on them would... feel like it had before. But no. Even them, every one of them... had something. Something small, usually, but something. Henry was the worst of them. The most evil. He hated. Hated women most of all. He hurt them, a lot of them, ramping up to killing. And the killing... that was just a step, ramping up to worse. I was desperate. No one else had... satisfied. I would hunt him, divide him, maybe live off him for the rest of his life. But even he... his father had given him the poison, ground it into his soul. But his father loved him, in his twisted way. Twice in his life, he had hugged Henry, and Henry had felt safe. And he had a DOG. He loved that dog. Not in a twisted way. He threw sticks, the dog fetched the sticks. The dog slept at the foot of his bed. The dog licked his face, and he laughed. The dog was named Petey. He loved Petey. He LOVED.  Even this human filth could love. And one day, Henry's father kicked Petey and Henry pushed him and Henry's father fell down the stairs and broke his neck and foster care came and took him away and no one knew what he'd done and no one blamed him but they didn't let him keep Petey. Petey went away, to some other family. And Henry never felt happy again. One dog, and two hugs, and nothing else but hurting people his entire life. And it was still too much. I couldn't hurt Henry. I wanted to. But I couldn't. Not even by letting Lydia go, since she would tell. But I couldn't hurt her, either.

Luca: I see.

LYDIA: What do you see?

Luca: Why Voncid trapped you in him.

LYDIA: Why?!

Luca: The two of you… what you are… the way you… inhabit others.  You’re similar, but he learned from it.  He taught you what he learned.

LYDIA: How do I change back?!

Luca: I don't think you do.

LYDIA: You gave me one of the two things I need.

Luca: Yes.

LYDIA: I said what I'd do if you didn't give me both.

Luca: Yes. But it’s already over.

LYDIA: What’s that?

Ingram: The van is also a box.  You’ve been trapped since you got in.

LYDIA: Oh… then why.

Luca: We needed your testimony.

LYDIA: Can you kill me?

Ingram: Is that what you want?

LYDIA: I think so. I can't feed, anymore. I'm so hungry.

Luca: The runes on the van contain sustenance. 

LYDIA: defeated Okay… will you figure out a way to kill me?  I don't want to go back into the dark.

Luca: We won’t leave you here.  If you can’t find another purpose, we’ll… we’ll figure it out.

LYDIA: Thank you.

Luca: Is she okay?

LYDIA: Yes. I lied before. Lydia’s asleep. She hasn't seen anything since I left Henry and took her over.

Luca: Good.  You can stay in the van, or get in this box, it’s like the one before.

LYDIA: Ok… I’ll go in there… its familiar at least.  beat

Luca?

Luca: Yeah?

LYDIA: Why would you help me?

Luca: Why wouldn't I?

box lid closes.

Ingram: Goddamn… 

Luca: Yeah

Ingram: Ok… that’s a wrap.

footsteps

COMMANDER: We have him.  Can you confirm it was outcome alpha or beta?

Luca: Beta.  It tried to slip out in the hostage.

COMMANDER: And the entity.

Luca: In the box.

COMMANDER: Which one?

Luca: Both.

COMMANDER: Oh. Well. Good job, kid. 

OFFICER FARADAY: Host alpha is deceased.

COMMANDER: Oh. 

Okay. Call the local authorities, let them tidy up. We’re ginning up the heroic bystander cover.  Karl gave his life to stop a madman.  We'll do right by him and his people.

OFFICER HOGAN: Yes, sir.

Van starts up and begins to drive away

COMMANDER: Did you have trouble getting it in the box?

Luca: Hm? Not really.  

Ingram: Voncid broke this thing months ago.  It was all over but for the monologue.  

Luca: Yeah…

Ingram: God DAMN he’s good at this.

Luca: Yeah.  When he cares to be… he’s amazing.

click