“Have a chat?” I echoed, my complete disbelief coming through loud and clear as I stared at the figure in front of me. “You actually think I'm just gonna sit down and have a nice little chat with you while you're trying to kill all my friends out there?” I honestly couldn't tell if she really thought it was going to happen as easily as that, or if she was just messing with me to see what sort of reaction she could get. Though come to think of it, there was really no reason it couldn't be both.

  That figure, clearly a physical meld between both Mingle and Bloodfall, gave a dismissive gesture, like none of that mattered. “They're all still alive, aren't they? And in pretty damn good shape, if I do say so myself. Certainly better shape than I want them to be in, I'll tell you that much.”

  Her voice had darkened just a little through that last bit, making it clear, if the actual words themselves hadn't done the job, just how livid she really was about that. I wasn't sure if she was more angry about specifically not being able to kill those guys in particular, or just about being controlled in general. She didn't really strike me as a person who enjoyed being told what to do.

  “So, I should just have a cup of tea or something while you figure out how to change that?” I shot back while slowly moving around the side of that coffee table. There were several couches here, lined up facing those windows, as well as a flatscreen television. The right rear corner with the bar was where Casura was standing, and the rear left corner had a desk with a computer.

  Taking another sip of her drink, Casura walked around to the front of the bar as she casually replied, “We seem to be kind of stuck on that, don't we? Sure, at the moment, I can’t kill those people. But what else can you accomplish? What are you gonna do, attack me? You're a little kid without any powers. And right now, you don't even have anyone else here to back you up.” As she said that, her hand gave a dismissive wave at the door I had come through. Immediately, it slammed shut with startling force, and I had a feeling it wouldn't open as easily for the others.

  After the sound of that violently slamming door faded, Casura continued in that same casual tone. It was like she had let out just enough of her anger with that display to keep the facade of politeness. “And for all you know, talking to me might be the best way for you to exert more control. Maybe even enough for you to take over completely, or truly change me for the better.”

  “If that was a possibility, you never would’ve opened your mouth to talk to me at all,” I retorted. But one thing was for sure, I wasn’t exactly spoiled for choices here. She was right, I didn’t have any powers right now, and it was pretty unlikely that the actual (as much as mental constructs could be ‘actual’) Mingle and Bloodfall were going to be able to get through that door to help.

  Casura grunted noncommittally before walking right over. I tensed a little, but she didn't even look my way. Instead, she moved to stand by one of those windows and stared at the view of herself summoning hundreds of tiny metal balls before sending all of them at the people around her, at my people, my friends. The little bits of steel were traveling fast enough to punch through concrete like it was butter. And, just like everything else, they all missed completely. Not a single one came close enough to even graze one hair on anyone's head. The area around them was even more damaged, looking like it had been through several wars. But the people were fine.

  “That's not me out there, you know,” Casura remarked as she put her hand on the window. “I mean, it is me, just not literally. It's not like I'm controlling every single action she takes. I don't have some remote control over there to pilot this body like some big bio-mech or something. When you talk to me right now, you’re not literally talking to the Casura you spoke to outside. That's not how this works. It’s more like I’m a manifestation of her inside this… place. It made me. I’m the product of those two coming together. I am both of them. My impulses, my feelings, my wants drive that body out there. It does what I want it to do in general, but it doesn't follow specific orders. I don't have fine motor control. I give it goals, and it works to achieve them. At least, it did, until you came barging in here and started screwing everything up. Gotta tell you, that was rude.”

  I frowned behind my helmet, but not because she’d called me rude. “You aren’t the same person as the one out there? You’re saying this person right here, the Casura I’m talking to, isn’t the same as that one? She doesn’t know what we’re talking about right now? She can’t hear me?”

  This Casura snorted. “Hear you? Absolutely not. She doesn’t know you’re here. She doesn’t know I exist. She doesn’t know this place exists. She doesn’t know anything about this. That Casura has no idea any of this is happening. She sure as hell doesn’t know she has little mental versions of her… parents running around in here, still trying to find a way to get out. As far as she’s concerned, they’re dead, and so are you. She absorbed you, so you’re gone for good.”

  After letting that hang in the air for a moment, she pressed on, still not bothering to look at me. “When those two came together, when Mingle possessed Bloodfall and that dumb cunt gave herself an aneurysm, it made this place. Now why would that happen, do you think? Why would something as simple as an aneurysm create a place like this? It’s kinda weird if you think about it at all. Bloodfall tries to kill herself so it turns her into the most powerful Fell-Touched in the world? What are the odds of that? What are the odds their powers mix perfectly, create a mental construct like this, and give this new version of her an entirely new personality and the ability to absorb powers out of blood permanently? Think about that for a second, kid. Just think. You know the answer here. You know what must’ve happened. It’s very simple, but no one ever actually thinks of it. They all think it was just the two powers combining because of some magical aneurysm, but there’s more to it. There’s a very fucking simple answer, so tell me what it is.”

  I just stared at her in silence, my mind racing as I tried to work out what she was saying, what she could be trying to tell me. Sure, it could all be complete bullshit. She could be stalling to buy time for herself to break through my control, like I'd said. But somehow I didn't think so. Or at least, I didn't think that was all of it. She really was telling me something important right now.

  And then, just like that, it came to me. I suddenly realized what she had been implying with all that. And yes, it really was a simple answer, one I couldn't believe no one had guessed already. But then, they didn't have any reason to think it was anything other than what it appeared to be. Everyone just assumed the powers merged thanks to the aneurysm. Sure, it sounded weird when you said it out loud like that, but what part of Touched powers weren't weird? The whole situation was downright bizarre when you really thought about it. Every last bit of it was odd.

  But this had a simple answer, one worked within what we knew about powers already. “Touched. She second-Touched. Re-Touched, add-Touched, whatever. She didn't get brand new merged powers because of an aneurysm. She got brand new powers, I mean her powers changed, because of another orb! When Mingle was possessing her, and she gave herself that aneurysm, another orb showed up. She Touched again! That's what made her powers change. They updated, or upgraded, whatever. She gained the power to absorb blood and take powers and skills out of it. Maybe having Mingle so close, inside her like that, helped influence how the power changed. But it was all still just her power. Her new power. And that created this place? Then you made both of them forget about the second orb, somehow.”

  Mind Casura chuckled under her breath. “Close enough. That second Touch is what created this place. That’s the real power she got from it. The ability to create this… virtual reality, or whatever you’d call it, and manifest versions of powers from it. Powers that come from the blood of other people. She absorbs the blood, a zombie copy of them appears in this place, and then she can use their powers however and whenever she wants. Damn impressive for a second-Touch, don’t you think?” Her eyes had lifted up a bit so she could watch me in the reflection of the window.

  I was stuck standing there like that, mind reeling as I tried to figure out just what the takeaway should be. What did it mean for Casura’s power to come from a Second Touch rather than just being a happenstance merging of two powers? What was-- then I had it, or at least one big thing that came from that realization. “Mingle. She still has her power. I mean her power still exists in a totally separate form. If Casura’s power is just Bloodfall’s after a Second Touch, then Mingle’s hasn’t been mutated and merged with it. She can use it to separate from her, to get out of here.”

  Mind Casura shrugged and made a noncommittal noise. “Well, she could, I suppose, if she still had any access to it. But she doesn’t, any more than you do. Those powers belong to me. All of them belong to me. You, all of you, should just go enjoy your lives in this city. Because you’re not leaving.” She turned away from that window to finally face me. “Just get used to being here.”

  Instead of directly responding to that, I mused, “So, Bloodfall had a Second Touch and that changed her powers to create this place. But she’s not actually controlling Casura, and neither is Mingle. You are. But what are you, exactly? If Bloodfall’s new power comes from a Second Touch and not a mutated, merged version of her and Mingle’s powers, where did you come from? Why aren’t those two in charge in here? Why can’t Bloodfall control anything? Where did you come from, and what put you in charge of everything in here?”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Eh, think of me as… a custodian of this place,” came the easy reply. “I really am a merging of the two. They were both here when this City was created. The City couldn’t decide who was in charge. They’re both such different people, you see? Every time those two tried to decide on anything, they’d never be able to agree. It would always be a tie. So, the City created someone to break those ties, someone to rule this place. It created me, a fusion of both of their personalities. It was the most logical thing to do.”

  “Wait, hold on. You’re a tiebreaker, okay. That sorta makes sense,” I allowed. “Given how different they are. But shouldn’t that mean they still get a say? If all you do is break ties, then if those two agree on something, they should be able to outvote you. But you didn’t tell them that. You haven’t even explained what your purpose is, not to them. You-- you haven’t told them anything. If they agreed to do something, or not do something, that should outvote you, shouldn’t it?”

  She didn't respond at first. The woman, or whatever she was, just stared at me in silence before walking past and heading over to that computer. When she did speak finally, it wasn't actually an answer to my question. She just murmured, “I wonder how many other people we'd have to kill before you gave up on protecting your friends. Can you give me a nice round number to work with? Because I don't think you have enough willpower in that little head of yours to stop us from killing everyone. You might care about those people out there enough to hold on, but doing that for the entire population? Yeah, I don't think so. How about if we say one thousand other lives for each person here? What do you think the little tech girl would say if you told her you let a thousand people die to keep her alive? Would she be okay with that? Would she hate you?”

  The threat made me swallow hard, but more importantly, it also made me realize something very important. “I'm on the right track. You didn't like that. You're pissed off because I asked the right question. You're trying to distract and upset me, because you don't want me to focus on that. You want me to think about anything other than that question now. You were created as the tiebreaker, but you’re not even letting them vote first. There’s something wrong with that.”

  A snarl of anger escaped that woman. Her eyes twitched just a little. “I'm sorry, was threatening a thousand innocent lives per friend not enough for you? I can double that if you prefer. Exactly how many civilians are you prepared to watch die before you give up on this? How many people do I need to turn totally inside out before you understand your place here? Get up, turn around, and walk out that door. Go back out to the City and try to entertain yourself with those two for a while. Try to forget that I'm about to kill everyone you know and care about just cuz you had to screw with me and mess everything up.”

  “Mess everything up…” Those words bounced around in my head for a moment before I repeated them out loud. My eyes glanced around the room as I repeated the words again. “Mess everything up. You really don’t want me to be here, do you? This is bad for you. Because now I know those two both deserve a say in things. Now I know that all they need to do is get in here, and they can force you to do what you were meant to do from the start, force you to be what you were meant to be. The tiebreaker, not the sole decider.”

  She snarled and actually lunged forward to grab for me, but I stepped back out of her reach and walked around the far side of the desk in the far corner with that computer on it. Through it all, I continued musing. “But why would that be so bad for you? I mean, you’ve done a pretty good job of keeping them out of this room so far. Why would knowing how this works change anything? Unless…”

  She was really coming after me by that point. But, interestingly enough, not with any powers or anything. She was just trying to grab me, while I danced away and kept furniture between us. I was talking the entire time. “Unless those two could control things if they knew about the voting thing, even if they aren’t in this specific room. Unless your biggest asset in this was both of them not knowing how this was supposed to work. Because you were the one who was supposed to explain it to them. But you didn’t. You just… kicked them out and started doing your own thing. Of course you did. You’ve got twisted versions of Bloodfall’s anger and violence, and of Mingle’s sense of humor. And… Bloodfall… she’s independent, she tried to kill herself to stop anyone from telling her what to do or controlling her. You have that too. You couldn’t let things go to a vote. You had to do it all without anyone else’s input.”

  Staring her down, I carefully and pointedly intoned, “You're not the real body out there. You said it yourself. You were created to help these two run this body, to debate with them and help come to decisions. You were never intended to completely take over, and you know it.”

  Standing there in the middle of the room, the woman glared at me. Then she straightened up a little, and her hand gave a dismissive wave. “So? Maybe you’re right about all that, but what does it matter? I don’t care what I was created for, or what you think of me. I’m my own person, I make my own decisions, and I don’t have to listen to anyone. Especially not those two.”

  Her tone was absolutely brittle with barely constrained anger. “Not like you can do anything about it anyway, right? You’re just stuck in here. No powers, no allies, no weapons, nothing. So yes, that’s what I am, but it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t matter what I was made for. What matters is what I can do. And right now, I can kill everyone you know.”

  “Mmmm, not really,” I replied. My heart was pounding hard enough in my chest that it felt like she should have been able to hear it. I wasn’t nearly as casual as I tried to sound. “Look out there again, you haven’t managed it so far. As long as I’m here, you can’t go against my rule. Wait, my rule… the others, they both agreed to help me save my friends. That’s why our rule counters yours, isn’t it? All three of us ruled that you can’t hurt my friends, so you can’t do it. Your one vote is less than our three. As long as we vote against you, you’re in trouble. You can’t act completely on your own anymore.”

  Seeing her wince just a little from that, I knew I was on the right track. “And that’s how you kicked those two out of this place before, when all this started. Because they weren’t really working together at that point. Neither of them were really thinking about keeping the other one in here. Mingle wanted to stay in the building, but Bloodfall wouldn’t have wanted her to. They were still enemies. That was a tie. You broke the tie and kicked her out. Same for Bloodfall. She wanted to stay in the building and take over, Mingle didn’t want her to, you broke the tie again and kicked her out. One of them wanted to stay, the other didn’t want them to. That gave you everything you needed to take control. But now… now I’m here. Mingle wants to stay, I want her to stay, so you’re outvoted. Bloodfall too. And both of them want me here. That’s why you’re so upset. You can’t outvote all of us. No matter what you want to do to one of us, there’s at least two votes against you, if not three.”

  “What a clever little boy you are,” Casura, if that was even what she should have been called, replied while softly clapping. “It’s just too bad you can’t do anything about it, huh? And soon, it won’t matter at all anyway. As we speak, my little grayscales are physically removing those two from the premises. You might be right that I can’t just automatically send them away without enough votes, but I can have them physically thrown out. And as soon as they’re gone, that leaves just you and me. One vote to one vote. Which… oh right, means my tiebreaker ability kicks in again. I do hope you’re ready to be thrown out of this place for good. You can watch the sky while I get creative with your friends.”

  The threat made me gulp a little, fear threatening to overwhelm me. But I pushed it down and focused. “Yeah, I suppose that could be a problem. A couple totally normal women without any powers being dragged out of the building and tossed into the street by an unending army of zombies? Not much they could do about that, is there? Unless…” My fingers snapped, as if something had just occurred to me. “Unless I’ve been doing one thing the whole time we’ve been in here. Unless I realized that being in here would let me control things too, and I’ve been focusing on doing something with that control all this time.”

  “There’s nothing you could do!” she snapped, sounding a little unhinged. “If you tried to go against my orders, I would’ve been told, I would’ve been given a chance to counter your vote.”

  My head bobbed. “Sure, sure, and that’d be bad for me. Unless I wasn’t going against your orders. You know, the order to grab Mingle and Bloodfall and remove them? I couldn’t try to change that order without going against you.” After a brief pause, I lifted my head to gaze at her. “But what if there was more than one Mingle, more than one Bloodfall? After all, that’s how you have so many zombies, isn’t it? You just copy and paste all the victims to make a whole army. What if I spent this entire time, all the time we were standing in here, telling the building to generate zombie Mingles and Bloodfalls, black and white copies for your zombies to attack? What if your zombies are busy dragging dozens of copies of those two out of the building?

  “Well, then it seems to me that all I’d need to do in that case… is open this door.” My pacing and maneuvering had brought me back around to the same door I’d come through to get in here. “But wait, you want it shut. I want it open. That’s a tie. Or…” My hand gripped the knob, a prayer went through me, and I pulled.

  It opened. The door pulled open easily, allowing the real Bloodfall and Mingle to come through.

  “Hey, what do you know?” I mused.

  “Looks like I have the votes after all.”

  Joke Tags: Can You Imagine How Many People Would Be Dead Out There If This Was All Happening In Regular Time?