Without any further warning, Bloodfall was all the way across the room. Her hand lashed out to smack the glass out of Casura’s hand, sending it flying over to shatter against the distant wall. At the same time, her other hand grabbed the woman’s throat and squeezed as she half-shoved and half-carried her the last few feet until Casura’s back slammed into a different wall. There, the enraged woman closed her hand tightly to choke her while snarling, “Hey there, I wanna discuss a few things with you!”

  Tilting her head as much as she could with the other woman’s hand around her throat, Casura shifted her eyes toward me and rolled them a bit. Her expression made it clear that she wasn’t exactly intimidated here. A second later, part of the reason for that became apparent, as she just disappeared entirely from Bloodfall’s grasp. She vanished, reappearing over by the bar with a very casual, “Difficult to have a conversation while one participant is choking the other, isn’t it?”

  “I never said you should be doing any of the talking,” Bloodfall snarled. “Or any of the breathing.”

  “Hmm,” Casura murmured fairly noncommittally as she started to pour herself another drink from the bottle that was already sitting there. Giving the glass a little twist to send the amber liquid swirling, the woman mused thoughtfully, “I suppose I can see where my anger comes from.”

  “Oh, I dunno.” That was Mingle, as she took a step that way. Her own hand snapped out, knocking that new glass out of Casura’s hand so it too hit the wall and shattered, almost right next to where the first one had. “I think I’ve got a fair bit of anger inside me right now too. I don’t think you really want to try to put any sort of percentages on which one of us is more pissed off.”

  Giving a soft, put-upon sigh, Casura glanced over at me once more, as if to say, ‘see what I put up with?’ She took a step back, hands raised placatingly toward Mingle and Bloodfall. “I guess I can admit that things got… perhaps a little out of hand. Maybe the two of you should have had a say in what happened. Maybe I shouldn’t have kicked you out of this place right from the start, and let you actually participate in all this. But honestly, would it really have mattered that much?”

  “Would it have mattered?” Bloodfall echoed, the disbelief and rage evident in her voice, even as quiet as it was. “Would it have mattered?” She took a step that way, foot abruptly lashing out to kick one of the fancy wooden stools with enough force to send it skidding sideways before it hit the bar. But she didn’t stop there, having stepped after it so her second kick could actually break the stool completely, making it snap apart with a very loud crack. “Would it have mattered!?”

  With that, she reached down to grab one of those broken stool legs. Brandishing its pointy end, the woman lunged around the bar and literally tried to stab it through the source of her anger.

  Casura, for her part, just stood there. As the sharp, jagged wooden pole went through her chest, she made a horrible noise, eyes widening in shock while blood gushed from the wound. She took a single step backward, wheezing in a panic while her face paled. She stumbled, started to collapse… then straightened abruptly. The paleness was gone, the blood was gone, and she simply stepped away from the makeshift weapon. That wound disappeared just a second later.

  “Let me make this as clear as I can for the slow ones in the room,” Casura all-but purred. “You cannot get rid of me. You cannot hurt me. You certainly can’t kill me. I’m you. I’m part of both of you. I’m here because I am what you need. I am a piece of both of your souls. I’m here forever.”

  “Oh, I dunno,” Bloodfall snapped while throwing the broken wood down as she took another step that way, “All that says to me is that I need to get a little creative. And boy have I been missing the chance to stretch my imagination. Especially when it comes to putting someone like you in--”

  Before she could go any closer, Mingle stepped between them. She still sounded pretty pissed off, but it was more measured. “Octavia, wait. She’s right, we can’t get rid of her, not like this.”

  “Are you serious right now, Julie?” Bloodfall snarled in barely constrained rage. She reached up, grabbing hold of the ceramic-like blood mask before tossing it aside. Only then could I see that under that spiky blonde hair was a very pretty Latina face, marred only by a long, thin scar running diagonally from just above and to the side of her left eye, down under that eye, across her nose, and to the opposite side of her chin. The eyes themselves were cloudy gray. “We’ve spent our entire time in here, years in this place, talking about all the ways we can kill this bitch. And now that we’re here, after all that, you wanna just give up in the first thirty seconds!?”

  Reaching up to take her own mask off once more, Mingle met the other woman’s intense gaze. “It’s not about giving up anything, Octavia. It’s about not wasting effort for nothing. It’s about finding a way to fix this situation while we have the chance. It’s about actually accomplishing something here, not just giving in to the rage because that makes us feel good for a few seconds. Do you want to feel good for a few seconds, or do you want to actually accomplish something?” Her voice was mostly calm through that, but still cracked a bit here and there.

  “You--” Bloodfall took a step that way, stopped, stepped back, raised both hands like she had no idea what to do, then slammed them down on the bar as a scream erupted from her. “She’s right fucking there! She’s right there, god fucking damn it! And you want me to stop!?”

  It was Casura who spoke next, giving me a brief glance before her smug voice came back. “Don’t you see, Mingle? She can’t set aside that anger. She never could. She can’t think of long-term benefits. That’s why I’m here. It’s why I exist. Because neither of you could ever truly agree on things. I’m here because she has never been about fixing anything. It’s always about the most immediate short-term pleasure. It’s always about satisfying that endless rage. From the moment she first stopped being such a pathetic little pussy and put her dad down like the rapist dog he was, she’s never been able to turn it off.”

  “Shut up.” That was Mingle, actually, turning to glare over her shoulder at the other figure. “I don’t know who-- or what you are, exactly. But you don’t get to bring that up. You don’t get to bring up anything about us. You aren’t us. You aren’t me, and you aren’t her. You’re an intruder. You don’t fucking belong here, and you sure as shit don’t get to talk about either of our pasts.”

  “Well, actually, you’re the intruder. I’m the one who belongs here.” Casura pointed out mildly. She put both hands on the bar and boosted herself up to perch on it while glancing at me. “You wanna explain that part, kid? I’d love to see how you break the news to them.” With a casual whistle, she reached into the nearby drawer, took out a bag of pretzels, and started to munch on them while looking back and forth between everyone with that smug expression.

  They were all staring at me, so I winced before giving the other two the basic story. I told them about how this wasn’t really the result of their powers merging, but was actually just Bloodfall’s power after she’d ReTouched. I told them that Mingle still had her own separate powers, but they were being held by-- well, this woman right here. A woman who only existed because this place had decided it needed to create a tiebreaker to deal with the fact that there were two very different people in this place. Each of whom could give the body conflicting, yet equally binding orders.

  Several times through that, both Bloodfall and Mingle made motions as though tempted to go after the woman again anyway, explanation be damned. But they stopped themselves. By the end of it, they’d both started pacing back and forth past one another. Every once in awhile, they would give each other a glance before moving on in silence. They listened as I went through it.

  When I was done, it was Bloodfall who spoke first, after a silence that had stretched on for at least twenty seconds. “Fuck. So, you’re saying that cunt over there isn’t even real. She’s-- well shit, she’s basically like one of those zombies out there, ain’t she? Just a bit more detailed and whatever. This place built her and gave her a personality, all that shit. So why the fuck isn’t she doing what I want her to? This is my power, right? My power was what made her, put her together, whatever. So she should do exactly what I say. Ain’t that how it’s supposed to work?”

  “Ahem, I am not a slave, or a tool,” the figure in question put in pointedly. “I was created because she was here. She created this problem. With both of you inside, I was needed to break the ties so our body could do anything besides stand there with our thumb up our ass.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “My body,” Bloodfall shot back. “My thumb. My ass. You-- you’re nothing. Give Julie her damn power back, then she can separate from me, so you can just fade away. When she’s gone, you won’t be needed anymore. You can fuck right off forever and give me control of my body back.”

  The response from that woman was a bit surprising. She offered a shrug. “Okay, sure, why not. You made it this far, so I guess I don’t have much of a choice. Not like things will go back to the way they should be now that you know so much. Thanks to someone barging in here.” Her eyes shifted to me, and I felt her anger for just a second before she forced a smile. “Let’s do it, then.”

  “Wait.” My hand was raised as I quickly spoke up. “She’s agreeing to that too easily. Just hold on.” When Bloodfall glared at me, I swallowed before managing a weak, “You waited this long, right? You really want to let her get away with tricking you just because you’re in a rush now?”

  It was pretty obvious that what Bloodfall wanted to do was punt me across the room for even suggesting she wait another five seconds before getting full control of her body back. But her eyes flicked toward Mingle, who mouthed the word ‘breathe’ to her. And then she did. The woman took a deep breath and let it out before reluctantly agreeing. “Fine, so what, then?”

  “We vote for her to tell the truth,” I suggested after considering the options for just a moment. “About whether that would actually work and give you control back. Or if she’s up to something.”

  So, we did. I wasn’t sure if the formality was necessary, but the three of us all stated out loud that we were voting for that to happen. Casura didn’t bother to state a vote or anything, but she didn’t need to. It was three to one. If this was actually going to work at all, that would do it.

  For a moment, nothing happened. She just stood there, staring at the floor. Then she muttered something under her breath before giving a low chuckle. “You think it’s that easy to get rid of me now that I’m here? I was created, I’m part of this now. I’m in this world. Feel free to send that one out. Feel free to send them both out. Cuz then it’ll be just you and me, and there’s two possible ways that shakes out. Maybe it’ll mean that every time you and I disagree, my tiebreaker rank will kick in and let me do whatever I want while you just sit there and stew. That’d be fun, you having no say over anything while I show you just how much I can accomplish with your power?

  “Or maybe it’ll go the other way. Maybe when it’s just you and me, the tiebreaker thing won’t matter. In that case, we’ll be right back to where you were when this whole thing started. You’ll be back to the same situation you were in before I was created: doing absolutely nothing. You wanna dictate what your body does? You don’t get to. Feel free to roll those dice and go against me. Send them away so it’s just you and me. Your best case scenario is being a catatonic lump laying on the ground. Either I control things or this body does nothing, cuz you can’t get rid of me. I’m here forever. I’m part of you, I’m in you, I’m the better you. And you’ll never get rid of me.”

  Right, that wasn’t exactly surprising at this point, given the way she’d reacted before. Still, I felt a flash of annoyance. And if I was annoyed, Bloodfall was livid. She pivoted, kicking the same stool she’d broken before (it had reappeared completely intact back where it started) to send it slamming into the wall. A set of curses that would’ve made a sailor blush erupted from her.

  “Or,” Casura put in once she could speak without being completely drowned out by expletives. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be that way.” She offered a small, knowing smile. “I mean, why can’t we share? Think about it. You want control of the body back, right? You want to be able to walk around, wave your arms, jump up and down, all that fun stuff. But is what you want to do with this body that different from what I want to do with it? You kill people. I kill people. That’s what we do. Let me have a little fun with it, inject some humor, some style, and I think you and I could get along just fine. Send these two out, and then we can do whatever we want. I’ll even let you take the lead, as long as I still get a say in things. As long as I can still get creative. We could have so much fun together, you and I.”

  “Octavia,” Mingle started, saying just that single word while she went to step that way hesitantly.

  “Stop,” Bloodfall interrupted, voice sharp as she raised one hand, palm out. “Just fucking stop. I don’t need to hear anything from you right now. This whole thing started, all of it happened, because you jumped into my body and tried to take over when I told you not to. That’s all-- you were just--” She stopped, going silent then as her eyes closed and she made an angry sound deep in her throat. I honestly had absolutely no idea what she was thinking, or what she was going to do. This could be really bad. I hadn’t even considered the fact that Bloodfall’s original self wasn’t exactly that different from Casura, at least when it came to the whole killing people thing. Sure, she didn’t get the same level of sick amusement and thrill from it, but she had been a violent, murderous Fell from the start. It was fully possible that she could send us out and resume being basically the same person, as she and Casura took turns at control, or something.

  But I also knew that trying to speak up right then, after she had just told Mingle to stop, wouldn’t exactly help. In fact, I was pretty sure it would fuck everything up completely, maybe forever. I just held my breath, shifting my gaze to glance at the windows. The fight, such as it could be called one, was sort of still going on. It had, however, slowed down to a complete crawl again, like it was before we came into the building. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed out there since that fight started, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, if even that much.

  What really mattered was that they were still alive. Now I just had to keep it that way, somehow.

  I was brought out of my musings as Bloodfall spoke up finally. “You know what I hate even more than being controlled? Being fucking manipulated. I’m not a goddamn child. I’m not a moron. You think you can just say a few pretty words and make me into your puppet again just because we both enjoy killing people? You think I’m that much of a fucking dipshit loser?” She took a step that way, but didn’t lash out at Casura. She just stood right in front of her, glaring into her eyes. “You spend years, years making me a fucking prisoner, and think I’m gonna side with you because we have ‘so much in common?’ Fuck you, cunt. I’m not your goddamn toy, and I’m not your fucking leashed puppy. I am motherfucking Bloodfall, and you’re nothing but an accident.”

  “An accident you’re stuck with forever,” the other woman pointed out, glaring right back at her with a look that made it clear she hated her ‘creator’ as much as the creator hated her. This wasn’t exactly the most healthy parental-adjacent relationship in the world. “Your power created me, and now you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I’m here forever.”

  “Then maybe I should be too.” That was Mingle, speaking suddenly. When everyone looked at her, she continued. “Maybe what Octavia needs is someone else to be here with her. I mean, you just said if it’s just the two of you, either you control things as the tiebreaker or nothing happens. But if I was here too, you could be outvoted. Then you’re just screwed. The two of us can decide what to do and leave you out in the cold.”

  Bloodf-- no, you know what? Octavia. Octavia shook her head. “Julie, what’re you talking about? We just-- you spent all this time talking about what you’d do if you could get out of here. We thought it was impossible, but now you find out it’s not, that you can leave and have your own body, your own life, and you’re just gonna throw that away? Why would- you… what, you wanna stay in here and give up your chance to have your own life again because you don’t trust me on my own?”

  A very small smile crossed Julie’s face, as she shook her head slightly before stepping that way. She carefully, slowly put both hands on Octavia’s shoulders. “Don’t you see? I’m not offering to stay because I don’t trust you. I’m offering to stay because I do. Think about it, Octavia. That one over there wants you to do horrible things. I want you to do good things. One vote for her, one for me. You know what that means.”

  There was a brief pause before Octavia gave a little start. “... control. It gives me control. If I-- whatever I want to do, whether it’s what you want… or what she wants… it’ll always be what I want. And you… you’re just willing to stay in here for that? You could leave. You could have your life back.”

  “I could do a lot of things,” Julie agreed, before shrugging. “But none of them sound very good if I have to leave you here with that cunt. And, well, I guess I'd rather just stay here with you than go out there without you.”

  It sure looked like there was a lot Octavia wanted to say to that, but in the end, she just screwed up her face and breathed out heavily. “You’re really fucking weird, you know that?”

  Head bobbing, Julie confirmed, “I’ve been told that a few times, usually by you. And with a few more expletives and insu--”

  She didn’t say anything else after that. She couldn’t. Mostly because Octavia was kissing her. The two of them fell against the nearby window, wrapped up in one another. It was intense enough to make me blush under my helmet and glance away. Which was how I noticed Casura trying to slip out through the door.

  “Uh uh.” Jumping that way, I pushed the door shut and gave her a hard stare. “You’re gonna stay right here so we can work out the details of exactly how all this works. Not to mention how I can get my power back and get out of here. Right, guys? …. guys?”

  There was no response. Glancing that way to see those two still going at it all hot and heavy, I coughed. “We’ll uh, give them a minute.

  “Maybe two.”

  Joke Tags: Apparently Yuri Can Be An Ambush Predator