Guardian Angel

++ Ro ++

The forest was never quiet. Not completely. The wind sang softly in the fir trees, making the dappled sun dance in the air and on the ground. In warm days, it was a cool paradise of thick air and plentiful food. In winter it was an arctic and barren place where the only green was as high as the clouds. Those were the hard times and I still had no clue how we survived that long white and black cold.

If not for Miss Honey’s barn, my timeline would have ended a long time ago. The cats and goats and the big horse were warmth and companionship to our lonely hearts and bodies. Since the pretty lady fed them well, we subsided on scraps and killing the barn vermin and what we could catch in the forest before the cold drove us back in.

When the woman finally caught me, it was a relief. Even as I was terrified out of my wits. Bringing her an offering of food seemed like the next step. And she cooked for us.

Cooked for us.

I had never eaten food like that. Hot and plentiful and exploding with flavors that both startled and pleased me. She was stuck with us after that.

That lab may have given us life and molded our bodies and taught us how to move and think, but it was Janelle Carter that taught us to love. She taught us to live, not just survive, taught us to adapt instead of merely rationalizing. She taught us the rights and wrongs that Davie later built on.

Davie.

She was a mentor and friend and partner, honing us into something greater than we had been before. Sleek, fast and observant, we were perfect for the vigilante life. Davie made sure that we stayed on the moral side of justice. She was the ruler we measured ourselves against when we weren’t certain how to react to evil. She was brusque but endlessly kind, sometimes pushing, sometimes coddling. She took us beyond what Janelle would have been capable of.

Together, those women had delivered a well-developed package to Helena, Barbara, Dinah and Alfred. The miracle of hooking up with this ideal pack was a dream come true. I would have never dared hoped for a family so suited to our strengths and weaknesses.

I chased Dinah into a bright flash of light… the unwanted agony of electricity burned through my body. Swirling darkness and pinpoints of golden light…

Scattered flashes of clarity in the strange darkness. People and places I didn’t know, acts committed by me that I had bare recollections of. Pain smashing me flat beneath a great weight that wanted to kill me.

Sensation began to return.

Slowly, so slowly… computer RAM whirring, a cold engine rumbling, lights flickering on in an empty house…

I was slowly coming back to life.

++ Helena ++

It felt like forever I’d kept this vigil. Not just a day and night.

The infirmary had filled up, spilled into a whole suite of rooms across the hall. We were a mess, bodies broken and battered. For the rest of the night after returning here, I helped Alfred care for the wounded. There were gurneys filling the room, my packmates and fellow metahumans lined up in quiet rows.

Barbara, still in the grips of the beating and the infuriating nanites. Ro, crushed half to death, Shan, battered and exhausted with her near-broken spine. Dinah, drugged and tortured. The woman with the fire hands I remembered trying to kill me in that damned fighting pit so long ago, now skull-bashed and electrocuted. And the red-head Shan had jumped from above, with the worried teenage kid that hovered quietly near the astonishingly alive Black Canary. Oh, I hadn’t even dealt with that particularly weird miracle yet.

Then there was the two new mutates.

Guess it made them the twins’ brother and sister. Somehow I just knew who the dark girl was. The look on her face when I’d hesitantly called her ‘Bug’ confirmed it. She was currently slaving over some nightmarish contraption that was supposed to keep Ro’s broken limbs from deteriorating until the nanites could finished their work. She’d already persuaded a whole freakin’ legion of them to leave Barbara and go to familiar ole Seventeen A. I’d held their hands cupped in mine for what felt like forever while the little miracle workers completed their trek.

Damn good thing too, because poor Ro looked like a piece of road-kill. It hurt me to just look at her. The giant cage Harley had been keeping Casey the reporter in had very nearly killed her. Her skull was spiderwebbed like a smashed windshield, her shoulder broken and she was all torn up. Bree had taken care of most of it, but had been too worn out for the left leg.

And Binky.

Both had been smashed by the fallen cage, several bones crushed to splinters, and nerves torn up. Bug had been invaluable in keeping both limbs alive, with her incomprehensible technology that kept them in some kind of stasis. She assured me again that Ro wouldn’t even feel the brutalized limbs and that blood was still pumping through the mangled flesh.

“There,” Bug said with satisfaction. “That’ll hold until the nanites are finished. There’s a spinal block at her diaphragm that will keep her from feeling any pain.” The girl looked worried and her tail was all boofed up.

“They’re gonna be really happy to see you,” I said quietly and her fascinating gold eyes were huge with stress in her face.

“Do you think so?”

“I know so. Ro was just telling me about you. Both of them are gonna be jazzed that you’re alive and that monster isn’t. It’ll be like Christmas.”

Bug grinned tremulously.

++ Janelle ++

The little homestead turned hazy and bled away into the familiar gray fog. “Hello?” My voice shook with nervousness. The other times the fog had been different, melting in and out as though driven by strong winds, not this creeping, clingy mass. There was a whisper of sound and I whipped around and screamed in fear. Like a nightmare, a heavier patch of fog materialized and lunged at me with dark malice.

Someone stopped it right in its tracks.

A small woman, I could see now that it was a woman, grabbed the shadowy figure with impossible strength and dashed it to the floor. An enormous, leggy white dog melted from the fog and I was insanely reminded of the twins. “Hi,” my hero said calmly as the attacker began to… melt. “This is going to sound insane, but you’re not where you think you are.”

She was a pretty woman, with curly black hair and mysterious dark eyes. When the dog padded to her side, the shadow figure melted away to nothing. What was going on?

“Three years ago, personnel from the lab that created the twins found you. They trapped you here, inside your own mind, with the idea that you’d be bait for Ro and Shan. I hid you and took them under my wing.”

“That’s absurd.”

“I know it seems that way. My name is Davie, and I’m a telepath. The twins aren’t the only people who have these mysterious, comic-book powers, Janelle. I can speak mind to mind, and I can great influence over others. We’re inside your head right now. But I’m nowhere near all-powerful and the only person who can get you out of here, without causing damage, is you. The twins need you. Oh, and this is Fluffy. They helped me create him. I thought he’d be good proof that I was telling the truth.”

In the dog’s inky gaze, I could see the twin’s touch. Fluffy was exactly the kind of dog they would adore, big, smart, powerful and gentle. My reality hadn’t felt right in a very long time and I was ready to find the truth behind the strangeness. So, I steeled my nerve and met Davie’s dark eyes.

“Lead the way.”

++ Alfred ++

“Miss Helena, you should try and get some rest. Nothing more can be done here.”

I was right, of course, but sometimes it was difficult for her to see that. She was so like her father and mother both, this energetic bundle of contradictions.

“Yeah, you’re right, I should, but I can’t leave them, Alfred. I just can’t.”

She had probably had two hours worth of sleep in as many days. Her eyes were red and swollen from dust, tears and exhaustion. Her armor was battered and filthy.

I knew she wasn’t going anywhere.

Nor was I, and there was no getting around that simple fact. So I threw propriety to the wind and stepped into her personal space. A gentle touch to her matted hair brought Helena’s head to rest against my midriff. A long time passed that way, as we held vigil over our family.

Snuffling sadly, Miss Helena rubbed her face into my waistcoat and sighed.

Wait…

It was not her that sighed.

The white hand on the bed twitched, fingers slowly curling like a cat kneading something soft. “Miss Helena,” I breathed. “Look.”

Miss Rowan’s eyelid twitched, then the corner of her mouth.

Helena was frozen in anticipation, vibrating beneath my hand. Then, slowly, painfully slowly, she reached out with trembling fingertips and brushed over the strong bones and tendons that shaped the back of Miss Rowan’s hand. Slowly, she curled them around the soft webbing at the thumb, tucking them into her palm.

When the fingers weakly curled around that gentle grip, I let a few tears slip as Miss Helena burst into sobs of relief.

++ Shan ++

I woke to fight-or-flight mode.

Even as my rational mind yelled caution, I was rolling off the gurney and dropping into a crouch. Sure, I was panicking, but who could blame me?

The bastards at the lab rarely performed procedures on me, most of that was reserved for Boo, but I’d woken stretched out like this, full of needles, all too often. Agony lanced up and down my body… good Lord, what had I done to myself?

“Shan!”

The yelp registered in sync with my surroundings. Brilliant blue eyes, sweaty dark hair… “Hel?”

With realization and the receding tide of adrenaline came the pain, thumping and deep in my skin, bone and guts. “Dammit, Shan. Stop moving before you fuck yourself up worse!”

Alfred was suddenly there… and a ghost from my past.

“Bug?” I whispered in disbelief and she froze for a moment before defiantly meeting my eyes. “You’re alive? How?” Something shifted in her familiar golden eyes and she smiled a sweet, shy smile. Ignoring the agony in my back, I grabbed her still-small frame and Helena both in a big hug. “You’re alive! There is a god!”

Then I remembered Boo, still and lifeless.

Frozen in my tracks, I looked over Hel’s head to see my sister laying quite still on a nearby gurney, wrapped in all manner of technology. It was horrifying-looking.

“Boo?”

It was like being a child again, terrified every time they came for her, sometimes both of us. Crying and squirming in fear, we’d fight them to no effect. “Squeakers,” Bug said quietly and I noted how grown-up she sounded. “She’s gonna be okay. Really. The nanites are working on her.”

Terrified, I looked into eyes of gold, eyes of blue and saw no lies, no deception.

So… I believed.

++ Helena ++

Now that the latest wave of excitement had calmed, Bug and I helped Shan over to Ro’s bedside and stood over her. The violet eyes scanned the room with crushing sadness, trailing over Barbara, Dinah and the others. “So much pain,” she murmured and I made an urgent-cat noise to make her look down.

“Hope too, partner. We’re alive, and that makes a it good day.”

Somehow it was the right thing to say, and she grinned weakly. There was a movement at the door and we looked over. The relief that poured over Shan was palatable as she breathed, “Miss Honey.”

This looked more like the woman that the twins remembered. Warm, if not still hazy, brown eyes swept over the room, adoration radiating out to the furry women beside me.

“Shan,” she half-sobbed and they met in a strong hug. “What happened to Ro?”

The sadness from us was like a living thing, the fallout of one woman’s deep, deep madness. “Squea… kers?” Slurred and drunken, Ro barely sounded like herself and we were all startled to hear her at all. Carefully, so carefully, I stroked her face and forelock while Shan purred at Janelle for a moment. “Hel…”

“We’re both here,” I reassured her gently as Shan came over to share snuffle-kisses with her sister. They rubbed noses and purred, smelling each other’s healing scents. “Welcome home.”

Blearily, her eyes tried to focus on us as Shan stood, the nictitating membrane at half-mast. “What the hell happened? The last thing I remember is following Dinah into a trap.”

“I know,” I reassured. “Would you believe me if I said it was a long story?”

“Smartass.”

“Better’n a dumb one. Listen, some really nasty shit went down, okay? When you’re stronger, I’ll tell you everything.”

Wise eyes bored into mine. “Promise?”

As much as some of the story was going to hurt, I could deny her nothing. “I promise. But everything worked out better than we could’ve ever dreamed of.”

On cue, Ro’s nostrils flared and a puzzled look came over her face. Slowly, almost reluctantly, she rolled her head over to scan the room.

++ Ro ++

I hardly recognized the face peering out shyly from behind Helena. There was no mistaking the flash of yellow-gold eyes and the rich, silvery black mane. “Bug,” I purred. “I was starting to wonder if you were the smartie on our tails. Man, I’m so happy you’re alive. I’m so sorry we left you behind.”

Only seven years old when we thought her dead, the beautiful young woman Twenty-six had become stepped out so that I could see her clearly. She smiled shyly, and I was glad to see the warm expression, but there was something in her eyes told me more than mere words could have.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?”

There was no need to ask which ‘she’ I spoke of and Bug nodded solemnly. “We’re free, all of us. We’re finally free.”

The news left me conflicted. Doctor Julia Blackwell didn’t deserve my compassion, but I still felt a part of me mourn the woman who had been the only ‘parent’ our young selves had known. I suppose that’s what made me and Shan and Bug different from her.

Then, a far more welcome scent registered across my brain.

Sweet and warm, Janelle always smelled that way. There was an undertone to her that was like baking bread and fresh grass in the sunlight.

Then, I saw her.

Tucked protectively between Davie and a woman I’d never met, was my first love. She looked tired and wan, as though she’d been bedridden for a very long time.

But her earthy dark eyes were the same.

Barbara was neatly laid out on the gurney next to mine, and I was torn suddenly between all of the loved ones surrounding me. Janelle was here, and at least appeared to be fully aware of herself. My new lovers were under unknown stresses, my sister was limping badly, Bug was alive…

I whimpered, brain and heart torn in too many directions.

Both Helena and Janelle moved to come closer, stopped as the territory of my heart was suddenly crowded.

I reached for both, purring and whining as their dark manes filled my senses, their different scents wrapping me in security. “Oh Jan,” I whispered and skritched Hel’s scalp almost to the point of pain, feeling her burrow into my neck and shoulder where I had taken a bullet for her. Somehow I would have to figure out the confusing morass of emotions. For now, I reveled in the quiet that surrounded my past and my future.

In time, Helena helped Bug shove Shan’s bed between mine and the strange red-headed woman with the head bandages. I suppose I was still in some kind of shock, too overwhelmed by all the things I was experiencing, still clinging to the silent Janelle’s hand. “What happened to Barbara?” I asked quietly, watching the quiet figure on the gurney to my other side. “And why can’t I feel my legs and tail?”

My calm tone belied my fear. Why would Babs be unconscious? She didn’t go out on the front lines anymore…

It was Bug that answered quietly, “she drank the nanites to keep Doctor B from getting them. Good thing too, because the makeshift lab was destroyed and the new powerhouse with it. She also erased the hard drive. It was insanely brilliant.”

“How the hell did B get to her?”

The pain in Bug’s eyes cut through me and I realized several things.

Harley had hypnotized me, that’s why I remembered nothing.

They had sent me after Barbara and the missing technology.

Oh God…

What had I done?

“You had no control,” Bug said firmly. “Whatever that hypnosis power was of Harley’s, it was powerful.”

Both Shan and Helena nodded and the later spoke up in a tight voice. “She sent me after Babs during our first run in with her after she stole that hypnosis power, and got into the clocktower because I sang like an opera singer. Barbara’s boyfriend died because of that. Oh, and Alfred tried to shoot me.” The last comment was suddenly teasing as she grinned at the butler. “But it won’t happen again. Davie turned her brain inside out. Said she’s trapped her inside her own mind, y’know?”

Like they did to Janelle. I squeezed her hand, feeling the pressure returned. The brown eyes were haunted, but strong.

Poor Davie, forced to do that. It had to have been horrible, experiencing that kind of twisting along with her victim.

“You need to rest,” Bug coaxed and flashed that shy-kid smile that was all hers. “Helena’s already told me that I’m not going anywhere, so we all have lots of time to heal and catch up.”

“Okay,” I yawned wearily and Janelle settled heavily into the edge of my bed, her head on my shoulder. Bug and Hel moved off to the others, and I met the shadowed gaze of my twin. There would be more than just physical healing that would need to be done. My arm felt like cooked spaghetti as I raised it up and rested my knuckles on Shan’s mane. Rubbing my thumb against the thin, stiff curve of her ear where the skin had been lasered clean of fur, I silently studied the familiar tattoo. The square-lettered ‘17B’ and the line of barcode that was the legacy of our creators. “I think we should get rid of these damn tattoos. What’d you think?”

Shan thought for a moment and then regarded me with uncharacteristic soberness. “I don’t think it matters anymore. We’re our own people now. These,” she reached up to flick at the barcode before twining our fingers together and tucking them under her chin. “Mean nothing anymore.”

“You’ve changed,” I observed and Shan smiled a heartbreakingly bittersweet smile.

“I’ve learned.” After a sober moment studying one another’s eyes, Shan abruptly lightened up. “So, there’s good news and bad news.”

“Some of which I’m guessing has to do with the fact that I can’t feel anything from the diaphragm down?”

“Yeah, that’s part of it, but it’s not as bad as you think. Something really heavy fell on you and broke you up. The Fleas are doing their job as we speak. Bug rigged up some contraption to keep you numb while you heal.”

“Sweet,” I breathed, more relieved than I wanted to admit that the frightening numbness was temporary. It made me think of Barbara, trapped in her wheelchair for so many years, and something occurred to me. “I hadn’t finished programming the nanites. I hope this all works out.”

++ Jane/Carolyn Lance ++

I wasn’t Jane Doe. I had a name, a past, memories that were once again mine for the taking.

Kind of.

Snatches of me were coming back. It would take time to relearn myself, but it would be worth it. I had my daughter back and I was tired of running. At one point Dinah had woken, but I reassured her that everything was fine and gently persuaded her to sleep and heal. Between Dinah and my adoptive family of Kelly and Carrie, I hadn’t left the room to do more than use the restroom and have my own small wounds tended to.

That monster of a woman had tortured my daughter. Screaming out my meta-gift had been one of the easiest decisions I had ever made. An instinct deeper than self-preservation drove me to that extreme. To save my child, I would stop at nothing. Perhaps one day I would regret mercilessly killing Doctor Blackwell.

But I doubted it.

Half-asleep, I almost missed the small sounds of Dinah waking. Immediately, I sat forward and shook myself out. “Hi, baby.”

“Mom?” She whispered uncertainly, blue eyes still unfocused. “Is it really is you?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry about all that’s happened. I was suffering from amnesia and couldn’t remember who I was or who should know that I was alive. Some doctors patched me back up after the fire and set me up with an agency to get me a job. Two of the people involved in this chaos took me in.”

“I really thought you were dead.”

“I know. I wish things could have been different, but I’m here now and I’m not running away again.”

It was the right thing to say, as Dinah’s smile turned almost sunny. Then she craned her head to eyeball the infirmary. “Is Shan okay?” Voice soft, Dinah sounded frightened for the strange white women I had barely had a chance to meet. There was something more than just concern in her tone…

“She’s been up and around periodically, hovering over you as often as she can.” As I had expected, my reply made her flush slightly. “You two are more than friends?”

Something in my teasing tone made Dinah relax. She was a big girl and could take of herself, as she had proven again and again. Besides, this Shan must a good person, because Barbara Gordon was possibly the finest judge of character I had ever known.

Slowly, Dinah began to tell me what had been happening recently and I settled in to be a good audience. I held the warm hand of my precious daughter and basked in the happiness of just being there for her.

++ Janelle ++

While the twins slept, my new friend, Davie, outlined a rough sketch of what was happening around me. Even as I listened and looked around to see the proof of her tale, I could hardly believe it.

But Ro’s look of relief when she’d finally woken to see me nearby her was proof enough. Purring like a diesel engine, she’d tugged me down and snuffled through my too-long hair, licking roughly at my tears as I sobbed in relief.

Now I rested, curled against Shan’s strong back, all too aware of the hideous bruising I cradled protectively with my own body.

The dark-haired young woman with the striking blue eyes had spoke volumes with her gaze alone when we had both moved to comfort Ro earlier. No one had needed to tell me of the nature of the relationship. A lost lifetime ago, I looked at the white woman that same way. My heart and body were still powerfully drawn to the twins. The loss of time confounded me, because I had never experienced it. To me, little or no time had passed, while in reality a full three years had passed me by. I still barely believed it, but Shan’s body bore the scars and muscles to prove it. While they had always been slender and whipcord, now they were true adults, grown solid and smooth into their own skins.

Several things had fallen into place since accepting Davie as guide out of the fog.

The twins weren’t as unique as I would have believed. The dark girl with the tail was proof of that. These other ‘metahumans’ had comic-book powers just like the teleporting.

My sweet ghost women had found a home.

Would they want me to stay?

++ Davie ++

As an orphan who could read minds from day one, raised in the strange circumstances by very old-world nuns in the far-flung wilds of Greece, I suppose I had a strange view on life. The women of the cloth kept me isolated for my safety as well as others, until my control of my strange power was absolute. From them, I learned discipline, morality and decency. In turn, I passed those lessons to my unexpected sidekicks. I had never expected them, perhaps never even wanted them, exactly.

Looking back at the past three years, I wouldn’t trade an instant. My life had been very isolated until Ro and Shan, always holding my fellow humans at arms-length. Trying to keep the twins from getting to close was pointless, they did it anyway. I may have taught them about the life they now led in the shadows, but they taught me what it was to really live.

Ro purred and woke softly as I stroked her forehead, returning my smile.

“Hi.”

“Hi yourself, Leo, m’boy. That was a hell of a wild ride, hmm?”

“Hella ride. Are you staying? Or does the road call?”

“Hey, I thought I was the telepath.”

Ro snorted with humor at the comment and Shan stirred to life. I studied Ro’s calm gaze, trying to decipher her by the patterns in their depths alone. “These people will need teachers, people of experience,” Ro elaborated while yawning.

“Yeah, that thought had occurred to me,” I admitted reluctantly. “Barbara made a crack a while back about there being no school for superheroes. Dunno if I’m cut out for that kind of life.”

Ro’s expression turned wry. “Splinter, since when does a challenge scare you off?”

I had to laugh at that little nugget of observation. Leaning over, I indulged in an uncharacteristic display of affection and kissed each of them on the temples to show them how grateful I was for them. Shan smiled almost shyly and rubbed her nose against my chin. There were shadows in her eyes and I made a note to take the role of shrink for her, and soon.

Bug’s head suddenly jerked up from where she had been dozing against Barbara’s gurney. A sharp buzz was coming from the monitoring equipment watching the red-head.

“What’s that?” Ro asked, her voice fearful and I grabbed her hand.

But Bug only smiled in pleasure and began fiddling with the equipment. “They’re done.”

Barbara Gordon was stirring back to life.

++ Helena ++

I probably never touched the floor even once as I raced like a madwoman for the infirmary. Dammit, Barbara! Figures she had to go and wake up once I’d finally been threatened, cajoled and browbeaten into at least taking a shower and changing clothes.

“Helena! Relax! It’s still going to be a few minutes before she’s lucid!”

“Daaaaaaavie!<.i>” I cried internally in distress as I hurtled down endless flights of stairs. “I should have been there!”

“And you will be if you don’t break your damn fool neck!”

She was right, damn her, and I slowed only enough to hopefully prevent accidents to me or any poor fool I encountered in the halls. Bug flinched when I barreled in and I unconsciously put a reassuring hand on her neck as I loomed over Barbara’s bed. The twins and Davie looked about as freaked as I felt.

Barbara’s facial muscles twitched and she exhaled, long and slow, like waking up from a very deep sleep. I reached out and traced her cheek with gentle fingertips, willing her to open those green eyes and reassure all of us that she was okay.

“Babs?” It was a bare whisper that fell from my lips, but she heard it, turning her head into my caress. Then something like pain flashed across her face and she groaned. “Babs,” I crooned again, leaning down to curl my arms around her head and shoulders. “I’m here.” A pale, clawed hand snaked out and I gratefully latched onto the moral support, flashing Ro a shaky grin. “We’re all here.”

Dinah stumbled out of nowhere, draped over the woman the Black Canary had become. Alfred materialized to rest a warm hand on my shoulder. A glance back showed that Gabby was with him and she grinned reassuringly.

“Look,” Davie whispered and we all followed her gesture.

Barbara’s left leg twitched.

Not any little spastic twitch either. It was a waking-muscle shudder that ran all through the long muscles, bending the knee slightly and making her bare toes move beneath the blanket.

“Uncover her legs,” I asked the room in general and Davie moved to do it gently. The brush of fabric completed the circuit of wakefulness and Barbara’s eyes jerked open.

“Wha…?”

“Hi,” I smiled lovingly. “Take a deep breath, relax.” It was the gentlest tone I knew, perfect to reassure the panic in her hazy eyes. Somehow, it worked and Barbara focused on me to anchor herself. “How does it feel?”

There was nothing like a puzzle to get Barbara Gordon to focus. Russet brows furrowed in concentration for a breathless moment. Then the most extraordinary expression dawned over her face. For an endless moment I couldn’t breathe, caught up in the sheer wonderment of her expression.

“I… I can feel my toes.”

++ Barbara ++

There were no words, no way to explain the pins-and-needles of sensation in the parts of my body so long lost to me. Helena looked like she was going to cry and I reached up to pet the damp hair. Then I rolled my head over to see the twins with that same expression on their faces.

Both had shadows in their eyes. Somehow Ro knew what had happened while she was under Harley’s spell and I reached out to cup her check in my hand. “I forgive you.”

Ro startled and pain and relief flashed in her eyes. More words would need to be exchanged, but now was not the time. We made a silent agreement between us.

It seemed just about everyone was here. They fussed over me and vice-versa, before scattering. There was something familiar about the woman hovering over Dinah…

Ro’s gentle touch on my shoulder distracted me from my musings and I rolled my head to smile at her. I was impossibly glad to see her kindness and adoration again, not that foreign madness and hate.

“What the hell possessed you to drink them?” Ro asked and I chuckled self-depreciatingly.

“It seemed the only way. I knew the Bad Back program was close to completion, so I took a chance that that Fleas were smart enough to fill in the blanks. I was just worried about them not having a home base.”

“Right.”

The raven-haired young woman monitoring the equipment attached to me suddenly broke in on the conversation, her voice conversational. “They built their own. It wasn’t hard, really, but it was a brilliant extrapolation.” She seemed oblivious that we were staring at her in confusion. “The genetics look sound from what I can tell, but that’s what the nanites were made for, after all. Both the primary and the secondary appear to be healthy and developing normally, even if they’re doing it more quickly than normally. But the nanites will ensure that they don’t develop too fast.” Bug chortled and flashed the gaping twins a smile. “Bet they were surprised by the tertiary, huh? Just like you, Squeakers.” After a moment, Bug’s hands stilled on the equipment and she once again looked at us, staring incoherently at her. “What?”

“Bug,” Ro said in exaggerated patience as a curious Helena wandered back over from where she’d been hanging out with Dinah. “Pretend I have no clue what the hell any of that meant. Explain it to me.”

So the infamous and much-missed Bug was still alive! And currently wrinkling her nose at Ro. “The nanites had no control center, so they built two firehouses. Well, they just set natural biological processes into effect. They always make a backup, just in case, and you carry the genetic blueprint for identical twins, so now there’s a tertiary too.” Comprehension washed over Bug’s face. “You really don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? The nanites hijacked two eggs and used genetic manipulation to supply them with a second set of chromosomes, using the best bits of Ro and Helena, who were the last two gene sequences they had memory of.”

Part of me knew what she was talking about, after all, it made a certain kind of perverse sense, but I was too shocked to really accept it. Bug sighed in gentle frustration of our combined obtuseness.

“You’re pregnant, Oracle.”

To Be Continued…

This is a terrific, feel good song as the girls are starting to come back together and heal.

Guardian Angel -by Jane Weidlin
Don’t cry
I am here and I am strong
Don’t hide your light
Got to learn to let it shine on
You’ve got everything inside
You need to survive
And I am here tonight
To be your guardian angel

CHORUS
I’ll sing the world to sleep
Hold you close and keep you well
Watch the moon rise in the heat
Be your guardian angel

Secrets
You know they’re safe with me
Regrets
Only keep you where you used to be
There is joy deep down inside
I see someone so alive
And that’s why I’m here tonight
To be your guardian angel

CHORUS

Think about it now
On such a warm, warm night
Shouldn’t we fly?

CHORUS TO FADE