Countless Joyful Dawns - Chapter ?? - 18: The Conspiracy (Patreon)

AN: Short one. I was going to combine it with another section, but that section grew so large it became TWO additional chapters.

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Cauldron was willing to do anything to save the world. Not just the world, but all of the worlds. When the Entities were done with their harvest on Earth, they’d detonate all versions of Earth in order to propel themselves to their next destination. 

That was the usual plan. Only a single Entity being left had left their lifecycle in question… but not his ability to eventually blow up every single Earth, out of spite if nothing else.

Their best analysts said that civilization on Earth Bet had less than 20 years before total collapse.

Their best precogs said the end of the world was coming in two years.

There was no price too high to pay, no atrocity that couldn’t be committed. The members of Cauldron would save the world, no matter what it took.

They were responsible for the current shape of the world. They had shaped the narrative around parahumans. They were responsible for creating the PRT.

They were the PRT, at the highest levels. Alexandria’s altar ego was Chief Director Costa-Brown, nevermind that parahumans weren’t supposed to be in the PRT. It was the smallest crime in their long litany of sins.

Some of their members were famous. Legend. Eidolon. Alexandria.

Others were less well known. Contessa was the greatest Thinker in the world. The Number Man was single-handedly keeping the world’s economy afloat. Custodian was nothing but a breeze, keeping the facility on a different world secure. Lastly, Doctor Mother headed the conspiracy, having no powers of her own.

There were more, of course, but they’re not important for this story. 

The members of the conspiracy met regularly. The six of them - Custodian breezing through the base, and not a decision maker - sat around the table in a white-paneled room, discussing the world, events, and what to do next.

“... next up is Otherworld Dawn.” Doctor Mother said.

“Are we still using that as her name?” Legend asked with a frown.

“Yes.” Eidolon grumped. “Otherwise, half the time I’ll be thinking about the Dawn on my team. Names are first come, first serve.”

That wasn’t how names worked at all, but Legend wasn’t going to argue.

“She’s utterly ruined the Terminus project.” Alexandria scowled. “We’ll have to restart it somewhere else, and we don’t have another good city to sacrifice. Brockton Bay was ideal for that.”

“It’s possible Coil will successfully subvert her.” Doctor Mother said. “An extra challenge for him to overcome. Few adversaries, and this one might be more subvertable. Alternatively, we can consider Brockton Bay to have fallen under Otherworld Dawns control, and we can use that as a template.”

“Except, if she’s to be believed, she’s already done this before. The data is horribly tainted, by lack of an Agent if nothing else.” Alexandria retorted. “We should remove her. How difficult would it be to kill her?”

“256 steps, 8 months.” Contessa replied.

The rest of the table stared at her.

“Seriously?” Eidolon asked.

“Nobody here takes that long to kill.” Legend said.

“Whoa, hold up.” Numberman said. “We are not bumping off Otherworld Dawn.”

“Explain.” Alexandria tersely demanded.

“In the short time she’s been here, she’s already pushed the collapse of civilization back an entire year. I project, if she sticks around, that she’ll continue to push back total collapse.” Numberman said.

“Wait, we’re gaining time?” Legend asked.

Numberman pushed his glasses up on his nose.

“To an extent. My most optimistic projections, assuming no changes in the major variables and with Contessa’s help, have civilization collapsing 45 years from now. The Endbringers will have taken out too much infrastructure by then.”

Alexandria frowned.

“I still want her gone, or controlled. How difficult would it be to abduct her to another Earth, then use Doorman to apply her healing to Bet?”

The conspiracy looked at Contessa expectantly. The fedora-wearing woman raised an eyebrow.

“256 steps, 8 months.” She said, then explained. “Most of the paths are identical, it’s merely the execution of the final steps that are different.”

“She’s not a blindspot, is she?” Doctor Mother asked. “We can’t have a blindspot.”

Contessa shook her head.

“No, she’s easy enough to path. But. Most important to this conversation, she’s changed The Path.”

That got the rest of the table to sit up and pay attention.

“We’ve been able to use her healing to fix a large number of injured parahumans that otherwise couldn’t get healing.” Contessa explained. “We’ve also managed to subtly heal a number of regions, although paths without her noticing have extremely fine margins. All in all, she’s reduced The Path by over a hundred steps, and single-handedly has improved our odds by 6.2%, bringing them up to 28.7%.”

There was dead silence at the table.

“With that sort of change, we must leave her alone.” Doctor Mother said.

“How?” Alexandria demanded. “She’s undermining the PRT and Protectorate hard. I’ve got Congressmen and business moguls screaming at me nonstop to do something about her. The entire foundation is on shaky ground.”

Contessa shrugged.

“Sign her paperwork, and she’ll become far less annoying. Introduce her to the owner of Fox News and CNN, and most of your complaints will vanish.”

What was a little media manipulation anyway?

“Do we have to?” Alexandria asked. “Will interfering with her mess up The Path?”

“It’s not important to The Path either way.” Contessa said. 

“Excellent.” Alexandria said with a predatory grin.

“Does anyone else have anything to add with Otherworld Dawn?” Doctor Mother asked. Taking the moment of silence as assent, she carried on. “Next up is the CUI…”