Cocytus, or Kokytos; Ancient Greek: Κωκυτός, "Lamentation"
The ninth and lowest circle of Hell, reserved for traitors.

2015

There's a knock on her bedroom door.

"Hey, slick."

"Aunt Viv!"

Maddie throws the door open and latches herself around Vivienne's legs like a crab. The British scientist is maybe around her mom's age, smart, funny; not movie star pretty but she's pretty to Maddie, and her smile is like sunshine. Vivienne laughs and seesaws her upper body, squawking "Bear trap! Bear trap!"

"Nomnomnom!" Maddie fake-gobbles at her knees like a baby bear. Vivienne grabs the door frame while bending into a squat, collapses on her back with a defeated "hrrk-bleh!"

"The last onikuma reigns supreme!" Maddie jumps to her feet and punches the air like a heavyweight champion. "Who dares challenge her as alpha beast?!"

"Gaooo!" Vivienne suddenly jackknifes and pulls the kid into a full nelson. "Go-ji-ra!"

Maddie shrieks in delight at their roughhousing - she doesn't have anyone else to play with like this, and none of the other kids at school can even pronounce 'onikuma'. Viv can, and so many other things too! But the play-fighting is cut short when Maddie accidentally throws the back of her head straight into Vivienne's mouth, and the woman lets out a pained yelp.

"Oh shit! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

Vivienne licks her bleeding lip, cradling her chin. "I'm all right, I'm fine! You, my girl, going to raise some hell one day!"

Vivienne's smiling and that eases Maddie's worries about losing another playmate. She never means to be so rough, she's just so used to how she and Andrew would play. That's part of why mom and dad don't play games with her anymore. And even when they do get under the same roof, lately there's so much shouting it scares her.

Viv notices her change in mood.

"How are you holding up?" she asks.

Maddie likes how Vivienne talks to her like she's a grown-up. She doesn't fib or avoid uncomfortable questions. It's probably because she doesn't have kids of her own. Which is weird, because Maddie always assumed she and Dr. Serizawa were together like... like mom and dad used to be.

Maddie shrugs. "Okay, I guess. Dad showed up last night."

Vivienne puts a hand to her mouth. Maybe it's just to apply pressure to her bloody lip, but when she does that Maddie knows she's paying attention. That she's listening.

"How bad was it?" she asks.

A part of Maddie wants to be tough; say it's not that bad, she's not a little kid anymore. But she can't lie to her friend. "I had to run to the attic just so I couldn't hear them screaming at each other."

Vivienne winces sympathetically. "I'm sorry you have to be in the middle of it."

"It's not your fault. Are your parents like this?"

Hazel green stare at her like she's grown a second head. "My parents?"

"Uh... yeah," Maddie says like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Your mom and dad? Do they fight a lot?"

After a second Vivienne blinks and her brows quirk up in realization. "Oh. I actually don't have a dad."

Maddie's confused for a moment before she remembers that some kids at school don't have dads either. Some ran off, some got divorced like hers, some are away from home so long they're practically strangers. It occurs to her that this might be a bad subject, so she tries to pick her words carefully.

"Is he... like my dad, or...?"

"No, he died."

It's said so matter-of-factly Vivienne may as well have said 'the sky is blue'. Maddie doesn't really know how to respond to that.

"I'm - I'm sorry."

Vivienne shrugs. "It's okay. It happened before I was born. I don't know if that makes it better or not. Mum says I take after him - he loved dinosaurs too."

She produces a leather bag from her coat pocket and pulls something out; a fossilized talon, or claw. Maddie recognizes it as one of the bits Vivienne throws down to tell fortunes.

"Apparently this used to be his." Vivienne gives her a sly look and offers the talon, dull end out. "Want to hold it?"

"Yeah!" Maddie holds it between her knuckles and slashes the air with it. "Is it from a, uh... a velociraptor?"

Vivienne winks. "That's right. Very Jurassic Park of me."

It's nice to be friends with an adult who doesn't coddle and smother her or treat her like she's younger than she actually is. Maddie loves her mom and dad, don't get her wrong, but they're so exhausting to be around lately. It's like the floors are made of eggshells and the slightest thing can set off an argument.

She peers up at Vivienne. "Is it okay if I stay with you for a while? Until mom and dad stop freaking out all the time?"

"Are you sure? I work a lot of hours. We would also have to talk with them about it. Goodness knows Mark might hunt me down with a gun if he thinks I kidnapped you."

"I don't mind the work part! Please?" Maddie insists. "I can be your assistant!"

Vivienne glances upwards with an exaggeratedly thoughtful look. "Well..."

"Pleeeease?"

She decides to stop teasing and ruffles Maddie's hair fondly. "Alright, alright. Just don't push any big red buttons."

"Yeah!" Maddie whoops and launches herself into a hug. "Viv, you're the best!"

"I try," Vivienne grins. "So! Until they come home, what do you want to do?"

2019

"Hey, check it out," one of Jonah's goons – a bearded man in a military beret – calls attention to his computer screen. "Looks like Serizawa's favorite bit it."

Maddie whips her head around to look at him so fast it gives her whiplash.

"Aunt Viv—?" Madison's voice gives out before getting the first word out, like her heart can't take it. She shoves her way through to see it with her own eyes because there's no way it's true. It's just a falsified report to trick these assholes. It has to be!

VIVIENNE GRAHAM

STATUS: DECEASED

…oh no, no, no…

Madison skims through the report details and recoils in horror – devoured by Monster Zero's center head. She wasn't vaporized like those poor soldiers, she was actually… there's not even a body left to bury. Not like with Andrew. Madison feels... heavy. Like boulders are pushing her insides down past her guts and weighing her down like shackles around her ankles.

Something occurs to Madison. She looks up at her mother. "You contacted her, right?"

"Wha…?" Emma stammers, somewhat in shock.

"Like when you told Mancini to take the day off. You called her to try and keep her safe, right?"

Emma wilts. Hadn't she…? No, of course not; Vivienne led the containment and research effort at Outpost 32. That was her turf. Even if Emma wanted to contact her (and damned but she did), the slightest implication that things may or may not be out of place in Antarctica would send Vivienne running in like a lioness defending her territory. Nobody could stay in the same room with Monster Zero for too long, for their own safety.

That's something she distinctly remembers Vivienne confiding in her: "There's something wrong about it. Like the ice walls are pressing down on you. I found one of the guards pressed up against the ice – said he was listening to it."

But Emma snaps back to the present when she realizes that her silence is all the answer Maddie needs. She – her own daughter – looks at her like she's a stranger, no better than these mercenaries. Betrayer.

"You killed her."

"Maddie—"

"YOU KILLED HER!" Madison doesn't scream but roars it. Even the mercs are taken aback. "She was your friend! MY FRIEND! And you woke that monster up and it ATE her— IT FUCKING ATE HER!"

Jonah scoffs. "Think of her as a sacrifice for the greater good."

Madison rounds on him, seeing red. "FUCK YOU!"

"Maddie, please!" Emma approaches to try and console her before Jonah decides to get disciplinary but Madison is a whirling dervish. She's never been like this before. She violently wrestles herself out of reach and backs off with a shriek.

"DON'T YOU TOUCH ME!"

One could hear a pin drop. Emma is arrested to the spot, stunned by that look in her own child's eyes. She can practically feel all the venom and rage and grief and hate ringing off the bunker walls. Maddie points an accusing finger at her, and no matter what, Emma knows she can't argue her way out of this.

"You did this." Maddie's voice goes low and measured, face contorted in seething fury. "Vivienne was there for me when dad was drinking and you were hiding in work. She cared. I loved her. Dr. Serizawa loved her. And you took her from us."

Emma wants to say something, but her jaws are glued around an invisible ball. Apologies will only sound hollow.

Madison wipes her eyes before tears can fall. "I wish Vivienne was my mom instead of you."

She turns on her heel and marches out of the room, not seeing the crushed expression on her mother's face.