Alternate Ending

A/N: this picks up halfway through Chapter 9.

Carlos

"Check the living room," Armsmaster ordered him. "Then the kitchen. I'll check the basement. We'll both check upstairs."

"No problem, sir," Aegis replied. Squinting his eyes, he moved into the living room, feeling the bugs thwacking against his body like living hail. More were crawling on him, but it didn't really bother him. What was odd, however, was that he didn't feel any bugs crushing underfoot as he walked; looking down, he just barely saw the living carpet of bugs moving aside as he put his foot down.

"Sir," he reported over the radio, "these bugs are under outside control. I'm not stepping on any."

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the thunderous drone of tens of thousands of bug wings, and then the armoured hero replied. "Well spotted. Nor am I. Keep looking."

He was halfway through the living room, having ascertained that nobody was in the room, when his radio came to life once more. "Basement. Now."

Armsmaster rarely used that tone, and only ever in the field. Aegis shielded his face and flew across the room, caught the doorframe, and turned in midair to reach the top of the basement stairs. In doing so, he totally failed to notice the piece of paper on the kitchen table. In the basement, the light was on, although it wasn't illuminating much. What it was, however, illuminating, was … worrying.

Armsmaster was halfway down the steps, and Aegis joined him, shielding his eyes while looking at the mass of bugs on the basement floor. It was ... huge. Shapeless, two yards across, a vaguley moving mass of bugs.

"Oh god," choked Aegis. "What is that?"

"I was hoping you might know," Armsmaster told him shortly. "Shadow Stalker might be under there, or they might be nesting."

Aegis had a horrible thought. "Or both."

"Or both," agreed Armsmaster. As they descended to floor level, he heard Armsmaster speaking quietly, but not over the radio, and knew he must be on the command channel. "Armsmaster to PRT command. We may have located Shadow Stalker. We're getting her out now. Pull back the others."

Danny

"Pull back. Repeat, pull back."

Danny frowned. "What? Why?"

"No time for questions. Pull back, now."

Already, the police officers were stepping back. Clockblocker put his hand on Danny's arm. "Sir, we really should be getting back, like they say."

"No," snapped Danny, and Clockblocker froze."You can do what you want, but I'm going into the house."

"Okay, you're going into the house," Clockblocker agreed. "We'll be back over here, okay?"

Danny didn't answer; he pushed the door open and entered the house, the bugs still leaving an empty bubble around him.

"Mr Hebert," he heard through the headset. "Leave the house at -"

With a growl, he tore the thing off and threw it to the floor. I'm going to talk to Taylor.

Walking through into his living room, as he had done for years, he looked around. Bugs crawled on every surface, but he barely saw them. He was looking for traces of his daughter.

"Taylor?" he asked. "Are you there?"

And the Swarm spoke to him.

Taylor

Go downstairs. Look on the kitchen table. But despite the stream of bugs travelling through the shadow-girl's body, she persevered, moving stubbornly along the corrridor.

Oh. Maybe she's been told about the notes I've been taking. That made sense. But something seemed to tell her that it was a bad idea to let the girl take them. What is it? Why don't I want her to see them? It was something from before she achieved full consciousness, when she was drifting on the wind. Something that she could not remember, not fully.

She observed as the girl reached her bedroom door, still open, and slid inside.

Okay, fine, I'll let her have them. See what she does.

The bugs on the bed drew back, revealing the stack of notes still lying there; Taylor turned her attention to the living room, downstairs, where her father had just walked in.

"Dad," she spoke to him in the multitudinous buzz/hum/click of the Swarm. "Dad. It's me. I'm alive."

She saw him turn his head, listening. "Taylor," he replied, and she understood him. "Taylor. Thank God."

And then Taylor saw what was happening in the bedroom.

Sophia

She stopped for a breather halfway along the corridor; leaning against the wall, she let herself slip back to reality, breathing heavily. Thankful that her mask kept out most of the bugs.

"Shadow Stalker! Where are you?"

Armsmaster's voice, amplified by his helmet's speakers, echoed through the house. Shadow Stalker shook her head and went back to shadow, her skin crawling from the number of bugs that had alighted on her during the breather.

This was tiring. It was like wading through molasses, or thick mud, or trying to move against a strong wind. The bugs whipped through her almost immaterial shadow-substance, and while they couldn't touch her or hurt her, they could slow her, wear her out. But I don't lose.

Forcing herself onward, she eased through the open door into the bedroom. Bugs coated every surface, hung like obscene stalactites from the ceiling. And then some of the bugs on the bed moved aside, and she saw the stack of notes. Held together with a bulldog clip.

It couldn't be this easy, could it?

Going solid, she reached down, picked it up. Tried to leaf through it. But the bugs were landing on it, crawling around, preventing her from reading anything all the way through. So all she got was the occasional name, reference to an incident. Dates starting in September of the previous year. Around the time I joined the Wards. Fuck, she's been doing this for this long?

She weighed the stack of papers. It's heavy. Thick. Won't burn easy. There'd been half an idea in her head to put it in the trash or simply light it on fire. But this would be found. Some part of it would be found. Unless she removed it altogether from the premises.

Lifting up her cape, she tucked it down the back of her belt, over her butt. Letting her cape fall, she checked over her shoulder. They'll never notice. I'll just stroll out, destroy it at my leisure.

Under her mask, she smiled. "I win, Hebert."

That was when the first wasp stung her.

Taylor

What's she doing? Taylor couldn't figure it out. She's got the notes. Why isn't she bringing them downstairs?

And then she spoke, and Taylor heard it, through the ears of ten thousand bugs at once. It wasn't so much the words, as the tone, the tilt of the head. The arrogance.

That's fucking Sophia Hess.

Wasps swarmed to the attack. Sophia was caught unawares by the sudden change, from passive to aggressive. She was stung half a dozen times before she managed to go to shadow form, to lunge for the window. But Taylor had learned; she had trouble moving against massed swarms. So her bugs swirled through Sophia's shadowy body, pushing her back toward the centre of the room.

She can't stay that way forever. I can outwait her.

And then Sophia went back to normal form just for a moment. And she screamed, loud and long. Even as she tried to draw breath again, bugs scrambled past her mask, down her throat. She coughed, choked … then went to shadow form again.

Taylor stayed on her. Come on. Turn solid. Just once.

Carlos

The scream came from above; it resounded in their radio earpieces as well as down the stairs. Aegis' head jerked up, as did Armsmaster's.

"Shadow Stalker," they both stated at the same time. Aegis stared at the older hero as the realisation sank in, and then he gestured at the shape more or less at their feet. "If that's Shadow Stalker, then she can't be under here."

"Correct," snapped Armsmaster. "Go! I'll be right behind you!"

"Going," responded Aegis. He didn't bother using the stairs; once more, he took flight up the staircase, pulling a hard one-eighty to get himself into the front hall. Behind him, he heard Armsmaster's boots pounding up the steps. Angling upward, he grabbed the stair rail and swung himself around another one-eighty degree turn. Bugs caromed off of his face as he got to the top of the stairs and swung down the corridor; a couple of stings penetrated; he felt the venom sting, then tingle, then die away as his body adapted.

The noise of the swarm was now a roar; he was fighting against a tempest as he followed the next scream into an open doorway. Every surface was covered inches deep in bugs of all types, and the shadowy form in the middle of the room was literally swamped in them. More stings hit, and penetrated, but he ignored them.

He aimed his spray canister at Shadow Stalker's immaterial form, at the swarm roiling through the space that she occupied, and let fly. Sickly yellowish fog filled the room; he just kept the trigger down. The taste was acrid, and then he adapted to it. Bugs stopped hitting him from the side, and hit him from above, instead, as those that had been on the ceiling, or flying above him, died. Vaguely, he saw a swirl as Shadow Stalker phased out through the wall.

There was one more thing he had to do. "Aegis to all points. Bugs are hostile. Repeat, bugs are hostile."

Danny

His head jerked up at the scream from above. "What the hell was that?"

"Shadow Stalker, Dad. Sophia Hess." She was refining her technique, smoothing her words out. It almost sounded like real speech, now. "She's one of the bullies. She just tried to steal my notes about her and the others. I stopped her." She sounded grimly satisfied. Footsteps sounded from elsewhere in the house; he ignored them.

"What … what are you doing to her?"

"Keeping her in place, until the heroes get there. Ah, here comes Aegis. Good. No, not good. No, don't. Shit."

"What? What's happened?"

"He killed the bugs I was using to hold her in place. She got away, with the notes. I'm chasing her, but they've got insect spray. I can't … fuck. She's getting away."

Armsmaster entered the living room. "Who were you talking to? I heard voices."

Danny turned to him. "Taylor. But that's not important. Shadow Stalker's -"

"- been attacked by the bugs, I know. You're in danger. I have to get you out of here."

He took hold of Danny's arm, started to hustle him from the room. Danny did not resist.

Getting away? Like hell.

Colin

Aegis had quickly outdistanced him; as he got to the bottom of the stairs, Armsmaster heard Aegis' announcement. He also heard voices from within the living room; what they were saying was almost drowned out by the droning of the bugs.

Aegis can handle himself. He entered the living room, not altogether surprised to see Danny Hebert standing there. But there was no-one with him.

"Who were you talking to?" he asked suspiciously. "I heard voices."

The expression on Danny Hebert's face, when he turned to Armsmaster, was almost beatific. Tears were running down his cheeks. "Taylor. But that's not important. Shadow Stalker's -"

"- been attacked by the bugs, I know," Armsmaster interrupted impatiently. I understand that he's lost his daughter, but I do not have time for this. "You're in danger. I have to get you out of here."

Danny did not resist as Armsmaster hustled him out of the living room, through the hall, and out the front door. In fact, he pulled free as soon as they were down the steps, and hurried out of the yard.

As Armsmaster followed, he heard Shadow Stalker on comms.

"Sorry about that. My headset was playing up. The bugs went nuts and chased me. Whatever's in there wants to kill us all."

Sophia

She didn't have to fake her fear. Being swarmed like that had been intensely unpleasant, and she had sincerely feared for her life for just a few moments, before Aegis had stormed into the room. So as she landed, solid, on the pavement outside the Hebert house, and ran toward the nearest PRT trooper, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help me! Oh god, please help!"

Nor was he slow in providing that help, not when what looked like half the bug population of Brockton Bay was following the dark-clad Ward, with murderous intent. He aimed his spray gun, released the clouds of deadly vapour, and bugs died in their tens of thousands. Sophia stopped in the middle of the spray, luxuriating in it; it tasted acrid on the tongue, and smelled worse, but right then, it was the best smell in all the world.

The bugs fell back; Sophia took the opportunity to activate her radio. "Sorry about that. My headset was playing up. The bugs went nuts and chased me. Whatever's in there wants to kill us all."

"The bugs in the rest of the house are agitated as well," Aegis supplied, on the radio net. "How are you doing, Shadow Stalker?"

She could afford to be generous. "Great, thanks to you," she replied, stepping past the PRT man with a nod; he nodded back. "You got there just in time." There was a trash bin, just up ahead. If she could slip the notes in there …

"Stop right there, Shadow Stalker."

She froze, could not take another step.

"Come back here."

Against her will, she turned. One step. Another. Walking toward Danny Hebert, who had just stepped out of the house. Looking directly toward her. Gesturing her toward him.

She couldn't stop walking, but she could speak. "What the fuck? That bastard's Mastering me! Help!"

Guns were lifted toward Danny; he spoke again. "No-one interferes."

The guns were lowered again. She took another reluctant step. "Fuck you," she gritted. Drawing one of her crossbows, she loaded it.

"I've spoken to Taylor," he told her. "She told me what you did."

Her treacherous feet kept moving her toward him. She tried going to shadow, but it didn't do anything; she changed back. In desperation, she reached back behind her; under her cape, beside where the notes resided, she had a small holdout of arrows. The sharp kind. Just in case.

Fingers made clumsy with haste, she changed out arrows.

"Shadow Stalker!"

It was a woman's voice. Not one she knew. She glanced over, annoyed.

A woman, gun in one hand, badge in the other. "Shadow Stalker! You are under arrest for murder! Drop your weapon!"

She curled her lip. Went to shadow form.

"No."

With that negation, which she knew was meant for this and this alone, she went solid and stayed solid. Kept walking.

"Shadow Stalker, drop your weapon and surrender, or I will open fire!"

"No, you won't."

The police officer's face was a study in shock. Danny Hebert ignored her, gestured at the crossbow that Sophia was holding. "Put it under your chin."

Slowly, reluctantly, the weapon raised upward until it was resting where he had instructed her to rest it. The tip of the arrowhead pricked gently at the soft skin under her jaw. If I pull the trigger now, it'll go straight through my brain.

She didn't want to do it, but she knew that if he told her to do it, she would. It would happen. She would die. A whimper escaped her throat, and she hated herself for it.

"Mr Hebert." It was Armsmaster, behind Danny. He won't let him do it. Sophia felt tears of gratitude in her eyes.

"Shut up. Don't interfere."

Armsmaster opened his mouth, closed it, then folded his arms. Terror clenched Sophia's gut.

Danny seemed to be studying her, from just a few paces away. Like a bug under a microscope. Something so far beneath him that they barely shared any human ancestry at all.

"Why?" he asked, the compelling tone gone from his voice. "Why did you do it?" There was no anger, no accusation. Just ... curiosity.

Sophia glared back at him, her courage returning. I'll give you nothing.

Danny sighed. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell you to pull that trigger."

Her throat locked up. There were many reasons. She wasn't really sure if any of them would count as 'good' to him. I don't want to die.

"Mr Hebert, you can't."

It was the police officer. Her pistol was at her side. Danny turned to face her. "You can't stop me."

"No, I can't," she agreed. "I can't interfere."

"She deserves this. She deserves the same squalid little death that she gave Taylor."

What frightened Sophia the most was the flat quality to his voice. He had gone beyond anger, beyond hot-blooded revenge. What would happen to her now, would happen because he wanted it to happen, not because of a sudden impulse.

"Oh, I agree," the police detective replied. "I agree that she deserves punishment. But what she needs is punishment under law, Mr Hebert. Not lynch law justice."

"Where was the law when she was bullying my daughter?" Danny's voice rose slightly. "Where was the law when Taylor was in the locker, begging and screaming to be let out, and this one was standing outside, laughing?"

There was still anger there. Sophia caught it in the glance that he threw her; the hatred was so palpable that she had to bite her lip to keep from whimpering again.

"Well, when you put it like that, I can't really argue with you," the police officer conceded.

"Good," Danny replied. "Sophia. When I count three, you will squeeze the trigger. One. Two."

"No!" shouted the police officer; Sophia, her finger already taut on the trigger, nearly killed herself with the start of surprise. But the last increment of pressure had not been taken up, and she continued to live. Tears of terror were spilling from her eyes now.

Dana

Danny glared at Dana. "Do I need to tell you to shut up as well?"

"Mr Hebert, think. This isn't for her." Her voice was urgent; she tried to think of ways to persuade him not to commit murder right in front of her. "It's for you. Do you really want to take this last step, in front of so many witnesses? What are you going to do? Kill us all? We've done nothing to you. If you do this, the PRT will do its best to hunt you down, imprison you, kill you."

He glared at her. "This isn't murder. She deserves this."

"And even if you're exonerated," Dana went on relentlessly, "what happens then? They'll never forget that you murdered one of their own. You'll always be watched, always be a suspect for Master crimes."

Danny's head dropped. "I can't just let her walk away," he ground out. "Taylor ..."

"She won't just walk away," Dana assured him. "I can pin two murders on her, right now. And there were some notes, in Taylor's bedroom ..."

She and Danny turned to look at the disgraced Ward. She stared back at them, not giving an inch. Danny sighed. "Give her the notes."

With her free hand – Dana could tell how hard she was trying, and failing, to resist – Shadow Stalker reached back, retrieved the notes, and handed them to Dana. She took them, flicked through them. "God," she muttered. "There's enough here to implicate half the damn school."

"Due to her," Danny stated flatly.

"Due to her," agreed Dana. "But think about it. Would Taylor want you to murder her in cold blood, or let her stand trial for everything she's done?"

Danny grimaced. "Fine." He turned to Shadow Stalker. "Unload your crossbow. Give yourself up to the police. Do not resist arrest. Do not attempt to escape from custody."

With shaking hands, Shadow Stalker complied, slotting the arrow into a holder somewhere under her cloak. She dropped the crossbow, then wrenched her mask off; falling to her hands and knees, she threw up convulsively. Danny stepped back from her and nodded to Dana. Then he raised his voice. "Everyone except Shadow Stalker, ignore what I said."

There was a general tide of movement; a few people pointed rifles at Danny, but Armsmaster stepped past them, gesturing for them to lower their weapons.

Danny

He watched as Armsmaster approached him. The man's lips were set in a grim line. "That was not a good thing to do."

Danny found that he didn't care much any more. "I stopped."

"Yes, but you Mastered all of us. That's an offence. You could be arrested for that."

"If I hadn't done it, Shadow Stalker might just have gotten away."

"If you'd had Shadow Stalker pull that trigger, that would have been premeditated murder." His voice was angry.

"And whose goddamn fault was it that a Ward saw fit to torment my daughter for months, with no-one stopping her?" demanded Danny. "You're the fucking superhero. She's your responsibility. She did this, she caused this. Which means it's on you. Don't even try to pin it on me."

Colin

"He's right, you know."

Armsmaster looked past Danny, to where the police officer was securing Shadow Stalker's hands behind her back. "I didn't ask you."

The woman looked around. "No, but you didn't investigate, either. You never even had an inkling that a Ward might be bullying a defenseless teen to the point that a death occurred. I had to make that connection. After the PRT tried to kill my investigation dead in the water." She waved a hand. "Everything that's happened here today? It's on the PRT and Protectorate. You even try to prosecute Mr Hebert for this, I'll blow it wide open."

Armsmaster gritted his teeth. "So what do you suggest I do?"

She shrugged. "Do what you came here to do. Get him to tell the swarm to chill the fuck out. Then go back to your high-tech base, and look for supervillains to fight. Meanwhile, I'm taking this one downtown to get booked."

Armsmaster shook his head. "That'll destroy her secret identity. Better if we take her."

Dana

"For fuck's sake," muttered Dana. "I'm the arresting officer. I'll go with her to your base, make sure she gets properly booked. See her comfortable in a cell. Then I'll go back to the precinct to see about precedent for prosecuting a parahuman who's committed crimes in and out of costume."

"Fine," conceded Armsmaster. "That should cover all of the bases. You say you've got evidence of another murder?"

She nodded. "Kid called Greg Veder. I got a phone call earlier; apparently he was chatting to his buddies on a private channel about how Shadow Stalker came to talk to him about the locker murder, the night he got suffocated. Someone put an extra-large evidence bag over his head."

Armsmaster's tone was sceptical. "So why would she want to kill him? Or even talk to him?"

"I can answer that," Danny Hebert told him. "He approached me, told me who was bullying Taylor. She obviously wanted him shut up. I think … "

He trailed off, staring at the house. Armsmaster turned and looked, and Dana looked as well. The change had happened so gradually that no-one had noticed it, but now it was glaringly obvious.

The swarm was gone.

Epilogue, Part 1

As the last of the PRT vehicles rumbled off, Danny closed the front door and looked around.

"Taylor?" he called. "Taylor, I'm home."

Nothing. No reply. Hardly any bugs stirred.

With a sigh, he closed his eyes for a moment. He'd had the chance to talk to her again, catch her killer. It was better than nothing.

Walking through into the living room, he eyed the smashed TV, then unplugged it, hefted it and carried it back to the front door, remote and all. Opening the door, he carried it outside and left it next to the trash can. He repeated the trip with the remains of the broken chair and the glass from the smashed bottle of tomato paste. Then he began to scrub the wall clean.

In the basement, the cocoon that had been left behind by the retreating Swarm pulsed ever so slightly. It was six feet long, and shaped vaguely like a human being. One end split, and the opening widened, gradually reaching the length of the cocoon.

That which was inside, which had been forming all this time, sat up.

Danny was sitting at the kitchen table, resting from the effort of scrubbing at stubbornly resistant tomato paste, when his eyes fell on the paper. Words had been formed on it, made from tiny red dots. The words wandered across the page; they weren't all level, and nor were the letters all of the same size, but the message was clear.

DAD

IT'S ME

I'M ALIVE

I'M IN THE SWARM

I LOVE YOU

TAYLOR

As he stared at it, eyes filling with tears, there was a step behind him. He looked around, then came to his feet. Taylor stood there, skin glistening and pale, as if freshly formed over her frame. Her hair, likewise, was damp and stuck to her body.

"Taylor?" His voice sounded very far away to him.

She smiled tremulously. "Dad?"

In two strides, he reached her; he took her in his arms and held her as though he would never let her go.

Epilogue, Part 2

Emily

"Ma'am, Daniel Hebert is here for the appointment."

Emily Piggot tapped the intercom button. "Send him in."

The door opened, and Danny Hebert entered, followed by a tall skinny teenager. She looked oddly familiar to Piggot.

"Who's this?" the Director asked. "This appointment was with you alone."

Danny smiled oddly. "Director Piggot," he told her, "I'd like you to meet my daughter."

She frowned. "You only had one child."

He nodded. "I do. This is Taylor."

Piggot blinked. "No. Taylor is dead. Or getting around Brockton Bay as a sentient swarm of insects. One of the two."

'Taylor' shook her head. "I figured out how to remake my body. Sort of."

The Director stared. "And you retain your bug control?"

Taylor nodded. "I am the Swarm. The Swarm is me."

No, that doesn't sound ominous at all. "So, what can I do for you … two?"

"I was made the offer to join the Protectorate," Danny told her. "Does that extend to Taylor?"

"As an intelligent swarm, that might have been a little difficult," Piggot noted. "But if you've been … reincarnated, or whatever it is. I suppose … " She interrupted herself, staring at Danny. "You have no reason to like us. Why are you even doing this?"

"The PRT needs more oversight," Danny told her. "Best way to make sure you get it right is to be a part of it."

"And because I want to have a life again," Taylor said, stepping forward. "You guys have the push to say that I was only comatose when I came out of the locker. I want to fake my not dying."

Piggot blinked. That's a new one on me. "We can arrange that, I suppose," she noted warily. "What names were you thinking of using?"

Danny tilted his head. "I was considering 'Union'."

Taylor elbowed him. "Way to go back to your Association roots, Dad."

He didn't deny it, Piggot noticed. She turned to the girl. "And you?"

Taylor shrugged. "Like I said, I am the Swarm."

"Swarm, right …" Piggot made a note. "I'm fairly sure we can work something out."

Taylor grinned. "And I want to do one other thing … "

Epilogue, Part 3

" … pursuant to the matter of item number six hundred and thirty-four, egregious assault upon the person of Taylor Hebert; that is, pushing and shoving her during gym class on … "

The voice of the PRT lawyer died away as the door opened.

Sophia, sitting next to the court-appointed ambulance-chaser, didn't bother looking around. Emma, sitting at the far end of the table next to her father and his lawyer, didn't either. Since she had started agreeing to everything they were saying, throwing Sophia to the wolves in exchange for a lighter deal for herself, she hadn't met Sophia's eyes, or done much except look at the tabletop.

"Excuse me," the PRT lawyer announced in irritation. "This is a closed hearing. Only those people directly involved have clearance to be here."

"That's us."

Sophia stiffened; that was Danny Hebert's voice. It featured in her nightmares, now, ordering her to kill herself in slow and grotesque ways. He had owned her, had utterly dominated her. Just being in his presence reduced her to … nothing.

"I fail to see how you have a bearing on what is happening in here, Mr Hebert." The lawyer was obviously well-informed. "And who do you mean by 'us'?"

Sophia slowly turned to look, just as someone else stepped out from behind him. In her peripheral vision, Alan Barnes' jaw slowly dropped. Emma Barnes slid off of her chair in a dead faint.

"No ..." Sophia managed. "No fucking way. You died. I saw you. You were dead."

Taylor Hebert shrugged and gave her a half-smile. "I got better."

The End

A/N: This is not necessarily the end of the story; Union and Swarm may yet appear in sequels. Just so you know.