Queen's Palace

Missy Biron shivered in the cell she was currently in. She could tell it was somewhere in the Ship's Graveyard by the walls, which were rust brown. There was a mattress thrown on the floor, some sort of tinker tech toilet, and what appeared to be a tinker forcefield making up the only way into the room. It bathed the entire area in a blue glow.

Missy held her arms around her, hugging herself, and glanced at the helmet that lay against the wall where she had thrown it when she had been captured. She still could feel the burn on the back of her neck from when it had overloaded and shocked her.

Ironic, in a way, that the helmet had been what knocked her down. Queen had not even used her power on her. In fact, only possession had been used against her. At least, as far as she knew.

Which was the problem. Guilt sat heavy in her stomach. She had betrayed Panacea, and then had to listen to the results of her actions. She had betrayed the only person known to be able to detect those detected out of fear. At least, Missy was hoping it was fear and not some sort of revenge for Panacea detecting Gallant. She wasn't sure she could tell anymore.

She rubbed her red eyes and sniffed. She had long cried all her tears, this late into the night. She'd thrown up a lot as well, at the beginning. She was glad some meal rations had been left in the cell with her.

Missy had considered going against her word and escaping, but fear held her back there. Queen had promised to erase her if she tried.

Erase her completely.

She had asked what Queen meant by that, and Queen had told her it meant if she tried to escape, then everything that made her Missy Biron, and a good chunk of what made her Vista, would be taken from her. Memories, feelings, thoughts. All taken from her.

That was the penalty for breaking her agreement with Queen.

Missy thought over the agreement again. She had been going over it, looking for loopholes.

It was a simple agreement. In exchange for giving information on the Wards and Protectorate, and allowing Queen to possess her, then she and her family would not have any modifications to her mind.

Which meant that she was sitting in this cell. Better than having her mind erased.

It had happened when she headed home to her mother's house. When she got back, she found her mother was out, and worse, Queen in.

Queen had simply glared at the helmet, and pressed a button on the remote anyway. Almost flippantly, as if knowing it would not work.

When the stupid thing had shocked her the look of surprise on her face had been something, Missy supposed. She always seemed so confident and sure of herself. Queen's laugh while Missy lay there, twitching, had been like a knife to the heart.

She had simply sat there at the dining room table, sipping tea, watching her. Waiting for her to try something, it had seemed.

As Missy had lay there, something in her broke. She had felt the feeling return to her limbs, but still lay there, on the floor, watching Queen.

Finally, Missy had spoken. Not Vista, but Missy. She couldn't remember what she had said. She had half babbled, half sobbed, for a while. Part surrender, part begging.

And Queen had just laughed, and came up with her offer. And Missy had accepted, tearfully. Answering the questions Queen asked. Betraying everything she had stood for. Betraying her team. Her friends.

Then Queen had possessed her the first time.

It had felt weird. Someone else moving her body. Calmly wiping the tears away and standing up. Watching the women who had been possessed by her run out of the house.

Then they had headed to the Dallon residence, in the company of Queen's two "Knights", Anthony and David. They'd taken down the PRT team watching the place in seconds. David teleporting into their midst, and Anthony shooting beams of light at them.

Then their helmets taken off, Queen had taken them over, and they had carried on reporting as if nothing had changed. They even put the helmets back on. Anthony and David had been left outside, on watch.

Queen had entered, and then froze Brandish as she stood in the kitchen. Froze her to the spot. Then went and pushed Flashbang to go sleep, before returning and transferring her consciousness into Branish and ordering Missy to wait right there and not make a sound.

Missy had done as she was told. She had heard everything, standing there trembling. She hadn't dared move from the spot.

She'd considered running at that point, but even if Queen didn't capture her right away, where else could she go? She couldn't go back to the Wards. Not after selling them out. One check by one of the many ways they were coming up with to detect Queen's commands would show that. At least when they got them into Brockton Bay.

Clinic's massive MRI scanner was supposedly already delivered and awaiting set up and testing on either Dean or Carlos, who had both volunteered. Maybe they had even done it.

And her parents... well... home hadn't felt like it for far too long now. Either of their homes.

The only place that had felt like home had been the Wards. And yet, when it came down to it, she had betrayed them all. Dennis, Carlos, Chris, even Browbeat, new as he was. From what she could tell, Sophia didn't count anymore. Sophia apparently was not even Sophia.

Missy lay down on the mattress, and pulled the blanket she had been given over herself. She stared at the ceiling. Wishing she was not such a coward. Fear had always drove her. Fear of being seen as a baby. Of not being seen as mature as the others. Of being alone. And then it had been fear of becoming something other that had led to her throwing away everything.

If you strike the blade you are forging too hard, it does not temper, but breaks.

"Missy?" a voice asked, and Missy sat up, and stared through the blue ripples of her prison door.

"Aisha?" she asked, shocked, staring at the younger sister of Sophia's boyfriend. They'd met a few times when Sophia started coming to social stuff, as long as she could bring her boyfriend, of course.

And sometimes, the boyfriend had brought Aisha.

"What're you doing here? Was just dropping by to see the new prisoner, and it's you?" Aisha asked, scratching her head.

Missy bit her lip, and looked away. "Surrendered" she said, quietly.

"Ah? But why the cage? Was expecting someone immune to her power, but as far as I know, Vista has nothing stopping Queen from playing around with her brain. Making you her little mindslave"

"Part of the agreement for my surrender. Wait... how did you know I'm Vista?"

"Not that hard to figure out, since I know Pet is Shadow Stalker. Though these days, I suppose it is more accurate to say Queen and Pet is Shadow Stalker. Queen seems to enjoy running around as the hero all the time. Damn, so you got captured, eh?"

Missy stared at the little teen, and then asked "Why are you here?"

Aisha grinned. "My power kind of doesn't mesh with Queen's. Makes people forget I exist. And it's always on. Queen needs line of sight from one of her consciousnesses to mind fuck you. And my power makes me invisible to them and her Knights. Let me sneak around. Plus, my brother kind of is one of her knights now, so want to keep an eye on him"

"He... is? How many Knights are there? I can't believe there are 5 unknown parahumans even in this city, all working for Queen"

Aisha was still and solemn for a moment. "It's... worse than five. She's got somewhere between twenty and thirty now."

"What? How does she keep finding them?" Missy stared in horror at Aisha.

"She... triggers them. Ever heard of sensory deprivation?" Missy nodded. "Well, Queen locks a bunch of students out of all their senses. Brain goes into overdrive, panicking like anything. If you get the potential to trigger... you trigger. Then she wipes the memory of the experience which led to you triggering. Fucking gives her her own personal army. I was... lucky. I triggered over the stress and panic of waiting to be triggered. Which meant I could run away easy enough without the nice brainwashing. Still, one look from Queen and I'm her nice little mind bitch. Maybe. I think her programming has glitches when it comes to me"

Missy remained staring. This was bad. Wait, programming? "What do you mean programming?"

"You haven't noticed? Queen. She pretty much is constrained by a bunch of those same instructions she gives to everyone else. Figured out a few myself. Biggest one seems to be that she has to be confident. See her lose her confidence? She goes batshit nuts. Next seems to be that she has to protect her friends, which pretty much means Emma and Pet. One thing that has her going against the Protectorate really. The one which is against me is she doesn't feel any guilt for anything she does to protect her friends. As long as she can justify it as helping her friends, then she doesn't feel any guilt"

Aisha sighed, then continued to explain "Which is where I come in. Brian's my brother, but is also Pet's boyfriend, and Pet seems to care for him. Losing me will hurt Brian, which in turn may hurt Pet. Therefore, attacking me is something she cannot do. At the same time, I pose a threat to her and her friends, so she seems conflicted over what to do about me. I just sort of skulk around in the dark, hoping that none of them see me. Waaaaay to many powers linked to senses, light and movement around here. If she saw me for a moment, then I'm willing to bet I would become a Knight, just like Brian. I know for sure about it. But if she wants to hunt me, then it will hurt Brian, and then Pet. And neither of us want to hurt or abandon Brian" Aisha fell silent for a moment, contemplating.

"So you're trapped as well" Missy said, looking at Aisha sorrowfully.

"Yeah. Nice talking with you. Though a word of warning; Queen can sense the emotions of her hosts, and anyone around her real body. Dunno how well she can, and it might be limited to sight like her other powers. She seems to have a massive bunch of bullshit powers really. Anyway, I need to split. Been here too long anyway. Don't want them to come after me because I appeared on the cameras after all. Nice talking to someone about this shit, for once" Aisha said, nodding.

"Nice talking to..." Missy wondered why she was sitting up, and why she felt a lot better.

Also, why did she seem to know a lot more about Queen's operations, as well? Oh well, best get some sleep. Apparently Queen planned to use her as a host often.

Hmmm, a lot more about Queen's operations revealed. It also points to some of her reasons for doing this. And yes, that is indeed Imp. And Brian is dating Pet, and previously was dating Sophia, who was well aware he was Grue.