It was a dark and stormy fight. Sister Andromeda was in the lounge outside the medlab, listening to the argument in the distant common room with her enhanced hearing. It had been going on all day.
"..can someone who claims to have 12th level intelligence be so sprocking stupid?!" That was Umbra. "It's clearly a trap and he's falling right into it! She's setting him up and he's so sprocking Oedipal, he's playing right into her hands!"
"He says she woke up different..."
"Oh please, Vi, as if. Luonovars don't change their dapples. He should have just let her sprockin' die, it was a better death than she deserved."
"Grife, Umbra..."
"Umbra's right," that was Gates, "She is a proven danger and he is not behaving normally. He hasn't even insulted her." Laurel had to smirk at that one.
"I don't buy that she's suddenly all better." "Miracles do happen..." "Oh sprock that, Orange, people do NOT go from practically braindead to perfectly recovered just like that!" "Purple, Orange, you're forgetting: She's Coluan. Their brains actually heal. Now I agree that it's strange but..." Oy, listening to Triad's three-in-one opinion was enough to give a person a headache. Laurel shook her head.
"Enough to make you sick, isn't it," said a voice nearby.
She looked around but nobody was there. "Hi Lyle." He faded into view. "News gets around fast."
"Yeah. The argument started pretty much as soon as we heard. Most people agree with Umbra."
"You?"
Lyle's expression was carefully guarded, "I'm Brainy's friend."
"Translation, jury's out pending further details."
"Yes. Rond feels the same way."
"Good." Laurel folded her arms and sighed, "I find it interesting how many people want Brainiac 4's head on a platter, but they seem perfectly willing to let the people who created her get away scot-free. Nobody's so much as considered the role of the Coluan Council in this. Except for Brainiac 5, of course."
"Yeah, I've noticed that too. Not even Gates, and that surprises me, given his whole antidisestablishmentism thing. Me," Lyle shook his head, "I saw what she did to herself. She shredded her temporal lobe with that stunt. And she's a Brainiac." He shivered, obviously affected by what he'd seen, then shook it off, "So? Any idea what's been happening?"
"Only that she woke up coherant," she nodded towards the lounge's EEG monitor. During Brainiac 4's long convalescence, Querl had put monitors in every room he was likely to be in, giving rise to jokes about having one in his bathroom. "She's definitely emoting now."
"What about her sudden recovery? I mean, just yesterday she was still a vegetable. Could that be a trick? Could she have suppressed herself somehow?"
"I doubt it. Coluans are one of the lucky species whose brain tissue actually regenerates and can heal itself. Grife, Lyle, we've seen Brainiac's brain bounce back from some pretty extreme situations..."
"Nice alliteration there."
"Thank you. Anyhow, recovering from that kind of brain injury isn't outside the range of Coluan normal, and they're not Coluan normal."
"We've always said Brainy wasn't normal," Lyle giggled. When Laurel didn't reply, he coughed, "Er, sorry."
She shook her head. "In all honesty, I think the best thing we can do right now is to keep the Legion away from them."
"Everyone? Including...?"
"Including you and Rond, yes, I'm sorry. If Brainiac 5 wants to talk to you, that's alright, but I'd like you to stay away from Brainiac 4 until we know how stable she is. If she's emoting fully now, she'll have no coping strategies in place and will likely feel overwhelmed easily. She'll be in a very fragile state for a little while."
"And you don't want us lunatics sprocking it up," Lyle grinned, "Alright, I'll trust you.. and Brainy. But what are we going to tell the feds?"
"What's to tell? She didn't escape, she was released. She came directly after Brainiac 5 and he's not going to pursue charges."
"Massive property damage..."
"She's Brainiac! It was a laboratory explosion..." The absurdity of this made both of them break up laughing. "If the feds come asking questions, we'll deal with it then. We'll sic Tenzil on them if we have to."
"Good enough, then," Lyle nodded, "Well, if you see Brainy, tell him Rond and I got his back."
"I will. He'll appreciate that. I haven't seen him since this morning. I think he's been asleep all day. He was up all night with her."
"As he should be. 'Kay, well.. I gotta go, it's my turn to cook. Later, Sis."
"Later, Lyle." Sister Andromeda tuned out the on-going argument and went back to her reading. A soft sound attracted her attention and she looked up to see Brainiac 4 shuffling slowly, supporting herself against the wall. "Oh my, what a difference!" Laurel exclaimed. Brainiac 4 gave her a quizzical look. Laurel got up to help her, "Come sit down. I'll help you across the floor. You're doing very well, I can see. Would you like some tea?"
"Yes... please." Still getting the hang of that 'manners' thing. "You are... familiar?"
Laurel brought the tea cups and sat down at the side of the table, rather than opposite. "We fought briefly," she replied, as though it had been sparring, "I'm Sister Andromeda, I'm an old friend of Brainiac's... Five, I mean.. your son.. oh you know who I mean."
"Yes. You noticed a difference; is it very apparent?"
"Yes! Your face has expression - subtle tensions, small movements. There's definition now. Your face was completely relaxed and blank; now you look composed."
"How interesting," said Brainiac 4. She sipped her tea, reflecting. "You said we fought? Yes, I remember now. I apologise for that."
Laurel covered her surprise. Maybe Querl is right, she thought. "I accept your apology and forgive you," she said formally, then grinned, "Besides, you were quite a challenge. I don't ever want to have to fight a Brainiac again!"
"I hope it will not become necessary," Brainiac 4 agreed, looking into her teacup.
Laurel thought she looked slightly apprehensive. She sipped her tea, composing her thoughts before speaking. "I'd like to make myself available to you as a sympathetic ear. My oaths of confidentiality mean you can speak freely to me, about anything, without fear."
Brainiac 4 seemed relieved. "Thank you. I may do so. My son and I are talking, but there is much that I feel uncomfortable with."
"I thought that'd be the case, hence the offer," Laurel nodded.
"Thank you. You are a nun of what order?"
"The Valorite Sisters of the Eternal Cosmos," Laurel replied.
"Ah. The 'soul shapers', I believe."
Laurel grinned, "Yup, that's our nickname. Comes from the techniques we use to effect change in ourselves. Purification and the like."
Brainiac 4 frowned slightly, "It has been said that I do not have a soul. There is no imperical evidence for souls, in any case, but I do not believe that that was what was meant."
"Probably not," Laurel agreed, "I'm agnostic about it, myself. I didn't join for the religion, I joined for the soul-shaping techniques. They do work and they've helped me to deal with my guilt."
"Your guilt?"
"I was raised White Triangle Daxamite."
"White Triangle... oh yes. The Trom disaster."
Laurel nodded sadly, "Yes, those were my people. I wasn't directly involved but I aided and abetted and was technically an accomplice."
"I see," Brainiac 4 said softly, "When you said sympathetic, you meant that."
Laurel watched her haunted eyes carefully. "Yes. I've been working on my upbringing, too. It's a long, slow battle but I'm winning."
"I remember some Daxamites from the Dark Circle. You are not like them at all. I would not have guessed that you were raised to such extremist views as the White Triangle holds. I would agree that you are winning." Brainiac 4 sipped her tea and Laurel noticed that her jaw was tight and trembling somewhat. "I do not wish to return to what I had been," she announced, "Will your Order's techniques work on a soulless athiest?"
Sister Andromeda looked into the troubled emerald eyes and realized, She's afraid of backsliding. She's afraid she's going to shut down and revert. She's overwhelmed and she's afraid she won't be able to handle it. She was desperate enough to rip her own sockets out and now she's desperate enough to try spiritual techniques she doesn't believe in. Gently she laid her hand over Brainiac 4's, smiled and said, "There's only one way to find out."
"A short walk, for exercise" the note said. The shorthand for 'Brainiac 4' had been scribbled out, and 'Mother' written instead. Querl traced his fingertip over the word, noting that the timestamp was more than an hour ago. Well, she couldn't have gotten far -- literally, as she was too weak from her long coma. He pulled his boots on and stepped out into the hall. Hearing voices, he followed them to the lounge. Sister Andromeda spotted him and waved him over.
"Hello, Laurel. Hello, Mother," he kissed her cheek then sat down at the table with them, "Did you sleep well?"
"Reasonably so. It was different, though I cannot name quite how," she replied.
Laurel grinned, "I was telling Xoanon how you found her name." Awww, look at his eyes sparkle.
"That was quite fortuitous," said the sparkle-eyed one, "I stumbled across that in Councillor Chen's diary, quite by accident."
"He had to do something," Laurel grinned, "We can't keep calling you 'Brainiac', then there'd be two of you screaming 'What now?!'"
Brainiac 5 rolled his eyes at her. "With two of us, we'll stand a better chance of actually getting some work done." He turned to his mother and smirked, "That is, if you can stand having your sarcastic and arrogant son around as lab assistant."
"That would be a potentially catastrophic paradox," she replied.
Querl blinked. He looked at Andromeda and blinked again. Then he groaned theatrically. Brainiac 4 had been incapable of understanding humour and now she was cracking very bad puns! He pulled his hands away from his face and mock-glared at Andromeda, "Just what have you been teaching her?"
"Me?!? What makes you think I had anything to do with it?!" Andromeda laughed.
"She just woke up and it certainly wasn't me, so it must have been... no, wait, it was Lyle, wasn't it?! I'll fix him!"
Laurel laughed and placed a restraining hand on his wrist, "No you won't. Xoanon came up with that herself, nobody fed her any subliminal double-entendres."
Querl crossed his arms over his chest and hmmphed with an exaggerated pout. "Well alright... but I'll fix Lyle anyways, it's been a while since he's been fixed."
"Well, be careful. The last time you fixed him, he got you back with the 'planetary chance machine.'"
"Oh please don't remind me of that."
Brainiac 4 flexed an eyebrow inquisitively, "'Planetary chance machine?'"
Querl scowled as Laurel explained, "Lyle Norg is Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5's best friend and worst rival. They're constantly trying to one-up each other, always threatening to beat each other up and steal each other's lunch ideas. They're actually on fairly even footing, because although Brainiac is much smarter, Invisible Kid is better at thinking at right angles to reality. So one day Brainiac here announces that he's come up with a way to make a computer generate truly random numbers. He gets all set up for his demonstration, hypes it up and everything, then unveils it and realizes he's been had."
"Do you have to tell this story? In front of my mother?" Querl snarled.
Laurel was laughing now, "Lyle had substituted this little gizmo that had billiard balls painted like planets stuck on sticks and mounted onto a platform that was rotating at a fairly high speed. Brainiac had just said 'What the fresh hell is this?!' when one of the billiard balls flew off and smacked him right in the forehead!"
"That is certainly a truly random occurance," Brainiac 4 observed. She could picture the scene all too clearly and giggled.
Querl noticed immediately. He rolled his eyes and shook his head with exaggerated exasperation, "Yes, well, Lyle would do well to remember what I did to avenge that heinous act," he said.
"Oh grife yes! He sprocked with Lyle's costume. Lyle's got it configured to restore when he becomes visible again. So a few days later, he fades into view and his costume is all pink with this big Hello Kitty head in the middle of his chest."
"People called him 'Hello Kiddy' for weeks," Querl smirked. He pulled out a holosnap, eliciting another titter from Brainiac 4. For this, he'd endure any number of embarrassing stories. "You look like you're tiring, Mother," he observed.
She nodded, "Yes. After spending a year asleep, one would think I'd had enough."
Querl slid his arm around her and helped her up. "You're still mending. I'll walk you back and you can sleep some more."
Brainiac 4 leaned against him, then turned to look at Laurel, "Thank you, Sister Andromeda."
"Not a problem," she smiled, "We'll talk more later."
"Yes." She allowed her son to guide her back down the hall. She felt him stop and his arm tightened around her, and looked up.
"Umbra."
"Brainy, we need to talk."
"Tasmia, don't you dare!" Andromeda hissed.
"I am well aware of what you wish to say to me, Umbra," Querl's voice was tightly controlled, "And if you wish me to continue being your ally, you'll leave it unsaid."
"Brainy, you're being a fool! This is all..."
"Your wound is healed?"
"Huh?" Umbra shot a hostile glare at Brainiac 4, who was gazing at Umbra's abdomen. "What? Yes!"
Brainiac 4 nodded decisively, "Good. I apologise for my mistreatment of you."
"...wha?"
"Umbra. My mother is tiring and I am taking her back to her room. You and I will discuss this very thoroughly, much later. Now go away."
"Uh..." Umbra found herself caught around the shoulders by Sister Andromeda and escorted very firmly out. "Did she just apologise??"
"Yes."
"For punching a hole in me?? Does she think I can just forgive that, just like that?!"
"No, she does not. No, Brainiac does not expect you to, either. I've heard your concerns and I share them and believe me, I'm watching both of them very closely. But I think Brainiac is right about her."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Her sole reason for doing what she did was that it was the only way to feel emotion, any emotion. Now that she's emoting normally, she has no reason to continue her previous activities."
"Oh really. Unless maybe she liked it. If it made her feel good then, who knows how great it could make her feel now!"
Laurel sighed. Not even Brainiac 5 had understood the complexity of Brainiac 4's situation, at first; Umbra certainly wouldn't. "I have a standing order to kill her if she fails to hold onto her emotions and reverts."
Umbra gaped, "Brainy told you to kill his mother?!"
"No."
"Then who did?!"
"Xoanon Dox."
It wasn't a dark and stormy night. Nevertheless, something had startled him awake. Fell asleep in the lab again! - Grife, this was becoming such a habit, he might as well move his bed. He wondered what had woken him but all was quiet. No, not quite all - he turned at the sound of running feet.
"Brainy! Brainy!!"
"Umbra, what did I tell you about..."
"It's your mother! Come quickly, she's gone all weird!"
He was running before she finished, racing into the medlab, pausing only to check the still-running EEG monitors. He frowned at what he saw, then entered his mother's moonlit room.
She was sitting up in bed and trembling. Her hands fisted in the sheets and she pounded the mattress jerkily. Her eyes were open but unseeing, and her breath came in little mewling gasps and choked sobs. She screamed and Querl realized it had been her scream that had woken him. He sat on the bed facing her and took hold of her wrists. The restraint seemed to panic her and she thrashed; he drew her close and she beat her fists against his chest and screamed again.
"What the sprock is wrong with her?" Umbra whispered.
Querl looked again at his mother's EEG, noting the slow-wave sleep and emotional activity traces. "She's dreaming about her childhood," he answered, "She told me, she used to pound on the walls of the isolation tank to see if it was real. She screamed to make her throat vibrate, because she didn't know if she was real."
"Oh grife..."
"I believe this is what is called a 'night terror.' I should be able to handle this," he told her, "Thank you, Umbra."
Umbra watched the shadowed fists pounding his chest. "Right... well... if you need help or anything, don't hesitate to call me..."
When she was gone, Querl turned back to his mother and tried to remember what he knew about night terrors. He shook her gently, "Mother? Mother!" No, if she was reliving her childhood... "Brainiac 4! Brainiac 4, attend! Brainiac 4, focus!" Her fists stopped flailing and she sagged, still making the little gasps and mewls. "You are real," he told her softly, "Brainiac 4, listen to me: You are real. You are not alone. I am real and I'm here with you. You are not alone, Brainiac 4."
"...whrr?" she stirred and clutched at his collar, sounding disoriented and confused, "..yl'n? wha' y' d'ng h'r...?"
"You were having a nightmare, Mother."
"..b't i d'n dr'm..." she sagged against him and nuzzled under his chin. Her breathing slowed and smoothed and in moments she was asleep again, if she had even woken up. Querl rocked her for a little while longer, then laid her down and kicked off his boots. He stretched out beside her, softly stroking her hair and humming something that might have been a lullaby. Before long, he too slept.
Morning found Brainiac 4 with her eyes closed but awake. It had puzzled her, waking to find her son spooned against her back, one arm underneath her neck and the other looped around her, encircling her. He was sound asleep. She hadn't moved, not wanting to wake him... and not wanting to end the feelings it stirred in her. She was feeling something deep and complex, something she had longed for. Something nothing had made her feel, not even her activities with the Dark Circle. Something she'd hoped to feel when he was born.
Querl cracked one eye open. Fell asleep in the la... no, not in the lab; then he remembered. Must've fallen asleep after putting Mother back to bed. Awkward, but only slightly so. Hm, shallower respiration and furtive shifting, she is awake. "Good morning, Mother."
"Good morning, Son. Surprise. Gladness." Coluese was such a basic, no-frills language. Like its speakers, it hated excess verbiage. "Curiosity as to presence in bed."
"Miscalculation on my part, unintentional intrusion," Querl said wryly, "Forgiven?"
"Presence not unwelcome; nothing to forgive."
Her voice sounded odd, he thought. "Do you remember me waking you last night?"
"No?"
"I thought you might not. It appeared you were having a night terror." He paused before continuing, "You were screaming. I believe you were dreaming about your childhood. I had difficulty waking you, indeed you seemed not to have awakened fully at all. My presence appeared to comfort you, so I stayed."
"Yes," she whispered, "It is very comforting."
"Are you alright, Mother?"
She turned in his arms and he saw her face. Wet with tears, it was lit by a glow from within, her lips curved into a soft smile. Up until now, she had avoided really looking at him, feeling too much shame and embarrassment, but now she gazed at him openly. She looked so blissful and he realized that that was what she was feeling. "I don't dream," she whispered, "I've never dreamed."
The shape of her face and jaw and the angle of her cheekbones were the same as his own. Their hair was the same shade of blond. Her skin was the same shade of green that his had been, until the Anomaly had altered him. "Things are different now. You're different now."
"But for how long?" the tears slipped from eyes the same shape and colour as his own, "You're taking such a risk."
His arms tightened around her. "After all you've endured, you should have a chance at a real life. I'm determined to give you that chance, no matter what the risk," he said simply.
Her tears were flowing freely now, "You kept your promise. You told me you wanted to give me back everything that was taken from me and you have. My name, my emotions... my son..."
"Then it was all worth it, Mother. Every bit of it."
"I would have named you. I had such hopes... Everything I'd researched led me to conclude that I would finally feel emotion when I had you.. I would have ylen..." Ylen, Querl thought, listening, Satisfaction, happiness, as after completion of an arduous task. "But there was nothing, not even disappointment. Had there even been disappointment, I would have kept you, but there was nothing at all. There was no ylen, thus no point in giving you the name. I couldn't keep you; I couldn't be sensitive to your needs, the way I was." She swallowed hard and he wiped her cheeks gently.
"Mother..."
She cleared her throat, her voice still an emotion-choked whisper, "Whatever happens, I want you to know, you've given me what I've sought for so long, the whole reason I gave birth to you. Right here, right now, in this moment, I feel happiness. I feel ylen." She kissed his cheek, "My son.. my Ylen."
Querl felt as though he'd just fulfilled his whole reason for being. "Your plan worked, it just took me a little longer than anticipated," he smiled. Then he blinked, realizing, "That.. that was my name? Ylen?"
"Yes."
His face shattered and he ducked his head as his own tears overflowed. He wouldn't change his name officially, but to know that his mother had named him, and a name that held such meaning for her... "I love you, Mother," he sobbed, "I always have, and I always will."
Xoanon Dox, Brainiac 4, cupped her son's cheek and smiled like the sun through her tears, "Yes. I feel love, too."