The Duchess paced in the nursery. There were other ways, she knew Justine was working on other ways, but...something in her needed to do...something. They'd lost the Duke, they got the Duke back, and now...he was gone again. And she needed to do...something.
These days, it was always a little tricky to shift directly to a different time. She could--through the portals at Gearhaven, or on her own--shift through times for general appearances, but...specific moments. Specific hours, even. That was harder.
She decided it would be easier in a fae form--not quite her former phouka, embracing that again would require a great amount of personality alteration, not to mention height--but she made the shift. And appeared next to...Hiro.
Dead Hiro.
Not dead, she told herself. He's not dead, this was just a...stand-in. That's all. That's all it...was...
She drew closer, wings fluttering in distress. So similar. Exact, even. So much like the original...and she'd come here to...
...take a chip out of his brain.
She landed next to him, staring. "I'm not strong enough for this, Hiro," she whispered. "I can't. I can't just...I can't..." She bent forward, keening in mistery, then straightened her spine. It was needed. She could do this. It was just flesh. Flesh that no longer mattered.
She slipped the little leafcutter blade from her belt, reaching out with a finger to trace up to the top of his spine, feeling for the small indentation where spine linked to skull. She cut there, two inches, reaching in with two fingers, widening the cut slowly. She closed her eyes, pushing everything else away--the scent of cold fur, colder blood, the trace of ozone in the still air...and felt an edge of metal. She pulled. Ended up with a small sigiled chip inlaid with gold and ivory, nearly the size of one of her fingertips. Without thinking, she popped it in her mouth to clean it, shuddered at the taste, and flew down the hall to the command deck.
It took a bit to interface the chip's systems with the only thing she could find to bring with her, an empty USB drive, but she finally transferred the data to the drive, knowing their systems could read the drive's content, but might need Hiro's authorization to read thaumatechnical chips. She popped it out and walked to the central pillar.
She only realized then she was largely on autopilot. It might be shock. She'd had no idea she'd been standing in Hiro's...the clone's...Hiro's...blood, and the contrast against her teal skin was shocking.
She collapsed, one trembling hand reaching out to place the drive where Justine would see it, or not, and...fled. Back to Gearhaven Prime, back to her timestream, and away from thoughts of death and loss and...blood.
So much blood.
She needed a drink. She might need nine drinks. She might need to buy a bar.
(Continued in part XVIII.)
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