Spectre: Shades of Grey Chapter 14 A Comics Retcon Story by Maggie Finson

It had been almost two weeks since we'd taken down the 'Barbie Chip' operation and the mole thing the people who used those chips were doing.

The smoke had cleared, the abomnination we had set out to get rid of was well gone.

But not all the news was good.

“I'm afraid that half of the girls we rescued just couldn't deal with what they'd become.” Doris told all of us gathered in the warehouse she and Lena called home. “fifty percent of them just curled up, ignored everything, and starved themselves to death, or are in the process of doing that. Nothing anyone tries brings them out of it, either and we have some of the best minds in psychology working on this.”

“As abused, psychologically, and physically as they are,” I sighed. “I think that fifty percent on the survival rate is good. I saved others before we got the lot of them loose, and that rate is about what I managed even with what mind manipulation I'm capable of.”

“We can't get the chips out of them.” Doris nodded. “Or change what happened to them. Those damned chips are just too intrusive, they took over too much of the victim's nervous systems. Even trying to alter that would be fatal for them.”

“The nano proceedure that made them into females isn't reversable, either.” Kyle put in. “I've had survivors, and dead ones scanned aboard The Jordan, and there is just no way to reverse the physical changes. Adding an extra leg to a Y chromosome to make it an X is a lot easier than pulling one of the legs off an existing X crhomosome. Jade's people have confirmed that. The girls we saved are stuck as they are. Trying to change that would only result in a nasty, painful death for them.”

“The good news here is,” Doris smiled a little hesitiantly, “is that the remotes to control the chips worked on a very rare frequency that couldn't be duplicated without knowing what you wanted to do. So TV remotes or garage door openers won't affect the girls.”

“And,” Michael Harris added. “The ones who survive are being given new identies, even new faces if they want that. So no one will ever know that they were chip slaves.”

“Unless that someone has access to your data base.” Lena pointed out.

“Covered.” Harris grinned. “I'm hiring you to purge all that information from government systems once we get the girls placed.”

“Really?” Lena asked then grinned. “I get to play in government computers without the risk of being arrested?”

“Just to purge the information we've been talking about.” Harris chuckled. “And don't even think of back doors or saving stuff you shouldn't have. We have computer people that are just as good as you are, Ms. Luthor.”

She pouted for a few seconds, then laughed. “Okay. You know I love a challenge.”

“Me, too.” Harris chuckled wryly. “Otherwise I wouldn't have been involved in this mess in the first place.”

I watched them, my friends. Friends.

That one still kind of boggled me. I had friends who actually cared for me. Friends who didn't care that I was the god's vengeance incarnate. Oh, they were still giving me those very carefully hidden looks when they thought I wasn't watcing. You know the kind, where someone is wondering if thier friend is going to do something stupid, or hurt someone because of something stupid. And they all still let their awe show at times, too. Dammit.

But they were my friends.

And that simple thing was worth more to me than anything we'd accomplished together up to then.

“You are deserving of thier friendship, daughter.” Tisiphone's voice told me gently. “You have earned it, and shown them that you would do for them what they would do for you.”

“Okay, MOTHER.” I answered then asked. “So what are you getting out of it all?”

“Simple enough, daughter.” She answered. “Through you, I learn what is to be human. The gods who pay attention these days are envious of me in that, and you are the reason.”

“Are you sure you aren't a goddess who is just pulling my chain?”

“Not yet, dear one.” She answered with a chuckle. “But I am close now, thanks to you and your friends."

Then she left. Dammit. Can I ever get the last word in? At least once?

Guess that's just part of dealing with a goddess in training. Sigh.

“Daina?” Megan prodded me with a finger. “Are you still with us here?”

“Oh, yeah.” I shook myself. “Just having a talk with Mama there. Sorry if I spaced out on all of you. What did I miss?”

“Nothing at all.” Jean grinned. “We just wanted to poke you and see if you reacted. Without trying to kill everything in sight.”

“That little 'eeek' you let out was kinda cute.” Kyle grinned.

“Oh, you guys are sooo funny.” I grimaced then had to laugh.

“We try, Diana.” Jean smirked.

“Don't quit your day jobs.” I snorted.

Mitsuko and Samira had blossomed. They were still staying in Deena's apartment and didn't wish to go anywhere else. Oh, maybe to another apartment in the building, but it was clear they'd both found a home. In the slightly run down apartment building and in the less than savory neighborhood it was in.

Go figure.

The people where I lived as Deena had simply gathered the pair in, closed ranks, and made them part of the family.

“I've lived in places that were a lot better for surroundings.” Samira told me once I got back from the meeting. “But never one that was better for community. I've only been here a few weeks and I already love the people here.”

“I want my baby to grow up with these people.” Mitsuko put in while patting her belly. “They have values they hold to, and don't abandon their own no matter how difficult that may be.”

And yes, I'd at least been able to give Mitsuko back the ability to speak English properly. Now she was learning Spanish, and Portugese.

Wow. That woman is amazing.

Both of them would need jobs, and other things, but those were incidentals when compared to what they'd found in this often dangerous, dirty neighborhood. I think they both were actually learning how to live a life that they weren't ashamed of.

And that was a good thing.

But Mitsuko still had to confront her own demon.

“Are you sure you really want to do this?” I questioned the delicate, very pregnant Asian beauty as we stood outside a heavy door in the very secure confinement facility her former husband was being held in.

“We've been over this before, Diana.” She smiled at me and gave me an encouraging pat on the arm. “I have to do this. You know that as well as I do.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. I don't think I had as much raw courage or determination in me as that lady has in her little finger. And she is a lady. In the old sense of the word.

“Then stop fussing at me and let me do this.” She told me. “I won't be free, really free, until I do what must be done. You know that.”

“I'll wait out here.” I nodded. “And won't hover over you in there. You do what you need to do.”

“Thank you, Ghost girl.” She smiled and touched my cheek. “You have done so much for me, and others, but there are some things that one must do themselves.”

“Yes, there are.” I nodded and took her into a hug. “You've helped teach me that in case you didn't know.”

“Then my life hasn't been a waste, has it?” She returned the hug and smiled at me.

“Never has been, never will be.” I assured her then set a hand to the plate by the door to open it. “So go do this. I'll be in later to handle the rest.”

I didn't hover, though that was hard.

I did, however, watch things on one of the monitors that were close by. Just in case, you understand.

“Hello, Clark.” She greeted the prisoner once the door had closed behind her.

The man, her former 'husband' looked at her and nodded but said nothing in response.

“What?” She questioned softly. “You have nothing to say to the mother of your child? The woman who was your wife?”

“Why are you even here?” He asked bitterly. “You're free now. I'm not. Did you come to gloat?”

“Oh, no.” Mitsuko shrugged. “Oh I wanted to make you feel pain like I have, wanted to let you experience the futility of being a thing that is fit for nothing but contempt. But when the time came for that, I just couldn't do it. Not even to you.”

“So why are you here?”

“To see you one last time.” She answered slowly. “To show you that in spite of all you and others did, that I am still a person of worth, someone who can live a real life.

“Someone who will not do to others what was done to her.”

“So you're here to tell me that you're better than I am, is that it, Mitsuko?”

“That.” She nodded with a smile though her eyes were hard and unforgiving. “And to let you know that your child will never know a thing about you. You'll just be the donor of the sperm that caused her to be. I won't ever tell her who you were, or what you did. That is all the mercy I will show you.”

“I was good to you, Mitsuko.” He answered. “Probably better than I should have been. But I did come to love you.”

“Love?” She snorted. “What do you know of that beyond your own twisted idea of possession being love? I am not a thing to be owned, Clark. No one is. So your professions of love are just a little late, don't you think?

“I took care of you, I protected you, kept you from the worst of things, you know.”

“At what cost?” She questioned. “To you? I know what the cost was to me. You did nothing to help me. Nothing.”

He didn't respond and she moved to stand in front of him. Then gently took one of his hands and set it to her belly. “Say hello and goodbye to your daughter, Clark. She will never be what you meant for me to be, or face the future you planned for her.

“Good bye, Clark.” She moved away from him and touched the door plate to let those outside know that she was finished. “Though I doubt any god would countenance what you've done. There are others who have things to say to you, do to you. They'll be here in a few minutes. You really aren't much of a demon after all.”

I held her as she cried after that.

Again, she had humbled me.

And the others who had been watching.

I entered the cell, carrying two syringes and a small box.

“Clark Fortuna.” I greeted him while holding the syringes so he could see them. “You know what these are, don't you?

And this, I'm sure you're familiar with.” I added opening the box to show him the chip nestled in a bed of foam. “I can insert the chip without all that messy surgery you know.”

He paled, and actually looked terrified.

“This one, as you know,” I held up the syringe filled with a cloudy reddish fluid, “is the prep for having the chip inserted, the way that lets part of someone's nervous system be removed and replaced with something foriegn to the body.

This one.” I showed him the other syringe with it's sapphire blue contents. “Is the nanos that will cause the physical changes, to make you into the slave, the female slave, that the chip is going to program you to be.”

He just watched me, sweating, in terror.

“What, nothing to say about it just now?” I asked. “I'm sure some of your victims at least tried to fight things before you had them changed. Are they stronger than you are?”

“You can't do that, you won't do that.”

“Oh, I can and I will.” I answered then glared at him in my full fury form. “I am vengeance incarnate mortal. The only ones I answer to are the gods. I can do anything I please with you.

“But I'm giving you a choice.” I favored him with an evil smile. “Which is more than you allowed your victims.

“I'm not going to force you to take these things.” I told him. “I'll leave them here and see what you do. Inject yourself and spend the rest of your life as a helpless, abused slave, or not and die. How badly do you want to live? What would you do just to stay alive? Because you're looking at a death sentence. Without trial, without appeal. Either use these things on yourself or die.

“I'll let you think about that for awhile.” I grinned at him as I was leaving. “But don't think too long. The offer has a time limit.”

“You know,” Special Agent Michael Harris told me once I'd left the prisoner. “you're scarier when you're calm.”

“Part of my charm, Mike.” I shrugged.

“What do you think he'll do?”

“I don't really care.” I answered simply. “He's already going through the Hell I wanted him to feel. The rest is, as they say, the luck of the draw.”

Harris, Mitsuko, Megan, Jean, Kyle, Doris, all looked at me for a few moments, then almost in unison, nodded.