Last week, dear reader, Eldritch Maiden received a strange proposal indeed. One Erika, sitting in the back of an ambulance racing away from the fight with Becca, asked Eldritch to take her on as her official mediator.

Stunned by the strange proposal, Eldritch has no answer. As the silence stretches onwards, Erika becomes visible more nervous, finally she bursts out asking, “Well!?”

Slowly, Eldritch asks her, “So are you some kind of ambulance chaser then?”

Guilty, Erika takes a moment to compose herself before she responds. When she does, a bit of contrition mars her tone, “No,” she says, “I’m new. I passed the bar last week.” Seeing Eldritch’s surprised look she hurriedly adds, “But when I saw them putting you into the ambulance I knew I could help! So I lied and told everyone I was already your mediator and hopped in the back here with you.”

“They just let you?” Eldritch asks incredulously, “what if you were a villain?”

Letting out a bit of nervous laughter Erika says, “Becca is still within city limits, even if she seems to be on her way out. There aren’t any villains in the city right now.”

At the reminder, Eldritch’s eyes grow dark. With dread in her voice she asks, “What happened?”

“With Becca?” Erika confirms before continuing, “she got what she wanted. Beacon took the worst of her anger after you left, he looks like the only thing holding him together anymore is his power, and the two of you managed to hold out long enough for an organized response to mobilize. They’re close enough that Becca is fleeing as we speak. She’ll be out of the city by the time they arrive.”

With a savage vitriol, Eldritch asks, “Will they hunt her down?”

Taken aback, Erika’s answer caries an obvious note of trepanation, “No, of course not. She’s far too dangerous to go after like that. She’ll retreat to wherever it is that she goes when she isn’t murdering people, the Association will send all the heroes home, and you and Beacon will be patched up. That’s the way it always goes against her.”

With a sarcasm brought on by her despair, Eldritch cuts back, “And you’d know, right? Being barely a lawyer and all.”

Taken aback, Erika gives Eldritch a disappointed look. Quietly, she says, “When I was fifteen, I watched Becca butcher Orphan Orion. She broke into my home and she’d already gone through the rest of my family when he broke ranks to try and save us, unaware I was the only one left to save.” Voice catching slight, Erika continues with a faraway look, “Becca doesn’t care about people without powers. We’re just practice for her, a warmup before the main event. So as soon as Orion came in, she ignored me.”

Turning back to face Eldritch, she says, “I had the pleasure,” at the word her mouth twists and her tone changes to a vicious mockery, “of watching her string him through her illusions until he died. It took hours before he was unable to speak and several more before he was finally dead.”

“Sorry,” mumbles Hailey, struck with the enormity of Becca’s evil.

Plastering a bright smile on her face, Erika says in a slightly forced but cheerful tone, “Don’t be! The Association helped me out quite a bit, Beacon even paid for me to go to law school. Besides, until that day I wanted to have three kids, a rich husband, and an easy job. At the funeral, I decided I still wanted three kids and a rich husband, but I also wanted a job supporting the people brave enough to fight against things like Becca.”

Taken aback by the sudden shift, Eldritch simply stares until Erika rolls her eyes and says, “So I wouldn’t be here, helping you, if it wasn’t for what happened.” Giving Eldritch a serious look, she says in a far less flippant tone, “When I saw you weren’t afraid to fight against her I knew you were the kind of person I wanted to help.” Then with her smile back, she says in a slightly mischievous tone, “Girls like you are the reason I went to law school.”

Struck with a sudden mirth at the statement, Eldritch laughs until her stomach reminds her not to. Wincing with the pain, she slumps back on the bed and gives out a sigh, staring at the celling. For a minute, she appears to simply rest. Of course, dear reader, we may surmise that she is not making such a monumental decision without consulting her spiritual companion, Belinda.

Finally, after what seems an age to Erika, she says, “Alright, you’re hired. I don’t have much money though.”

Erika smiles and says, “No worries! The Association pays me.” Then she slips the manila folder into Eldritch’s hands along with a pen. Opening up the folder she says, “This entitles me to represent you without knowing your real name. It also allows me to make limited agreements at your behest, with the provision that final approval still belongs to you. Finally, it gives me the power to operate on your behalf with governments outside the purview of the American Bar Association,” flashing a smile she adds, “in case you ever end up saving people while on vacation.”

As she signs, Hailey almost writes her real name before scratching out the cursive ‘H’ and replacing it with an ‘E’ before continuing. Finishing, she closes the folder just as the ambulance screeches to a halt. The back doors open with a hiss as the doctor team piles in, each member shouting different commands. Caught up in the rush, Erika finds herself pushed back against the sides, shouting orders, while the doctors whisk Eldritch away on a gurney. The excitement proves too much for Eldritch, who promptly falls asleep again.

As she comes too, she hears the sound of Erika arguing. “As I told you doctor, medical records for heroes and heroines injured in the line of duty do not exist. Now that might seem unclear, but what it means is the following, you do not record any medical information collected in the process of a hospital visit, all records necessary for the duration of the visit must be kept on secured handwritten files, and any such records will be destroyed immediately after the injured hero or heroine leaves active care.”

“Yes,” spouts an annoyed voice, “but I can read a damn chart, and these readings strongly suggest that your client is underage!”

“What chart?” asks Erika, cutting off the voice. Then she continues before the other party has the chance to speak, “Doctor, that chart does not exist. It is your sworn obligation to maintain the confidentiality of anything you saw on that chart, which does not exist, or the board will revoke your license.”

Indignant, the doctor replies, “I have an ethical obligation.”

Erika, speaking over him, ignores his words as she continues, “This is, of course, for your protection as well because nobody will ever know which doctor or doctors at this hospital, or any other, ever worked on this patient. But if you were to lose your license, well then anyone looking for information on this patient might decide to track you down on the off chance that you did happen to work on her.”

“But” says the doctor in a helpless voice before trailing off with, “but she’s just a kid. She shouldn’t have injuries like those.”

“Again, doctor,” responds Erika in a firm voice, “what injuries?”

Smiling at the protective display, Hailey hoists herself up enough to reach the call button. After she presses, Erika walks in.

“You’re not a nurse,” observes Eldritch in a wry tone.

“You don’t have a nurse,” answers Erika, “I’m the only person connected to your pager.”

“What if I was dying?” asks Eldritch curiously.

Sitting down in the hospital chair after checking to ensure the door closed tight, Erika answers, “Then I would page a doctor and the nurses.”

“That seems inefficient,” Eldritch responds in a wry tone.

Erika shrugs as she answers, “Far worse to die because your secret identity leaked.”

Slumping back into her bed, Hailey murmurs, “True,” before trailing off as she gazes at the celling.

Her pensive mood breaks at the sound of the door opening. Erika leaps up and begins to block entry into the room, but finds herself swept backwards with a gentle but firm push of a wall of light. Over her protests, Beacon says with a sigh, “Erika let it go. I already know.”

Erika looks back, seeking approval from Eldritch. Once Eldritch motions to allow Beacon entry, she steps aside and grants Beacon passage into the room. Stepping in, Beacon simply regards the girl for a moment. In his eyes is a mixture of apprehension, pity, and sorrow. Finally, he says, “I don’t know why she went after you. That’s never happened before.”

With a tremor in her voice, Eldritch answers in a vulnerable tone, “But you left me with her.”

“No,” Beacon says with a shake of his head, matching the movement with his voice as he answers her question. “She can trap as many people as she wants in her illusions. While she had you, she had me as well. I never expected her to go after you, however.” Seeing her confused expression Beacon clarifies, “I thought if she did catch us both that she would turn the knife on me, not you. She’s always gone after me in the past.”

Bitterly, Eldritch asks, “So why did she attack me?

Beacon shrugs and says, “I don’t know.”

Upset, Eldritch says, “It was just bad luck then? I went through all that for no real reason!?”

Sensing the hysteria rising in her tone, Beacon quickly moves to the side of the bed and grabs her shoulder. Then he says in a calm voice, “Eldritch. Becca isn’t something you can understand or explain, she just is. Don’t think of her like a person, think of her like a hurricane or tsunami or some other natural disaster.”

In a ragged voice, Hailey sobs, “That’s worse. She’s evil, she’s the definition of the word. Nature doesn’t create anything like that.”

Beacon gives her a complicated look and tries to speak, but before he can, Eldritch continues.

Visibly shaking, Hailey’s voice is hoarse as she rants, saying, “Something like her doesn’t just happen, she’s not a natural disaster. And I don’t want to explain or understand her, I just want her to not exist. I want her gone. I want to kill her.” The rising anger in her voice drowns out the concerned noises from her two companions as she continues, “I want to put my knife in her stomach.” Hissing, she continues, “She’s a tumor, a cancer. There’s nothing, nothing, in her worth that’s worth leaving alive.”

Beacon shakes her roughly, stopping her rant. With the momentum of her speech arrested, Hailey gasps as the pain in her stomach causes her abdominal muscles to spasm. Gasping for air, her hands fall limp back to the bed alone with the rest of her body.

Crying, she says in a weak voice, “I don’t understand how she can exist. I don’t understand why we don’t hunt her down and put her in a prison she can’t escape from. She shouldn’t exist.”

Gently, Beacon answers, “And yet she does.”

Hurt emanating from her voice, Eldritch begs, “Why?”

Beacon gives a weary sigh as Erika, interested in his answer, circles around the bed to stand on the opposite side, facing Beacon. Slowly, he replies, “We can’t kill her, simple as that. We’ve never found a limit to her illusions, and as far as we can tell she has no limits. Tack on her ability to force people under an illusion to do anything, including fighting and killing one another and you can imagine how many people might die.”

“So it’s risky. That’s not a good reason,” cuts in Eldritch.

Waiting for her protest to end, Beacon patiently continues, “Her illusions are a natural self-defense mechanism with no range limit. So we can’t ambush her while she’s sleeping or snipe her from afar. We once tried to order a tactical missile strike on her location from halfway around the world. Her ability convinced the entire chain of command to,” pausing to consider how much to say, Beacon ends with, “to resist the order, fervently.”

“You were telling me earlier to get better. Sounds like you need to do the same,” Eldritch says in a frustrated voice.

Beacon looks away, guilty. Then he adds, “I can’t tell you all the ways we’ve tried to capture or kill her, most of it’s classified and not my story to tell. But believe me when I say that if you’ve thought of it, we’ve probably tried some variation of it. She doesn’t even seem to notice, let alone care.”

Anguish creeping into her voice Eldritch starts to say, “But that’s not-”

She finds herself stopping at the touch of Erika’s hand on her shoulder. Her mediator then says in a clear voice carrying a faint undertone of something darker, “Is it possible?”

Looking her straight in the eyes, unafraid of the judgement there, Beacon replies, “I don’t know, and I don’t have the luxury of finding out the hard way. Becca is one of the A1 threats out there. I’m the only one who can fight some of them, so as much as it hurts and as many people die for the decision, I can’t lead an attack on Becca. If I did, and if the worst happened, America and the rest of the world might be at the mercy of someone like the Cult or the Thirteen.”

Turning his gaze on Eldritch he continues, “You think Becca is the definition of evil, and I agree. But I also think that she doesn’t have any interest in killing on the scale that some of the other A1s do. So as much as I wish I could rally the troops and throw the full might of the Association against her, I can’t.”

In a hopeless and empty tone, Eldritch says, “I understand.” Rolling to her side, facing away from Beacon as she says it, she adds, “I hate it, and I hate that I agree with you, but I understand.”

Letting his age show, Beacon leans back. Eldritch turns back and looks him up and down, finally noticing that his bandages have a slight shine under them and he remains hunched over, concealing the extent of his own injuries at the hands of Becca. As her eyes trace the rest of his body, Eldritch realizes that his injuries extend to far more locations than her own do and his skin is a pallid tone from the blood loss. Finally tracing to his face, she notices the smudges in his dyed hair and the age lines that underscore the stress of Beacon’s long vigil.

Humbly, Eldritch says, “You should stay, for just a bit. In the city, I mean. Stay and teach me to get stronger.” Glancing down at her hands, she adds, “I would appreciate it.”

How, then, will Beacon reply? Should Belinda worry that her apprentice has a new mentor? Find out next week in… “A Tale of One Man!”