25 – Pressures from the Future Weigh on the Scales of the Present

The night before Christmas Eve held little significance for the Walker family. Normally, they didn’t celebrate the holiday beyond, perhaps, a family meal. When she was young, Erika assumed that their family just wasn’t religious enough to celebrate it. Now knowing it was more of a commercial holiday, she figured there just wasn’t often the funds to have a proper Christmas—both her and Carter had a birthday in the latter quarter of the year, and that put a certain strain on the family finances.

If only The Fixer had sent some child payments, the useless, ageless being.

Erika’s relationship with The Fixer was much improved over the constant irritation she held on Carter’s birthday, but that didn’t mean she didn’t still have issues with them.

Tonight, she almost wished they had proper Christmas celebrations, if only to have something to distract from this argument.

“I had two thoughts about it,” Erika said, ticking off one finger. “The first was that our presence added some legitimacy to The Hunters being a proper supernatural faction, because, despite what I said, I’m aware that they’re three normal people, and Rick—and Rick is probably going to get rid of that sword as soon as I’m sure I can break the curse without it blowing up in our faces. The second, why not? I’m kind of sick of keeping things hidden from The Hunters.”

“That wasn’t the problem,” The Fixer said, keeping their tone calm and patient. “You shouldn’t go around claiming to be an Outsider.”

Erika frowned, planting a hand on her hip. “I haven’t been outside or whatever, but I’m close enough, aren’t I? I wouldn’t have my ability to exploit the little flaws in reality otherwise.”

“It isn’t that either,” The Fixer said. “It is about how others might react to you. Outsiders are known for being extremely difficult to put down permanently. So long as we have a guise to fall back on, the death of our current face is nearly inconsequential—not that I view Leah as inconsequential,” he quickly added. “I merely speak in general.”

That brought Erika up short as the ramifications of what she had done the other night hit her. “You’re saying that, even if someone doesn’t want to kill me, they might just do so anyway because they think it’ll be a minor setback.”

“It isn’t common knowledge, and Outsiders are uncommon enough that most probably don’t believe they’re even real. The Analyst and I are likely the only two Outsiders in the entirety of the northern half of the States; I do know of one other in Southern California.” The Fixer paused, gaining a look of distant thought before shaking their head. “The Eclipse will have the knowledge and resources to know, however, as they have dealt with Outsiders more than most, in the form of The Analyst.”

“So, easy solution: Don’t give them reason to fight me anymore. Easy. Wasn’t planning on fighting them in the first place.”

“Oh? Forming an entire faction on your own isn’t going to make you friends, Erika.”

“A neutral faction, like The Church.”

“The Emperor is a dragon. It is not in their nature to share power,” The Fixer said with a sad shake of their head. “The Church remains neutral because a few words in the right ears could have The Emperor tumbling off her high seat, and she knows it. They are also relatively unoffensive, content to remain on their own a majority of the time. You, however, are going to be seen as a threat; another Puppet, another Castle—both are insults in her eyes, I am certain. All other factions in the city bow down to The Eclipse. You can claim neutrality, but your actions have already dismissed that claim as a falsehood. Even if you truly act neutral from this day forward, The Emperor won’t forget your associations with The Puppet.”

Erika clicked her tongue in annoyance. “The Emperor sounds like a bitch.”

“This is no laughing matter.”

Not laughing, Erika shrugged. “The Adjustment didn’t seem like she was that worried.”

The Fixer nodded slowly, yet with a level of uncertainty in his frown. “I do not know The Adjustment—or most members of The Eclipse. I don’t have much interaction with them in general beyond simple announcements of my arrival and departures, so that they aren’t surprised if they find me in the city. They know I’m a wanderer.”

“You used to be a wanderer, then you stuck around for three months,” Erika corrected, mostly guessing that The Fixer hadn’t been around for that long on most of their previous visits. “And now I’ve tied you to The Hunters.”

“Yes,” The Fixer said, continuing in that calm, patient tone. “Thank you for doing so without consulting me.”

“I had to do something,” Erika snapped. “I felt like I was about to lose everything I had built up, all the friends and allies I’ve made, since you flipped my world upside down.”

The way The Fixer sighed made Erika think they wanted to say that they couldn’t be blamed for everything. Erika knew that, she really did, but The Fixer had fucked off and both they and Leah had left her in the dark for her entire life; she felt she was entitled to at least one year of pointing the finger before she had to start on any introspection.

Maybe The Fixer and Leah agreed, because they didn’t say a thing beyond that sigh.

“Can I make devil deals?” Erika asked, both to change the topic away from her problems and because she meant to ask a few weeks ago, but got distracted with the sword, the hotel fight, and all that nonsense. Now, she actually had a reason to want to know.

If she had just painted a lethal target on her back, having a spare body to escape to sounded quite appealing. There was no chance she wanted to merge with someone else, but cobbling together a new identity out of bits of other people sounded mostly acceptable.

The corners of The Fixer’s lips twitched upwards, ever so slightly. “If you have to ask, the answer is probably no.”

“That’s what you said about the robot thing, but do you know for sure?”

“There is much I do not know about you and Carter both,” The Fixer said.

“But…?”

“But nothing,” The Fixer said with a light laugh. “The two of you are born from a human and an Outsider wearing the guise of a mage. I know the two of you work within the exploits Outsiders utilize. Beyond that?” They shrugged helplessly.

“So I can turn into a robot,” Erika said, mostly as a joke.

It got a heartier laugh out of The Fixer. “I didn’t say that.”

Erika laughed a little before settling down in consideration. “So… how do you make deals?”

“I… I’m not sure it is something that can be taught. Instinct, I suppose, is the answer.” The Fixer frowned a little. “The flaws in reality, the same ones you break or Carter uses to bend time, simply… open themselves a little wider when making a deal with someone—a mortal, specifically, someone completely in line with reality’s laws. That allows for seemingly impossible things to happen, like healing a terminally ill person in exchange for a part of them. How to enact it is…”

Chewing her lip for a moment, Erika got an idea and called out, “Hey, Cart!”

“One minute,” Carter called back from his room. As of late, he and Bethany King had been playing online video games together. Today was no different, despite the Kings celebrating Christmas as much as any normal family—the night before Christmas Eve wasn’t enough of a holiday from anything but school to dedicate to family time.

Exactly sixty seconds after Carter’s response, he slipped out into the main living room where Erika and her combination parents had been having their little discussion. Impatience riddled his face, clearly wanting to go back to his game, he nonetheless stepped out to the couches and leaned a little too stiffly against the back of the loveseat, just behind The Fixer.

“Have you tried turning into a robot?” Erika asked.

“All the time.”

Erika started to nod, only to catch herself narrowing her eyes in suspicion at Carter. “Have you tried turning into a robot since learning one of our parents is a robot?”

“A little bit,” Carter said without any hint of embarrassment over the difference in his answers. The Fixer even had to hide a chuckle at his response.

“No success?” Erika asked, just to be sure her actual question was getting answered.

“No,” he admitted with a small sigh. “I thought we needed machinery from outside to build a body, so I didn’t try too hard.”

Erika nodded along, figuring that would be his answer. The fact that he tried at all almost made her laugh; she certainly hadn’t tried—how did one just try to turn into a robot? Carter’s expression of their family powers did not match hers, however, so he might have had some success where she couldn’t have even conceived of a place to start trying. It was for that reason that she went ahead and asked her next question.

“Have you ever made a deal with someone?” she asked. Seeing the look of confusion on his face, she tried to clarify. “Not like agreeing to play games with your girlfriend, but something impossible for something else impossible, then having it happen.”

“I… don’t think so?”

“Can you think of a way to do it?” Erika pressed. “To make an agreement with someone to give them health in exchange for their hair?”

Carter made a face. “I don’t want someone’s hair.”

Erika let out a small sigh. “It’s just an example,” she said. “Just try to consider the possibility. Can you think of a way to do it?”

Carter and Erika could both manipulate time, though Erika wasn’t as proficient as Carter was. If not for him, however, she wouldn’t even know that it was possible, let alone something she could do. He taught her. That meant that, if Carter could make deals, it was entirely possible that he could teach her where The Fixer, an alien entity operating purely on instinct, could not.

Scrunching up his face in concentration, Carter slowly nodded. “Maybe,” he said slowly.

“Better than a no,” Erika said with a shrug. “Right, so, let’s test this thing. I’ll agree to give you—”

“While I have my doubts that this will work at all, this is not a toy,” The Fixer said, ruining everyone’s fun. Their tone took on an air of academic interest as they looked over at Carter. “Even if it did work, I’m not sure a human would know what to do with aspects and ideas that they bartered for, and certainly wouldn’t know how to separate their sense of self from their current physical platform.”

“Good thing we’re not really human then,” Erika said, though she hadn’t the slightest idea how to do any of that either. “I’ll barter away an inch of hair for… a slice of pizza.”

The Fixer immediately shook their head. “That’s not… While wealth and riches can be a consideration, and I suppose a pizza might count for that if you squint or find someone desperate enough, the hair would not work. Not for my contracts. What you exchange must be something not easily reacquired—if it is possible at all. Some fundamental part of yourself that makes you real, exchanged to the Outsider to make them a bit more real. Perhaps the capacity for growing hair might work. The hair of Mister Dice was taken from a man who developed cancer; in exchange for a cure, he will never grow hair again.”

“Are you…” Erika paused, narrowing her eyes. “Are you saying bald people are less real than other people?”

The Fixer let out a long, withering sigh. “There must also be some level of equivalence, even if it isn’t exactly equal; I couldn’t exchange someone’s past trauma involving cars for eternal life. I took Leah’s life—not killed her, but literally took over, stepped into her shoes. In exchange, she received life, several years that she otherwise would not have experienced, which she kept for herself, and now additional time in this world with me.”

Erika frowned at that, figuring that something along those lines was the case. This was supposed to be a test, a little trial run. She didn’t want to give up something real, especially not if there was a chance things could go wrong due to Carter’s inexperience. Her hair wasn’t something she wanted to lose, but an inch would grow back in a month or two, and she was due for a styling anyway, so it wouldn’t be a big loss. The capacity for growing hair, however, was right out.

Thinking on The Fixer’s words for a moment, Erika decided to try again. “I played the flute for two years in elementary school and haven’t touched it since. I doubt there is much skill there, but I’m sure I still retain something. That experience and ability, I’d give it up in exchange for an equivalent increase in guitar-playing skill. Except how would we measure that? Fine. A hundred dollars, I guess. Not like I was earning money off my flute prowess any—”

“Erika,” The Fixer said, with maybe a hint of Leah in there, bleeding worry and concern into their stiff tone. “You might not ascribe much value to that, but playing that flute is a fundamental part of who you are, an experience that, in some way, shaped who you have become today.”

“That’s the point, isn’t it? Some bit of myself that marks me as real?”

“Yes, but… we don’t want to see you lose part of yourself,” they said, rubbing their temples. “You might not even realize, but your personality might shift slightly. What if that experience with the flute is why you enjoy playing the guitar today?”

Erika opened her mouth to argue, but realized that she didn’t have a great reason why that couldn’t be the case. It had been a good six years between putting down the flute and picking up the guitar, so it didn’t feel like there was any real relation, not to mention, she could barely remember her early elementary school years at all. Yet, now that they mentioned it, Erika could see how there could be some connection there.

“I’ll trade it back after?” Carter offered.

“That wouldn’t work,” Erika said absently, still thinking. “Not with money as the reward. It’s too easily acquirable.”

“Then guitar skill?”

“I doubt I can feel the difference that would be equivalent to a six-year-old’s fumbling fingers on a flute. It wouldn’t be obvious that it worked, which is the whole point of the test.”

“Never have I tried to reverse a completed contract,” The Fixer said, fingers still pressed to their temples, but no longer rubbing. “I don’t know if it would work, especially since I do not know if Carter can actually hold such concepts. Even if it did work, it is likely that Carter integrating it into himself will transform the skill slightly, meaning if he gives it back, you won’t regain everything you lost exactly. You might regain a toddler’s proficiency with a flute, but it could be just that, no experiences or feelings or anything else you might have lost in the initial exchange.”

“Why is this so complicated?” Erika grumbled, now grinding her knuckles into the side of her head. “We’re just trying to turn some abstract, esoteric idea into a commodity that we can hand back and forth.”

That got a small chuckle from The Fixer, but Carter nodded his head seriously.

“I don’t even know if I can,” Carter said, his face also twisted with concentration. “Maybe if Daddy does it first and I watch, I’ll get a better idea of how.”

Daddy. Erika stared at her brother for a long moment, wondering when he first thought that. Maybe it was because he was younger that he could call The Fixer that; Erika didn’t think she could ever view The Fixer as a real father, at least not outside sarcastic quips. It was just… weird. She hadn’t had a father her whole life; she didn’t need one now. An ally, on the other hand, was fine.

But not a father.

“It isn’t something I… we aren’t happy to entertain the idea, but at this moment, Leah is my only true guise. If something happened…”

Erika felt a bit sick, realizing just what The Fixer was implying.

He needed a new spare body—a new cover to hide inside when Leah’s mortality eventually caught up with her. Erika knew that Leah was going to die, likely before she or Carter died, since that was just how life worked. Now, it felt different; it felt sooner. Chicago was dangerous, doubly so with all the supernatural stuff, and The Mummy had already killed The Fixer’s former cover, and now Erika had just put The Fixer into The Emperor’s crosshairs.

“You’ll take us with you?” Carter asked, his tone no more unusual than any other time he spoke. Erika couldn’t tell if he realized what The Fixer was saying or if he knew and simply decided to press on.

Being the big sister, Erika forced the worry off her face, adopting a cockier posture on the couch. “You… picked up Leah at a hospital, right? Bet there are a bunch of desperate people willing to agree to anything there. Kinda gross, Dad.”

“In the early days, I was far less… human?” The Fixer cocked their head in thought before nodding in affirmation to themself. “My earlier covers have taught me a bit more about not being a soulless robot from outside reality. I generally try to offer as much as possible within the equivalency bounds of the contracts.”

“Still pretty gross, going to desperate people like that,” Erika said, trying to keep levity in her voice, though she wasn’t sure how much she was actually teasing versus genuinely disturbed. Then she remembered what actually happened with Leah. “Especially if you knock them up afterwards—”

“Erika…”

“Don’t think I forgot that you didn’t answer my question about half-siblings.” She held a glare for a long moment, earning another sigh. “So,” Erika clapped her hands together, all smiles. “A little Christmas visit to the hospital is in order?”

The Fixer pressed their lips together, holding the pose just long enough to get their disappointment across to Erika. “No. The hospital isn’t a good place if we wish for immediacy.” He paused, then added, “Moral immediacy. Very few people would be willing to barter for health that they would only enjoy for a moment before I took their lives—”

“Have you considered phrasing it differently?”

“I prefer they understand the gravity of the situation, but there is another problem: given the danger, I would prefer someone whose life I can use and discard without upsetting the moral sensibilities of myself, Leah, and you both.”

“That’s…” Erika wasn’t sure what to say to that. Taking someone’s life specifically to make them disposable felt even worse than she had been thinking.

The Fixer nodded, perhaps knowing what Erika was thinking. “Prisons, on the other hand, house a vast number of people, some of whom even belong there… some of whom even deserve worse. That removes the moral issue, or most of it, in my eyes. I understand if that is still disturbing or… gross, but I am what I am, and I can’t change that I need guises to live.”

“No, that’s…” Erika would probably be in prison if she didn’t chop up ID cards every time she made withdrawals at ATMs, so it did bother her a little, but from the way they were talking, The Fixer wasn’t talking about the perpetrators of petty theft. “I think the more disturbing thing is that you’re suggesting Carter and I now get some psycho serial killer mashed into our parents.”

“They would not be allowed the freedom that Leah enjoys, assuming I grant them the option in the first place. It is well within my power to simply take their guise, leaving them to the aether.”

“Right. That is better, I suppose,” she said with a look to Carter.

Carter shrugged. “Isn’t breaking into a prison illegal?”

“Sounds like fun,” Erika said. Aside from the obvious answer of bashing down the walls, Erika wasn’t sure how she would break into prison, but The Fixer presumably had a better plan. “We going now?”

“Tomorrow.”