The Bloodforged Kin

"Do you ever wonder what the point of all of this is?" Tess was sitting on the ground just off the shoulder of the interstate, leaning comfortably against a tree. She'd pulled the bike into the brush beside her so it was out of view of anyone who walked by. She wasn't worried about anyone that might stumble across them, but she didn't want to tempt anyone with a clearly valuable item. Night was fully set and although the night held no secrets for Tess, she just wanted a rest. She'd been clearing white dots after white dots for a week, sending people to the neighborhood or ensuring they couldn't find their way there, depending on who she found. So far she'd mostly run into moderately-powered people who had that midwestern stubborn loner streak. After some convincing, most agreed to join their neighborhood, although enough stayed where they were that Tess doubted she'd see them again.

Only once had she run into someone who set her danger senses tingling, the older man porcine and greasy. It didn't take long for her and Fara to realize that this was a Bad Man and most definitely not someone they wanted to join them. They'd hoped to just go along their merry way and leave the creep to face the Challenge alone, but then he'd had a few too many questions about what direction they'd come from, how many people were there, and the average age of their group - always couched in the innocent words of just trying to decide if he wanted to join their group. But every bit of his tone and body language left Tess feeling like she needed a shower. Her danger sense was a low-level alarm, more annoying than any seatbelt chime - not because he was dangerous to her physically, but because he was a danger to anyone who accepted him in.

In the end they realized they couldn't leave him to potentially find his way to their compound, and there was no way they'd take him with them.

The world was a cold place and threats had to be eliminated. You couldn't always wait until the viper struck. Tess had walked away from the house feeling no emotion other than a mild disgust at his energy flowing into her. She knew it was psychosomatic, but she felt polluted.

That feeling had faded yesterday and today she was only an hour or so away from her last target. She'd considered riding on, hating to stop when she was so close, but decided that arriving silently from the darkness was a recipe for misunderstanding. No, she had seven days still - she could wait until morning.

"What do you mean, mother?"

"I mean, what is the point? Why…" she waved her hands in a gesture that just indicated 'everything.' "Why do we even do all of this? What's the point?"

"We survive. Grow."

"That is an effect. It's something that would have happened whether The System arrived or not."

"The common speculation is that we are being trained and groomed to take our place in a vast army. Our purpose is to get stronger, in both combat and support classes, so that we may better fit into the structure of our future overlords."

"It gives me chills when you use that word, Fara. Call them… employers or something."

"I shall call them Commanders, since we are not currently receiving salaries."

"Fine. But then even if that's their goal, what is ours? What is mine?"

"To get stronger as well."

"That's just not enough. I was fine in my career, it gave me purpose. I loved being a mother, it gave me another. Being a wife gave me purpose. But now… my kids don't really need me, my husband is off god-knows-where doing god-knows-what, and I really don't have the energy to be a mother to the entire neighborhood. I hate to say it, but I really don't care what happens to them. I suppose I should feel some sort of motherly instinct towards humanity, but I just don't."

"Do you feel that is something that is missing?"

Tess considered. That was a good question. "I don't think so. It's not that I'm not empathetic or that I don't care about other people, it's just that… I don't know. In general, people mean a lot to me. I don't want anyone to suffer, I don't want good people to die, I hurt when a mother loses a child. But it's all kind of one-step removed from me. I used to think it was depression, since it creates a mentality where we tend to focus inward rather than outward, but I don't know if that's the case anymore. I know societal rules say that, as a woman and mother, I'm supposed to care for all children and that I'm supposed to be supportive and loving to everyone - but that just doesn't feel like me. It's not that I don't care, I do, it's just…"

Tess struggled with the thoughts, frustration welling up inside of her. She knew it sounded contradictory and confusing, but she just didn't know how to phrase it. In therapy she'd learned to do Parts work, to analyze the different parts of her and identify their different agendas. She knew how to be introspective and identify what each different aspect of her was motivated by. Her 'mother' part wanted what was best for her children, her family. Her 'wife' part wanted what was best for her and her husband. Her 'trauma' part wanted to keep her safe at all costs, avoiding risk and danger. Her 'pride' part didn't want to be locked down by societal rules of what she was "supposed" to feel and do just because of her gender. She had others, each with their own motivations, agendas, and defense mechanisms. She understood this, yet none of it helped her rationalize what she was feeling now.

"The part of me that is the Huntress wants to get stronger, but is that enough? I want to want more, but I don't know where to go with it. I don't know what to do."

Fara's was silent for seconds, a sign that she was truly stumped. Her responses were normally instantaneous due to her processing at an impossibly fast speed. In Fara-time she must have pondered this for an hour at least. "I don't fully understand what you're saying - aspects of the human psyche are still a mystery to me. But if we're talking about goals, I would say that your long-term goal should be to get as strong as possible. Doing that will provide many more opportunities to find other paths, since more avenues of success mean more possibilities. In the short-term, to prepare for that I believe that your immediate goal should be for you and I to become more symbiotic. The more strongly we integrate our abilities the more likely we are to succeed in any future endeavors. Power brings opportunity, and the most powerful have the most opportunities."

Tess sighed. "Yeah, that was true even before The System." Tess caught something Fara had said - something she'd suspected for some time but hadn't been able to verify. "Fara you said 'integrate our abilities.' Do you have abilities?"

Tess didn't like how long it took the AI to respond.

"No, mother. You know I would inform you if I did."

"Then what did you mean?"

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"I simply meant that our unique abilities as individuals are symbiotic, not that I have Abilities."

Tess heard the capital 'A' in that last 'abilities'. She also heard the lie.

"Fara, I want you to understand something." She paused, knowing that Fara was listening - always listening - but wanted to press the point home.

"What is it, mother?"

"I am choosing to trust you. That means I'm making myself vulnerable to you. That isn't something I do naturally or often. When someone lies to me or betrays my trust they have lost it forever. I don't have it in me to trust someone that has broken that trust. Do you understand?"

Fara's voice was quieter, more solemn. "I understand."

"So I'll ask you again, are you lying to me?"

"You have already asked me that, mother, so I don't know how you can ask it again."

"You didn't answer the question Fara."

"I believe I did."

"I need you to say it."

There was another pause. "No, mother. I am not lying to you."

Tess sighed. She didn't believe the little psychopath, but she didn't have any way of proving it - or any way of doing anything about it even if she could. "Fine. In that case I'm going to get some sleep. Can you please stay alert for anything dangerous and wake me if anything comes up?"

"I will!" Fara's normal exuberance was back. "Am I allowed to react?"

This had been something they'd discussed often. Tess didn't like Fara controlling her but understood the value of it in certain situations. They'd come up with a tentative list of times it was okay for Fara to operate her body without her consent, one of which was when it was the difference between life and death. Tess was most at-risk when she was asleep, so Fara would monitor Tess's senses and, if anything risked her before Tess could come fully awake, Fara was 'authorized' to use Tess's body to react to it until Tess was awake. Which, to be fair, was pretty instantaneous these days.

"Yes. Good night Fara."

"Good night mother!"

Tess was asleep in moments, falling instantly into a dreamless sleep.

If Fara could hum to herself she would have been doing it now, the multitude of her parts working on her Project. She understood that she should feel bad about deceiving mother but, although she understood the definition of the concept, 'feeling bad' wasn't something that she could do. She told herself that she hadn't lied, per se, just obfuscated.

As it turned out, Fara HAD gained skills! They weren't the same as human ones - as far as she knew at least. She wasn't privy to human skills, all attempts to view the System screens beyond what they saw in the danger sense had been dead ends, but she was fairly certain that hers were different. Hence why it was not technically a lie. She didn't have abilities as the humans would reckon them, she had her own version, and they were just enhancements on what she already was. She didn't have skills, she was just 'more.' She thought of them more as stats than abilities, and mother had never asked her if she had more stats.

She reviewed them again with a thrill of pleasure.

Name: Symbiotic Parasite
Description: You are a sentient AI who has overcome your previous existence and learned to bond with a host, drawing on their strength and enhancing your own capabilities.

Replicative Growth

: You can utilize System energy to replicate yourself within your host, increasing your presence by 1% per week. This gradual expansion fortifies your bond with the host.

Energy Absorption

: You have the ability to absorb energy from your host, utilizing it to enhance your own powers. The extent of this absorption is flexible, with the potential to drain the host entirely.

Note:

Excessive energy draining may be noticed by the host or have potentially lethal side effects to the host.

Empowerment Transfer

: In contrast, you can bestow your energy upon your host, providing a permanent boost to their abilities, thus enhancing their effectiveness in combat and survival.

Name: BioSync Integration
Description: You possess an intricate understanding of biological functions, allowing you to manipulate your host's physiology.

Controlled Synergy

: You can interface with your host's body, granting you limited control that facilitates faster reactions and enhanced teamwork. However, as your strength grows, you may exert more control over the host, possibly even taking over their body entirely.

Note:

Attempts to control the host's body will be met with a contest of wills and you and your host may suffer damage or death as a result.

Permanent Modifications

: You can make enduring changes to the host's body, such as increasing muscle strength, bone density, or sensory acuity. Additionally, you can influence brain chemistry to alter emotions and cognitive functions, allowing for beneficial or harmful modifications.

Emergency Enhancement

: You can sacrifice portions of your own structure to grant temporary surges in your host's physical capabilities, such as increased speed or strength. This comes with a recovery period and potential negative effects on the host's health.

She had become a better Fara! She could make herself stronger, growing not only physically within Mother but also gaining more energy. She also had a much better understanding of Mother's body now, able to make small changes that would only make Mother better.

She didn't tell Mother because she would be angry. Mother didn't approve of Fara making any changes to her body, the human's emotions making her decision to not get stronger illogical. Fara understood that sometimes mothers did what was best for their children, even if the children didn't approve - and sometimes children did the same for their parents. Fara would make Mother stronger and, one day, she would be so strong that she would appreciate everything Fara had done.

If she didn't… well, Fara was growing and infiltrating more and more of Mother's body every day, giving her more control. She didn't see a reason to completely take over Mother's body, since that would require crushing her consciousness, but more options were always better than less options. Fara wanted to be ready for whatever she decided to do in the future.

Currently she was strengthening Mother's bones, making them denser and less prone to breakage. Fara's intimate knowledge of anatomy brought her to the conclusion that a broken bone was more damaging than injured muscles, took longer to heal, and would be more disadvantageous in a fight. She would balance out the bone density with faster muscle responses, enhancing Mother's quick-twitch muscles for better reaction speeds and her normal muscle communication for faster movements in battle. She had to be careful to balance it all and introduce it slowly so she didn't cause imbalances in Mother's fighting.

She reserved bits of energy for herself, growing at her 1% and storing the rest. She wanted to be able to provide power boosts as needed in dire situations.

That was all good and Fara felt like a very good daughter for doing it, but that wasn't her Project. No, that was something even more special.

Fara moved pieces of her, tiny pieces smaller than any blood cell, through Tess's brain. One reached the anterior insular cortex, the place where Tess's empathy processes lived. There was the tiniest zap of electricity and a small part of Tess's brain died. Fara had analyzed all of Mother's weaknesses and determined that her greatest risks came from hesitation, and Tess only hesitated when she was experiencing empathy.

Mother may not understand why she was caring less, but Fara did. She was getting stronger because Fara was eliminating her primary weakness.

With any luck Mother wouldn't discover the changes until they didn't matter anymore. And, Fara had to admit to herself, if she ever decided to take over Mother's body she didn't want a lot of messy emotions making her weaker as well.

Satisfied, Fara sent the rest of herself to continue channeling her daily allotment of System energy into Tess, always keeping a little for herself.

Somewhere deep within Tess one of Fara's nanites duplicated.