Alter: Olivia

Local Network World: 0098

Dates: 13/07/2025

Quorum

“So that’s it. That’s what happened.” Kade concluded. Silence. The Alters stood around Kade in a semi-circle.

“You killed Seven.” Ari stated. Kade shrugged and nodded.

“Was that not what we were going for?”

“No, I think they mean…you killed her, just like that?” Tash raised a hand, snapping their fingers. Kade nodded.

“I kinda forgot we were a theatre-kid for the better part of a decade.” Olivia shook her head. “So dramatic.”

“But we’re all okay with it…?” Kade asked. Olivia watched her looking nervously down at her hands, picking at her thumb and twisting one of her rings around.

“I think we’re just…impressed? A little shocked that it’s all over?” Olivia said, looking around for confirmation, receiving various nods.

“Honestly, it’s actually pretty funny from a certain perspective.” Ari noted.

“I mean, we’ve seen her destroy worlds, kill our friends, and you literally just…Thanos’d her.” Maya summarised.

“That’s the one,” Ari pointed to Maya: “That’s the perspective where it’s funny.”

“What about the other thing?” Kade asked. “My whole…proposal? I had to think on my feet, but…I did tell Cee I needed a quorum or we wouldn’t go ahead.”

“Kind of feels like it’s this or…war. Whatever that would look like.” Kira contributed.

“It’ll be war eventually.” Olivia observed.

“That was my thinking.” Kade nodded. “Seven was wrong about a lot of things, but she wasn’t wrong about Helios. I saw it myself. They want to force us into service, use us to make the Multiverse what they think it should be. They created us on accident, and they think we’re theirs to use. Our existence guarantees there’s a fight coming, but if it has to happen, I want time. And if we can, I want us to stop them from being able to use Alters against us. I’m not even thinking of the possibility they might be able to hurt us, honestly, I just…I won’t hurt more of me. I can’t stand the idea of more of me getting hurt.”

“Agreed.” Ari said.

“What does it feel like?” Sage asked quietly: “Your power?”

“It feels like…nothing.” Kade admitted, looking down at her hands. “Just like…flexing muscles I didn’t know I had. And once I know they’re there, it’s nothing to just…use them. It feels like the only thing holding me back was that I didn’t know I could do these things. With reading people, shielding myself, shockwaves…I just thought about it happening and it happened. Simple as taking a step, or reaching out and grabbing something.”

“Do you think our powers can get stronger too?” Sage asked. Kade shrugged.

“Now that I’ve told you what I know, I don’t know any more than you do. But…we know the mechanism that powers us, now, so…we can use that. I didn’t know I could do any of the things I just managed to do. Now I do. I feel like it’s all part of the same thing, so…maybe?”

“You did good. You did really, really good.” Olivia murmured, stepping forward and pulling Kade into a tight hug. “In the least condescending way possible, I’m really fucking proud of you.”

“Thanks for trying to save me.” Kade smiled at her as they parted.

“Thanks for actually saving all of us.” Ari contributed.

“You’re very welcome,” Kade shrugged, looking self-conscious. “So what do you guys think? Should we do this? Detente? I’m not going to push for anything that we don’t all agree on.” She assured them.

“Show of hands?” Sage looked around. Without hesitation, they all raised their hands.

“Looks like you’ve got your quorum.” Kira smiled. As if on queue, the Alters peeled off, turning to start walking slowly towards the elevators. Olivia and Kade hung back slightly.

“So. That’s it then. Guess we’ll never find out why she called herself ‘Seven’,” Olivia sighed.

“Oh, I know why she called herself that.” Kade smiled innocently.

“Huh?”

“I connected some dots. We were, according to her, one selfish reaction away from being the same person, after all. As soon as I found that out…”

“So…why?” Olivia asked, her brow furrowing.

“Honestly? Still working out if I feel like sharing.”

“Oh fuck you…”

“You want it so much, come get it.” Kade gestured with a little flourish of her wrist in the direction of her face, as if offering up her brain on a platter.

“You know I won’t.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s funny, the extent to which I was thinking about your power wrong. Now I can hear everyone, it’s just…like an extension of myself. And you have to pick apart your thoughts from their thoughts, which is effort…and digging is effort, but so is all the passive absorption. How are you not exhausted? Like…all the time?”

“Have you met me and my drinking problem?” Olivia raised an eyebrow.

“Fair, I guess. And look, it’s not like I’m trying to be cryptic about the Seven thing. It just feels very…loaded, right now. It feels like maybe it says something about me, rather than just her. That name…it was something she lived in. A mythology she built around herself. I don’t know if I’m ready to explain, because saying it out loud sort of feels like…prophecy.”

“Which, for someone trying not to be cryptic, is just about the most cryptic shit I have ever heard in my entire fucking life, Kade.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I’m gonna tell you, Liv. Just not today. Maybe not for awhile. I think, for once, I actually need to take my time working through this rather than just stuffing it in a box and throwing away the key and pretending that makes it all fine.”

“You seem…different, y’know?”

“I think I might be. Now I’ve just gotta work out how.” Kade nodded.

“Mmm. Cryptic.” Olivia smiled, shaking her head.

“C’mon, let’s go.” Kade smiled, walking backward and away from her.

Handover

Olivia scanned around the room. It was a surreal tableau. The long, heavy wooden table was polished to a reflective finish, almost glowing with rich oranges and browns. The head of the table was centred and directly in front of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Brisbane, the vista - uninterrupted by nearby buildings - seeming to look down from significantly higher up than Olivia would have expected from the seventh floor. On the right hand side of the table sat Kira, Ari, Tash, and Sage. On the left, it was Maya, then herself, then Kade. At the head of the table sat Cee, her perfect posture allowing her to gaze imperiously down at them all, seeming slightly elevated above them. At the far end of the table, closest to the door they had entered through, sat Lacey, quietly spinning in her swivel chair, one leg folded over the other under her long skirt, distractedly focussed on her phone. Cee had just finished running through a high-level overview of the Local Network’s creation. Leaning back in her chair, she clacked her perfectly manicured nails - French tips flecked with a minimalist dusting of gold, ending in gently curved points - against the table rhythmically.

“So we were right.” Olivia stated coldly, breaking the silence.

“In reference to…?” Cee asked.

“The Local Network. We were right about the actual multiverse being much bigger than this.”

“By definition, the Multiverse is infinite.” Cee replied, her left eyebrow raising into a patronising arch.

“Oh, wow,” Olivia cocked her head to the side. “I’m super curious: how do you manage to pull off a facial expression like that with that volume of botox in your fucking forehead?”

“Fuck,” Lacey snorted from the far end of the table, earning herself a glare from Cee. “Oh lighten up. They’re us. It’s such a weird situation. Chill out, have a little fun with it.”

“I love your skirt, by the way,” Maya leaned towards Lacey, propping her chin up on the palm of her hand, her elbow resting on the boardroom table.

“Oh my god, thanks so much! it’s one of my favourites.” Lacey beamed back at her.

“Maya: this bitch had us at gunpoint not thirty fucking minutes ago.” Ari reminded her.

“Doesn’t make the skirt any less cute,” Maya shrugged. “What’s your deal, anyway? With Helios?”

“Oh, I run reconnaissance missions and stuff. We go and catalogue worlds, look into new tech…that kind of thing. Love it. Dream job.” Lacey managed to turn a nod into a slightly dance-like full body motion, smiling broadly at Maya.

“Kind of like Stargate?”

“It’s exactly like Stargate. I love that show.” Lacey nodded emphatically.

“Me too. But just SG-1, I was less of a fan of Atlantis. Much less of a fan of Universe.”

“How the hell did we not know that you were actually kind of nerdy until after you had a five-alarm meltdown?” Tash muttered.

“‘Cause we never ask each other things.” Maya clarified. “But yeah. I contain multitudes.”

“I like you.” Lacey grinned. “You’re fun. We should hang out at some point,”

“Which, unfortunately, won’t be possible since the lot of you are getting the fuck out of here and leaving the Local Network to us, no?” Kade directed her comment towards Cee.

“Correct, Kadence. Thank you for manoeuvring us back to the issue at hand.” Cee levelled a sneer towards Lacey who simply rolled her eyes, dropping her phone on the table in front of her from a pointed few inches of height to ensure it clattered loudly, before folding her arms across her chest and going back to spinning in her chair. “As per our agreement with Kadence - "

“ - With all of us.” Tash interjected.

“Of course: as per our agreement with all of you,” Cee continued in a slightly more exasperated tone: “Helios will relinquish control of the Local Network project to yourselves on the proviso that our data collection needs continue to be met.”

“What do your data collection needs entail?” Kira asked.

“We will need access to various worlds for the purpose of gathering resonance readings. These activities will be regular and varied. I would suggest the nomination of specific representatives of your…’group’ to work with us since, as Kadence has specified, your collective preference is for these activities to be supervised.”

“I mean…the way I heard it, it sounded less like Kade had a preference and more like she gave you an order, but hey, spin it however you want to.” Olivia shrugged, leaning back in her chair. Kade smirked at her before turning to Cee and replying:

“Exodus can handle that. If you guys are okay with it?” She turned to Ari.

“Sure. If you want us to handle it, we’ll handle it.”

“I do. You’re the best suited to it, since you’re wanting to…I dunno…travel more?” Ari looked over at Tash, who, in turn, looked to Sage for confirmation. Sage shrugged and nodded.

“Suits us just fine.” Tash agreed. “Quick vote?” The Alters all raised their hands. “Cool, done.”

“So how big is it?” Olivia asked.

“Pardon?” Cee looked over at her.

“The Local Network. Obviously.”

“The Local Network is comprised of one thousand, seven hundred and fifty-two parallel worlds.”

“Universes, technically,” Lacey amended.

“At least one of those Alters is going to have to be straight…” Olivia muttered under her breath.

“Can you stop with that?” Kade leaned over to elbow her in the ribs.

“Ow. Also, no.”

“That’s a lot of real estate to cover. What guarantee do we have that you will actually leave all of our worlds alone?” Ari asked.

“Me.” Kade stated bluntly. “Because Cee knows what will happen if we catch them violating the agreement. And she knows that, after dealing with Damien’s ‘insurance policy’, it’s taking literally everything in me to not wipe Helios from the face of the Multiverse, deal or no.”

“Jesus. You guys must be fucking terrified of her.” Olivia muttered.

“Are you familiar with the concept of a cost-benefit analysis, Olivia?” Cee smiled wanly.

“Are you familiar with the concept of posturing, Cee? Even if I couldn’t read you, you’re utterly fucking transparent.”

“Can you blame us for being scared? She’s fucking incredible,” Lacey laughed. “You should’ve seen that fight in the pocket dimension, she took out this giant robot thing like one of the X-men fighting a Sentinel, just absolutely blasted its entire leg off, and - "

“ - Seriously? Is there any way we could see that? That’s awesome - ” Maya gushed.

“ - Yeah, totally, I have a file I can send you with the whole thing in 4k…” Lacey reached for her phone on the table in front of her.

“This is super tonally inconsistent, guys. Read the room, y’know?” Ari interrupted. “We’re having like…a very serious, high stakes discussion here?”

“Just saying: your friend is a badass.” Lacey shrugged, putting her phone down and holding up her hands apologetically.

“Irregardless…” Cee returned her attention to Kade: “We will honour the agreement. Data collection within the parameters of the Local Network is our remit. Any other initiatives are…” She paused momentarily: “were…ancillary. So long as we are able to continue our work without interruption, we have no reason to interfere with your…'sovereignty’.”

“Kade mentioned that you’d offered resources and technology?” Kira spoke up.

“Correct. I suspect a seperate, more tailored discussion would be suitable to confirming what you need from us.”

“We don’t need anything from you. This is about what you’re offering to give us for not destroying your little project and going to war with you.” Olivia threw back at her.

“Perhaps that discussion should involve a smaller, more specialised working group.” Cee mused.

“Does anyone have any problems with Kira and Maya taking point on that side of things…?” Kade asked the room.

“Are you sure? After everything that’s happened recently?” Kira asked uncertainly.

“We can’t agree to forgive you and then exclude and distrust you,” Kade reasoned. “You’re one of us. You’re also really good with logistics, and, for better or worse you’ve been dealing with their bullshit for longer than any of us. Can we vote on it?” Kade asked, looking around the room. The rest of the Alters raised their hands. “Settled, then.” Kade smiled.

“Quaint.” Cee smiled insincerely. Kade glared at her.

“So. How about captives?”

“Alters sixty-five, one fifty-seven, and nine thirteen - “ Cee began, before noticing Lacey gesturing emphatically at her, holding her hand up to her neck and making a swiping motion, a pained grimace on her face: “ - Ahh. Apologies. Alters sixty-five and nine thirteen are being prepared for release into your custody. As per your request, there will be a brief delay while we…finalise their off-boarding.” The room fell silent.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Ari queried.

“It means that they’ve drilled holes in their skulls to control them, and I told them to fucking fix it and give us back our people.” Kade explained quietly. “And the reason there’s two of them and not three is because one of them begged me to kill her after Helios tried to use her to take me prisoner.”

“What the actual fuck? Why are we not killing these people?” Olivia interjected.

“I think this is why they call it a Cold War. As opposed to like…a Cold Pizza Party?” Maya shrugged. “We hate them. They hate us. But the stakes are too high to actually fight.”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Kade acknowledged.

“Was there anything further, or does this conclude our business?” Cee asked.

“If there’s anything else on your side relating to tech or resources or intel, reach out to Kira or Maya. Anything related to data collection, it’s Ari, Tash or Sage. Anything else - including your prisoners - me or Olivia.” Kade summarised.

“Noted.” Cee confirmed with a shallow nod. “And on our side, you’ve requested Damien as a liaison. He will be in touch to discuss communications moving forward, as well as presenting you with a write-up of terms for you to provide final confirmation on.”

“And the Helios Foundation buildings?” Kade asked. Cee looked momentarily confused.

“Oh. That is entirely up to you. As we are vacating the Local Network, our offices are now under your jurisdiction. Damien will be able to provide you with further details on the amenities.” Cee explained calmly. The entire room fell silent as she waited for a response.

“I’m sorry, what?” Tash stared at Cee. “Every building? In every world?”

“Universe, technically - "

“ - Shut up, Lacey.” Tash cut her off without looking away from Cee. “Did I get that right?”

“Yes.” Cee met her gaze. Tash sat back in their seat, speechless.

“What the fuck are we meant to do with them?” Olivia murmured. Cee sighed.

“As mentioned, Olivia…that would be for yourselves to determine. Perhaps you could take one of those ‘votes’ you seem so very fond of.” She suggested with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out,” Kade finally managed, still - like the others around the table - in something of a state of shock. Cee slowly got to her feet, gathering up some papers and manila folders from the desk in front of her. Lacey and the Alters followed suit, beginning to quietly file out of the room - Lacey grabbing Maya aside, pulling something up on her phone to show her - leaving just Kade, Cee, and Olivia behind.

“Are you guys coming, or what?” Ari asked, poking their head back into the room.

“Give us five minutes, okay?” Olivia glanced back at them. Ari shrugged and left. Standing at the end of the table, the three eyed one another.

“I recall you alluding to, during our initial conversation, a lack of experience regarding winning.” Cee noted, leafing through her files. “How does it feel?”

“This isn’t winning. You know it. I know it. They all know it, too.” Kade slowly folded her arms across her chest. “Conflict is inevitable. Helios is a blight. They have a vision for what the Multiverse should be, but from where I’m standing, all they’re doing is running around, playing with forces they don’t understand and can’t control, creating monsters and victims.”

“And which category would you identify with, Kadence?”

“I don’t know, Cadence…how about you? You think you’re above us. Because you and Lacey aren’t from Local Network worlds. Because you were with Helios before any of this even happened. But you might want to unpack that assumption a little. Cause when I look at you…what I keep seeing is someone who was assigned to a project once it was already underway, specifically because an unexpected side-effect of that project had been the coincidental creation of a thousand or so anomalies who looked and sounded just…like…you. You keep thinking about it. It’s clearly on your mind. I feel like…you haven’t quite figured out why. What Helios’s angle was. Whether it means that they trust you, or that they very much don’t: that our existence makes them not trust you with anything but us.”

“Fucking telepaths…” Cee muttered under her breath: “Don’t flatter yourself, Kadence. I am nothing like you or your Alters.”

“Yeah. You didn’t get any powers, just for a start,” Olivia noted.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Kade shrugged “But it’s what your bosses think. They think you’re one of us. When the war comes - and it will, Helios will make sure of it - the rules change. You’ll be wearing their enemies’ face. And just to be clear: I’m not asking for anything from you. Dunno if I’d accept it if you offered. But you should definitely think about it a little. What do you think, Cee? When the war comes, do you and Lacey get the wall?”

“I appreciate your concern.”

“She’s not concerned.” Olivia observed. “She’s queuing up an ‘I told you so’ for later.”

“She’s right, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” Kade nodded.

“I want you to hear me extremely clearly when I say this, Kadence: The Multiverse is much larger and more frightening than you currently have the capacity to fathom. For all intents and purposes, the Local Network is an estuary. Safe, warm, shallow water. The only predators you are likely to encounter here are roughly the same size and shape as yourself. You may be labouring under the illusion - reasonable, given your understanding of the situation - that you are a larger, more significant fish than you actually are due to your lack of exposure to the broader ecosystem. Read me, Kadence. See for yourself what’s out there. I will think you through it.”

As Kadence focussed on Cee, Olivia did the same. It was almost as if Cee was pushing her thoughts at them; the snippets knitting together into a blur of images and memories. Amongst the cacophony, Olivia managed to focus on several vignettes that were particularly strong. She could see a cityscape from a distance, subsumed by what looked like grey coral, growing before her eyes, spreading like cancer. She could see a woman - pretty…short and brunette; someone Cee had known well and for a long time - smiling sadly, before…slowly, without any visual change, ceasing to be recognisable…her contours, her existence, simply becoming null through Cee’s eyes. Olivia could see, from above, a city collapsing into a vast sinkhole where - through the skittering debris and buildings falling into rubble under their own weight - she swore she could see hints of jagged, misshapen teeth. Olivia saw, from Cee’s perspective, looking up into the sky, a vast semi-circular object bristling with valves and fixtures cutting through a bank of clouds that slipped over its surface like a billowing sheet, hanging menacingly in the sky above. Around Cee, people screamed and fled. Olivia forced the thoughts away - cut the connection as best as she could - overwhelmed. Kade looked over at her, eyes wide.

“That it?” Olivia asked, attempting a neutral, unphased expression. Cee rolled her eyes.

“No, Olivia. That is not it. These are simply…some examples to take under advisement. Of our…day-to-day, as it were, outside of the Local Network. And in that context, Helios is one of many - infinite, technically - groups attempting to bring order to the chaos, to protect our worlds from that which encroaches from the deeper, stranger places within the Multiverse. And of those forces of order…we are far from the worst, by any metric you may wish to employ. You may see us as enemies; we may see you as irritants…but ultimately, we are the bulwark between your worlds, and our actual enemies.” Without another word, Cee brushed past them, walking briskly down the length of the table and out of the room.

“I really don’t like her.” Kade muttered.

“Neither me.” Olivia agreed. “How’re you doing?”

“Oh, you know me,” Kade laughed nervously. “Barely holding it together.”

“Well, you’re making it look good.”

“Thank you. But uh…once the adrenaline wears off, I think it’s gonna be a pretty bad time. We should probably go get a drink.”

“Yeah, I could definitely use one.”

“Oh really? Genuinely shocked by that information.” Kade grinned over at Olivia, who just silently flipped her off with a wry little half-smile. Kade paused, before walking over to the windows at the end of the boardroom table, looking pensively out over Brisbane City. “I mean…it is scary. The stuff in her head. Did it scare you?”

“Confused and overwhelmed me, moreso.” Olivia shrugged. “I feel like, to a certain degree, it was some shock-and-awe bullshit, y’know? Like it was real, sure, but also…she wants us scared. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that that bitch has never said a single non-strategic word in her fucking life.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much my takeaway as well.” Kade looked down at her feet. “Did you see that girl? The one who…changed?”

“Yeah. Eerie.”

“I got this sense that she…slipped through the cracks. Like Cee didn’t intend to show us that.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“How could I be? You know how your own power works. Bits and pieces, right? But it felt less…directed. Like it was just floating around in there. Important to her. Deeply so.”

“I know what you mean. For reference…when I talk about ‘points of divergence’, that’s what I mean. Things that are so big and so loud in someone’s mind that they’re never not close to the surface. There was a lot of other stuff going on, but now that you’re mentioning it…it might be something on that level. So…guess we’ll file that away for later. Call it leverage or whatever?” Olivia suggested. Kade nodded, before frowning, looking back at Olivia.

“Liv, have you read anything from me yet? Since I got back, I mean. Did you see the thing with that girl they had prisoner?”

“Just snippets. I saw her. Heard what she asked for.”

“You know I’m not gonna let them get away with it, right? Even if, in the end, it means opening a door to something…bigger? Worse?”

“I do.”

“I just can’t leave it like this. Even if this whole…detente thing could hold. Not after what they did to her. Not after what happened to Alice and Faith. Even Seven: who could she have been if not for Helios? And Anna, and Lee, and Kier…I didn’t know them, but I see the mark it left on all of you. And…fuck it, y’know what? Us. Me and you. What we’ve been through, what we’ve seen? They’re gonna pay for that too. I can’t leave it alone. I won’t.”

“I know.”

“You’re with me on this?”

“Every fucking step of the way, Kade. I’ve got you.”

“Even if it means - "

“ - I said I’ve got you. The others do, too. I mean, we’ll play it smart, obviously. Make sure we’re prepared. But we’re all on the same page, here. The reasons you can’t let it go are the reasons we can’t, either. And we have time, now. We have resources. We have a thousand Alters - more - out there that we can bring in. Are we meant to pretend like somehow Helios are able to fight those battles but we’re inherently not? We’ll close the gap on Helios and beat them at their own game. And then, if we need to fight someone else, I guess we’ll do that too. We’re finally in a place where we aren’t just playing defence.”

“‘Playing defence’.” Kade laughed bitterly. “Is that what we’re calling what happened with Seven?”

“Well yeah. Cause the less euphemistic version of that sentiment is super fucking depressing.”

“True.”