"And what the hell are you doing here with her?" Juhi says, twisting to face Travis. "Don't you think for a second I forgive your part in this."
Crap, that one stings. If he was wondering why he hadn't heard from Karla's sister, he just got his reason.
"I understand that you're upset," Travis says. "But I swear I'm here for a very good reason."
"Yes, little lamb, and if you simmer down you'll see I've got quite the journalistic opportunity for you," Veta cuts in. "For it seems that we three musketeers have at least one common goal right now, taking down The Meek movement and President Victon."
Hearing this, Juhi pauses.
"I know you've been doing some deep undercover reporting against The Meek movement," Veta adds. "You and your sister always had different ideas of what constituted journalistic integrity, didn't you?"
"Don't you ever talk to me about my sister, you witch," Juhi says, breaking free of Travis grasp. Travis moves to stop her, but she just crosses her arms and looks from him to Veta.
"You had better explain yourselves. Quickly."
Ten minutes later....
Veta has been walking Juhi through everything she has already told Travis. While Juhi hasn't exploded into another rage, she still looks very unsettled. Travis can't really blame her, because they are equally unsettled.
Being here in this place turns his stomach for more reasons than he cares to count. His eyes have been wandering around Veta's base and he finds that he's most creeped out by those pictures of him lining the walls.
Then his eyes settle on a cage in the corner and they nearly bulge out of his head, because sleeping inside is what looks like a pterodactyl-parrot dino-hybrid. The last time he might have seen a pterrot like that was in Trackr's apartment… could it possibly be the same one?
He begins to sort through the many reasons that keeping a dino-hybrid in a lair like this is insane, but he's interrupted as Juhi finally speaks.
"So why do you need me?" she asks flatly.
"Well, you see," Veta starts. "I've done some things in my past that might make a select few question the integrity of my word…."
Travis eyes meet Juhi's and he actually seems to share a moment, that's an understatement. Ignoring this, Veta moves on.
"I need you to use your investigative Powers to take Travis through my memories and let him see for himself that I'm not lying about any of this."
"Wait, you can do that?" Travis asks, turning to Juhi.
"Yes," Juhi says, without followup.
No wonder both of these sisters became reporters, Karla had a full range of photographic and tracking Powers, but it sounds like Juhi's Powers go even deeper than that.
"Who better to verify my story than someone who hates my guts, has no incentive to lie on my behalf, and who Travis is inclined to trust," Veta finishes.
Juhi turns to Travis and Travis sigh. Juhi looks like entering Veta's mind is the last thing she'd ever want to do, and Travis don't disagree.
"I'm…ugh, look, I'm sorry I brought you here against your will," Veta says, gnashing her teeth like she's forcing every word through her lips. "But you're free to go whenever you please. Our time is short, so if you're not going to help…"
Juhi clenches her jaw, still looking undecided. Travis considers what Veta has just said—if he could really verify that Veta is telling the truth about Miss Artillery, that would be one less concern he has to worry about moving forward.
"If we find out Veta is lying, I'll kill her for you." Travis say.
Juhi closes her eyes, obviously having an internal conversation with herself. Then she opens her eyes and looks directly at Travis.
"Fine, I'll do it," she finally says. "But on one condition, after we're done, I want continued and unfettered access to report on your progress."
"You know we're fugitives now," Travis say. "Associating with us will—"
"I can take care of myself," Juhi cuts in. "Do we have a deal?"
Travis looks at Veta and thinks, "What choice do I have?" So him and Veta both nod.
"Then let's get to work," Juhi finishes.
Travis sits in a circle with Juhi and Veta, all holding hands.
"Everyone close your eyes and prepare your minds," Juhi says. "This isn't an exact science, but if Veta focuses on the right memories, we should see only what we need to inside her thoughts. Are we ready?"
"Yes," Travis say, suddenly experiencing a rush of dizziness.
He felt turned upside down, so he force his eyelids shut until the spinning stops. When it does, he opens his eyes to find that he's in a submarine, one that sits cracked open on an airstrip.
He looks around and realizes he's in some kind of abandoned military base. Though "looking" isn't quite what he should call it. His body isn't actually here, but he's somehow still aware of his surroundings. He feels like some kind of ghost, incorporeal and floating, and he can sense Juhi and Veta's presence nearby, too.
Then he sees the actual, physical Veta across the inside of the land-wrecked submarine and remembers he's witnessing one of her memories.
"This will do quite nicely, don't you think, Terry?" Veta sings, twirling to pet a pterrot, which must be the same one he saw in her Fringe lair just now—it has the same raw pink skin interspersed with colorful feathers. Terry the pterrot screeches and tries to scratch Veta with a clawed wing, but her wingspan is too short and Veta easily sidesteps the swipe.
"Who'd have thought my Death Wave would clear out so much lovely abandoned lairspace?" Veta continues, while Terry limps alongside. Terry doesn't look so good, like she's sick or something. Travis is not surprised—if Veta is in the Big Sur wasteland, the levels of radiation here are bound to be highly toxic. Though he's not sure why it doesn't affect Veta…maybe she is somehow immune, since her Powers partially fueled the whole thing?
"Squawk. Warspace. Artillerywar," Terry suddenly croaks. "Chickensblood. Squawk."
"What a stunning poem, my dear Terry!" Veta chimes. "You are without doubt the best addition to my Fade castoff collection!"
Veta smiles as she sits down at a computer console and Travis sees that she has customized the panel. There are several re-rigged screens and processors attached to the console, probably salvaged from other abandoned crafts on this base.
And he can't help but notice Veta's infamous Death Wave suit in the corner, which he now realize has a holo-illusion panel attached to the front, simulating a gaping chest wound. So that's how Veta faked her death…
Like mother, like daughter, he suppose.
"What a truly fitting home indeed, Terry," Veta hums, petting Terry's feathered neck as she perches beside the computer console. Terry tries to snap at Veta's fingers with her long beak, but Veta just dodges her attempts absent-mindedly.
"A military base befitting a queen, the perfect place to plot some fresh scheme. And since we both know my Powers only operate at their peak when I'm waging war," Veta says, looking down at her console controls. "Let's start one anew, shall we?"
"Squawk. Warlife. Murderwar."
Travis turns and sees Juhi standing next to him, then looks down and sees his own body has appeared as well.
"Wait a moment," Juhi says. "We shouldn't be physically present. And where is Vet—"
But Juhi is interrupted as the missiles all shift and lock in position—pointed at them.
"Nobody's supposed to be here," a robotic voice announces over a loudspeaker. "Gimme one reason to stay here and I'll turn right back around."
"Oh my god," Juhi whispers.
"Uh, Juhi?" Travis ask. "What is this?"
"I saw that Veta's mind was fractured when we entered it, but I didn't think it would…" Juhi trails off, her eyes growing wide as she looks around. "I think Veta's mind is booby trapped, somehow. That slugging witch should have warned us that—"
"What do we do?" Travis interrupt, sensing that things are about to get very nasty, very quickly.
"I think…" Juhi starts. "Okay, Veta wants us here so we see certain memories. So if we finish the tour according to her desires, her mind should let us go. But if we enter uninvited areas like this, we're going to have to clear them by tricking her mind into believing we belong here. Then we should be able to move on. I think."
"And if we don't?" Travis ask.
"Prepare to die," Veta's mindvoice chimes in.
"Uh, what she said," Juhi says, backing away. "I don't think we can actually die, since we're not really here. But we can definitely get lost, bouncing from broken memory to broken memory forever."
Travis is not quite sure how any of this is possible, but he also don't have time to work it all out right now. Because being trapped and tortured in Veta's crazy mind forever sounds like the very definition of hell.
"I'm going to try and repeat one of Terry's croak-words." Travis say.
"Go ahead, it should work, I think." Juhi say.
Travis tries to repeat one of Terry's croak-words, paying careful attention to recreate an exact one-word phrase, "Murderwar."
There's a deafening screech and he feels himself rocket upwards. Juhi screams beside him and he braces himself, but when he finally stops reeling, he find that he's incorporeal again.
He must have cleared that first mindtrap to view another memory.
Veta sits in front of her submarine console again, looking up at a screen that shifts to display Mayor Victon in a hotel suite. As soon as the picture becomes clear, though, the screen shorts back out.
"How do they keep finding ways to jam my surveillance signals?" Veta screams, looking exhausted and overtaxed. Junk food wrappers litter the floor of the submarine and it looks like she hasn't showered in days.
"I suppose I'll just have to invent another," She sighs before going back to work on the console, waves of clear energy emanating from her hands as she does.
Travis realizes that he has a few seconds, he decide to survey the submarine. The first thing he notice is a collage on the nearest wall, which is a combination of colorful holo-projections and printouts.
Anti-Unique plot.
Obviously Veta was tracking all of this for her latest plot.
Though, not surprisingly, it looks like the work of a crazy person. It probably only makes any sense to Travis because he lived it all.
"Squawk. Wardeath. Chemokill," Terry chokes out. Travis turns to a cage beside the console and sees that Terry looks even worse than Veta. Her cage floor is lined with shed feathers and a trickle of blood falls from her left eye.
"Now is not the time for your gorgeous musings, Terry!" Veta shouts. "I must—"
"…greenlight Operation Artillery."
This sound bite cuts through from the screen before the footage of Victon shorts out again. But it's enough to shut Veta up as she stares at the now-blank screen, frozen in her seat.
"What on…" Veta looks up at the screen, her lip quivering. "Mother?"
"Video and audio disabled," the console responds.
"Infernal Meek tech!" Veta screams again, slamming her fists on the console. "I must find their engineer and cut off her fingertips! Can you at least give me a location on the signal call?"
"No," the console answers.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Veta hums, clasping her hands together. "It looks like I'm going to have to launch a little Operation Artillery of my own…."
Veta's words still ring in Travis ears when he suddenly realizes that he actually have ears…
He's solid again.
And he's standing in a pink-painted child's room, with Miss Artillery seated in a rocking chair, a toddler in her lap. That must be Veta…
"My darling little girl, I have a very important lesson to teach you today," Miss Artillery coos, rocking back and forth in her chair and combing baby Veta's hair with a pink brush. "You must learn not to rely on this man's world. Not even your father, the ruthless criminal he was, could be trusted. That's why I murdered him the moment you were conceived."
"But that's not today's true lesson," Miss Artillery whispers, kissing Veta's forehead. "Today, I'm going to teach you how to die."