The Phoenix Burns (H,T)

“Are you sure you want to do this, Ma’am?”

The two of them were in Helena’s walk-in closet in the Trident cottage. It held her varied wardrobe, the equipment she used to help her sleep, the hook on the wall that her leash was stored on, and the steel file folders containing many of the secrets the two had gathered and guarded.

“I agreed to it, even if he doesn't know I did. We’ll sort through, figure out what is safe to dump and what we may need to hold onto longer.”

“As you wish.”

So as they overheard something about a bear, both women took what papers they could carry from the filing cabinets and left the Trident. They paid no mind to the little game, confident that the four friends inside would have a quiet and uneventful afternoon.

Hazel had a busy morning. First she visited the tower, communicating by text to save time rather than taking Hel with her. She’d brought up the fact that they were about the same speed if the redhead took advantage of the upgrade granted from the visit to Shar two rounds ago, but apparently her Sun had been squeamish about even her seeing the running on all-fours Helena had been made capable of. After she returned, she’d escorted her partner to her negotiation for Scylla’s aide before lunch.

Now, they both came back down to the beach where the cephalid had started a bonfire. As the two made it through the forest, they watched her conjure another set of logs that she set on the safe side of the ring of stones around the fire.

“Is there anything else you need from me?” Scylla asked as they approached.

“No. Thank you for doing this. Do we need to pay you any more?” Helena asked.

The sea-witch shrugged. “I’m here. I took the lifeguard position because I was bored, so I don’t mind the odd job or two.”

Hazel was studying the fire. “Was this hard to do in the sand?”

“Not particularly. I took some leaves from a shrubbery in the forest as a starter, magic did the rest. I have some experience lighting fires for Androphagos since Charybdis usually lets the wrong innocents get hurt when she does it.”

Helena’s eyes shifted at the phrasing. “You can go back to your post. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”

“Fine.” Scylla scuttled back to her lifeguard’s chair.

The two women settled on the blanket that Scylla had laid out in front of the fire, laying the files in several piles between them.

“Let’s start with Maeve’s.” Hel decided. She began flipping through the stack, handing off pieces of the therapist’s file and several others that were related to it. “I think it’s safe to say that we can sacrifice the files on her parents without losing anything.”

“Agreed.” Hazel took the thin files for Keila and Danyil Petrov and gently dropped them into the fire. The manilla folders blackened, the paper inside curling as it was burnt and lost.

She took the next steps as she skimmed through another file related to Maeve. “Harrison seems harmless. Unlike Mr.Shook, he’s made no later attempt to contact Dr.Petrov in the past twenty years. After he moved back in with his parents, the entire Knight family seems to have been satisfied dismissing her from their memories.”

“Burn it then.”

So Hazel set it next to the other two in the fire.

“Maeve’s would still have some use…” Helena mused. “Particularly in trying to track her changes against what we already knew about her. Luna’s mistake will complicate the cleanest relationship he had left here.”

“It would help,” Hazel warily agreed. “But wouldn’t a fellow contestant’s file be a particularly strong step towards your promise yesterday?”

“I…” Hel set it between them, letting her partner decide what to do. It was added to the fire with the others.

The file for Maeve’s secretary was burnt next, neither of them seeing much reason to hold onto the young woman’s academic records or social media posts.

Then they reached the last of the files they’d grabbed that were related to Maeve.

“Allison Waters?” Hazel looked down in surprise at the file for the CEO of Halcyon Oil. “I thought you’d be keeping this one around longer.”

“I am, bringing this down here was unintentional. Trust me, I’m not giving her up without at least one more big win.”

“Understood. If you do have the conversation with him again about destroying these files, I think he’d understand the good you’ve done with that one.”

The good Hazel was referring to was a years-long blackmail campaign they’d waged, forcing the fellow billionaire into a series of philanthropic acts and environmental lobbying she loathed despite how they had polished her reputation.

Miss Waters’ file was put in a safe place while they tried to move on to one of the bundles that Hazel had grabbed.

“Luna’s next?” Hel asked.

Hazel nodded. “For starters, I think that we can safely sacrifice her parents' files, with your permission. Mrs.Lopez has full citizenship now, and anything of note found in Mrs.Huggett-Lopez’s file is more prominent in either the files of Jim Sutton or our Miss Lopez herself.”

“Burn them then.”

The records gathered on Luna’s parents joined the blaze.

“Mr.Sutton next, Ma’am?”

Helena hesitated before answering. “I’d rather not get rid of it all together. Perhaps one of us can review it when Ava or Aubrey are distracted, to prune anything not related to our business interests.” She set it aside with the Waters file.

The next were a tall stack of thin folders, records of anyone over the years that Luna had… engaged with, who had a chance of speaking to or impacting Richard. Classmates, professors, other members of congress, all the way up to a Secretary of the Interior were mixed into the stack of identities. “What would you have us do with these?”

“Do you remember much about the character of these people?”

Hazel frowned. “Not reliably. Many of these were years ago.”

“Then we’ll have to be more careful than I think he’d want. If there’s anyone you’re fully confident in, where they wouldn’t go to the press or try to extort us later with their past with her, you can take them out. Otherwise, keep them in just in case we need to sort through their own skeletons someday.”

Hazell nodded as she pulled the stack closer to herself, sliding another file across the blanket. “While I’m doing that, would you mind making a decision on him?”

Helena glanced at the name. Buck Collins. “The drug dealer?”

The bodyguard made a frustrated noise. “Suspected drug dealer. Despite the fact that he was present for every drug possession arrest amongst other students while Mr.Turner and Miss Lopez were on campus, he himself was never arrested despite numerous searches of his possessions from campus security, city police, and myself. He has no connections to drug traffickers in the area. He was just always present during a four year spike in the campus’s incidents with LSD and other party drugs.”

“So, why does he specifically matter? I remember Luna hung out with him sometimes, but she made a lot of bad decisions back then.”

“It’ll be more clear if you read through the second half of the file.”

Helena flipped to it and started skimming through. Pictures of Buck at college in Ohio. Then Florida. Then California. Then Louisiana. More pictures of the same early-twenties man going back decades.

Now I remember. She used to have a conspiracy board dedicated to this guy. “We’ll check with Genet when she gets back. Maybe she knows about him with the research she’s done with her magic.” Helena promised, before adding the college student to the ‘persons of interest’ pile with the oil tycoon and Mr.Sutton.

Then the redhead sat there for a moment, staring into the fire as Hazel worked next to her. The sound of the flickering flames and rustling papers did little to distract her from the thought growing on her mind.

“Should we sort the files related to Miss Steward next, Ma’am?” Hazel asked to interrupt her train of thought. Hel looked over, and about a sixth of them had been separated out. The Indian woman was cautiously adding them to the blaze along with one of the logs Scylla had left with them.

“Sure. Let’s get this over with.” Helena took Stella’s file and moved to toss it into the middle of the blaze.

Hazel caught it just as it left her hand. “Isn’t that a bit rash?”

“It’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?” Hel shot back.

“Yes. But so quickly? At the very least, the records from Operation Flytrap are worth saving.”

“...You’re probably right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Knowing the file well, Hazel quickly separated out that chapter and handed the rest to her girlfriend. “If you want to throw it again, here.”

Helena gingerly took it, seeming to have changed her mind. She offered the paper still to the flames, retreating back to the blanket as she crawled across the sand.

“From the opposite point of view, I don’t think Sterling Shook, Thomas Redd, or anyone associated with her restaurant are worth keeping our documentation of, if we mean to cut to what’s absolutely necessary.” Hazel stated.

Helena offered a shrug of tacit agreement. Hazel stared at her for a moment trying to interpret what was going on, before deciding to table it for now and adding the assorted miscreants and employees to their burnt offering.

“All that leaves is Miss Steward’s mother then. Everyone else related to Stella is more closely tied to someone else.”

She didn’t get a quick response, her boss lost in thought. “Ma’am?”

“Do you think we’d be able to do something like we did with Mr.Sutton for Stella’s mother? Stella mentioned Stewardship Spices yesterday. We could have a lawyer approach them, offer a partnership to help them grow beyond their current eight states. They’re well saturated in the Midwest, and the fact that Stella already spread it to Maryland would make a good foothold in the East.”

“Perhaps. I’m not sure that the Stewards have the same ambition that Mr.Sutton did. Plus…”

“Plus what?”

“It may play into the issues people have had with us, particularly if we use a third party like we have with Mr.Sutton. The control and secrecy is what Mr.Turner has complained about, after all.”

“Shit. Forget the idea then. Do we have any reason to believe that she’d be in any danger?”

“Not that I’ve found. I would note though, that she may be the rare person that wants to be monitored.”

“Then we can keep it, at least until Stella gives her opinion.”

Hazel paused, studying her partner again. “Ma’am are you alright?”

“Of course. What’s next?” The redhead looked sullen, even for her.

“Ma’am, if there’s something wrong-”

“-I’m fine, really. Do I look upset?”

“Ms.Turner, you’re not fine. I can read you better than most, but I think anyone could tell that something is wrong. Why won’t you tell me?”

“I’m-”

“-Helena, please.”

Her girlfriend finally stopped. “How could you tell?”

“You haven’t been this easy to read in years, I-

-Oh.” They said in unison.

“Tail wagging the fucking Dog.” Helena swore.

“Now will you tell me what’s going on?”

“I…” Helena sighed. “I feel like I’m losing, and I don’t know what’s right anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every time I’ve changed, it’s been a trade worth making. I gave up my studios and models, but I got you. I did a million terrible things, but I kept us safe and every once in a while I earned an opportunity to do something good even if it wasn’t the most virtuous way to do it. I’ve been cursed by magical spirits four times now, but I’d accept it a dozen more times because you’re here with me.

“But this? This is just me disarming myself. Saying that I won’t do the good thing right in front of me because I’d be doing it in a bad way. I’m making a show of good faith, but we’re not actually showing anyone. I know this is selfish, but I feel like I’m doing this for nothing and I hate it.”

“Then why not tell him we’re doing this?” Hazel asked, knowing what answer would come but disagreeing with it.

“Because I don’t want him to know we need to do this. That there’s a reason he would have wanted us to do this. He shouldn’t know that I made you follow his professors when he went off to college to see where they lived!” She added, seeing a history professor’s file on the edge of the sand and holding it tightly against her chest. “He’s an angel, and I…”

“You what?”

“You know.”

“You’re trying to say that you’re a horrible person again?”

Hel didn’t respond, though Tail told Hazel what she needed to know.

The bodyguard leaned over on the blanket, reaching up and anchoring her hand at the back of her protectee’s scalp, listening to the whimper and hoping that it meant she was doing something right. “I had another, almost as violent life before we met. You feel guilt sometimes with what we’ve done. I don’t. If you’re such a terrible person, what does that make me?”

“A hero?”

“Why?”

“Well, you’ve saved people. Richard and I of course. Stella and her mom, Aubrey…”

“You’ve saved me too, and the others were largely at your orders. What do you believe could make me better than you?”

“You’re a good person.” Her partner told her sternly.

“I agree. So why aren’t you? Can you think of something that applies to you but not me?”

“Yes.” Helena admitted.

“And what’s that?”

“Can we change the subject?”

“Of course, Ma’am.” Hazel relaxed her hold and let go, leaning back away on the blanket. “Would you say you feel nostalgic?”

“Of course. The weird part is that I feel nostalgic for things that I can't have at the same time, that destroyed each other.”

Hazel pulled her close again, this time a comforting gesture rather than a confrontational one. “If you could combine everything, can you tell me what that’d look like?”

“I’m just running a clothing company, though you’re still my assistant. We’ve trained and fought together, but… nothing we did mattered. Everyone’s alive”

“Everyone?”

“Maybe. I guess that last one was stupid.”

“Maybe not.” Hazel shrugged. She gently guided her girlfriend’s head into her lap. “I don't care about my family and haven’t seen them in years. I care about my family more than anything and would do anything to make either of them happy. We’re contradictions sometimes.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I tell you what, maybe after dinner you can get help from Aubrey and put on a little fashion show for me.” Hazel suggested in an effort to lighten the mood.

“We could try that.” Hel agreed. “Especially with her new growth, she’s close enough to my size. Though of course she’s thinner along her stomach and upper body still.”

“I… actually meant that she could help you change outfits.”

“Oh.” The redhead’s face burned.

“If you want to include her fully you can, I just wasn’t anticipating it. I was thinking about a... different model.”

They both let the silence sit for a moment as they thought about the ‘fashion show.’ Helena ground her head deeper into Hazel’s lap, while the bodyguard unconsciously loosened her tie. She tucked it into her pocket, undoing the top button of her shirt as her girlfriend squirmed against her thighs.

Whatever course they’d been drifting towards on the beach was paused by an explosion and the sound of breaking glass about thirty feet away, as if someone had thrown a molotov cocktail. From the fiery cloud Bo appeared in more reasonable shoes than this morning, dusting herself off and striding towards them. The two women shifted into a more defensive stance.

“Destroying evidence, are we? I have to say, fire certainly works better than most.”

“Richard asked us to do this.” Helena shot back.

“Yes, your favorite hawkshaw doesn’t want to know about the keyhole peeping you’ve been doing. I’m here about something related.”

“And what’s that, Lady Bo?” Hazel asked.

“You’re still needing to tip your mitt three more times, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“She means to reveal something. I’m gathering from context the three harem members we have yet to show their files to.” Hazel explained

“Very good, Chickadee. I’m here to give a warning. You’ve been on Easy Street so far, but there’s rain ahead. Only one of his chorines will take you stalking them with any hint of understanding, but his little blonde moll is going to be the worst.”

“Can you be any more clear?”

“I’m sorry, dolls. There’s eyes everywhere, and I’ve said all I can say.” The dame walked around the blanket her two contestants were on and into the fire, teleporting back to her office.

“She’s so fucking cryptic.”

“She certainly is.”

“Why couldn’t she just say what she means?”

“I suspect it’s the same as Genet. She said back when she gave us her origin story that she was ‘what we do for each other’ and she presents herself as an awkward but maternal figure. Aubrey called Bo the ‘gravedigger,’ and she speaks like an old crime film. The colonel that ran my old base had a collection of those movies he used to show on the weekends.”

“So do you have an idea of what she meant?” Helena asked.

“Not fully. Obviously we’ll get more blowback from most of the people we already knew would be more difficult. ‘Little blonde moll’ is referring to one of Mr.Turner’s girlfriends as the worst case scenario, though she didn’t clarify which one.”

“Obviously Felicia.”

“Respectfully, I disagree.”

“Aubrey loves us.”

“Which is why I think it could be more risky.”

“It has to be Felicia. She’s crazy, and never been one to hold back when she has an opportunity to get a jab in. Plus Bo did say little.”

“Barring one incident in which she didn’t know who I was, she’s been nothing but reasonable towards me.”

“She doesn’t respect you.”

“Which would make her cordial approach with me all the more reassuring.”

Hel sighed. “What if we compromise on Ava. It’ll probably be some trouble, but it could be practice for whatever we get from the worst case scenario Bo was hinting at?”

Hazel hesitated. Why do I get the feeling we’re walking into a trap? Unable to identify where the feeling was coming from, she agreed. “At least it’ll be easy to coordinate as your roommate.”

Helena nodded, turning back to the fire and files. “We’ll do that tomorrow then. For now, can we do some of the files in Richard’s pile for a bit?”

Hazel nodded, sliding the largest pile of papers along the blanket. Her partner ruffled through, looking for a specific three she wanted to start with. Hazel watched as she set aside Gwendolyn Byres, then Jessica Fairlane.

“Where’s Beth?”

“I put her in your section.” Hazel looked through, finding the accountant’s file.

Helena took all three in one hand, turning to the bonfire. But Hazel interjected before they were all burnt. “Do you mind if I hold onto Beth’s?”

“Why?”

“An… idea I had, though it’s not really a reasonable one. Can I explain it if it ever looks within reach?”

“It’s not the recruitment thing I tried to tempt him with, right?”

“No, not that sort of recruitment.”

Hel handed it back over, with one condition. “Can you promise that if I ask for it in the future, you won’t listen to me?”

“Agreed.”

That concluded, she dropped the files for the supermodel and the movie star in the fire. It roared as it ate the documentation of her spying on the romantic interests she’d once considered and she watched until every scrap of paper and ink was ash and dust.