https://youtu.be/AjLE8FUCed0

Silk, when she realized that she was alone, picked herself up and kept going along her way.

From all the eyewitness reports flooding the Originals' private feed page on their app, she had a good idea where she might find other members of the rescue group. Going for the control central room, probably.

She rubbed her arm. That rabbit had almost broken it in two. She could move it, but it was going to swell for sure later.

She'd better get to the infirmary after this and get taken care of. They kept one elite who had healing powers for this. 

She thought about Lethe... He'd probably stay put, right?

Kurogiri would just keep splitting up the vagrants whenever he could find them, no doubt. He should have come back, though, and offered to help her, rather than letting her walk and waste precious time.

She was engaged in these thoughts as well as scanning around for any sign of enemies, and she came into one of the larger rooms between sets of hallways that was an intersection between the training area and the holding cells and the main meeting rooms and the living quarters.

She headed for the living quarters, laid out like a small city underground.

As reported she found a bunch of clones there tearing up random buildings and scaring the mostly peaceful members of the cult who didn't usually fight--and the kids.

A few doubles of Spinner were chasing a group of elementary school aged kids.

Silk sighed and stopped to yank her bindings through the mud clones. No such luck as finding the real one, but she didn't think Spinner was the type to terrorize young kids, not for fun, so it was no surprise there.

"I see you're still bent on sparing children," someone spoke.

Silk looked around. There was a man leaning on the wall of one of the small housing units. Dressed in magician's clothes.

No mask though. Normal looking, attractive face.

Silk's mind raced... If this wasn't one of their own elites, and she didn't recognize them, it could only mean it was one of the invaders...and if she didn't know who it was, then it could only have been one person.

She realized she was in deep s--- now.

She ignored the other clones still running around and backed up, defensive stance. 

"Nothing to say?" The man tossed a small object (...a marble?) in the air casually, the way someone tossed knives to appear threatening.

"Do I know you?" Silk said the first thing that came into her head...maybe not the smartest thing.

The man looked at her with pure fury...and then realization...and then back to fury.

"That SOB," he said in a terrible tone, "Of course he would... You don't know who I am? I'd think you were faking it, but that was genuine look of confusion, I'd wager. Then again." He suddenly threw the marble and a whole weighted net appeared over her. She jumped back, but it caught one of her feet.

"--I think both of us know your acting skills are perfectly adequate to this situation. So let's try this again: Anything to say?" The man had a dangerous look in his eye.

Silk thought she could get away easily enough...but she didn't know what other things he might have to throw at her, and her silk wasn't going to be able to catch it all, so perhaps playing along was the best idea for now.

Her head was starting to hurt, though. She pushed aside any worries or connections that might trigger a memory.

"I take it you're the one they call Compress," she said. "You'll have to forgive me. My memory is a bit hazy around some members of...the LOV... I understand I worked there for a while."

[Ominous Silk image by Onerose]

"I did think you couldn't have just switched sides." Why did he sound relieved? "So they did brainwash you. This is wonderful news!"

"It's what?" Silk decided that if she didn't remember this guy, he was definitely kind of kooky anyway. Maybe there was a reason she didn't want to remember.

"I mean, uh, compared to the alternative," Compress amended.

Silk saw what he was thinking now.

Oh no, she was not doing this. Not off the job... Mission over.

She held up her hand, silk running through her fingers, ready to strike. "Stop right there, Houdini... Listen, I may not remember you--but don't get any ideas. There is a reason for that. My mission as spy is over. New mission: Taking down the LOV and Heroes."

"What are you talking about?" Compress said, "How can you do that if you don't remember us?"

"I think you have selective hearing," Silk spoke coldly, "I do remember LOV. Just not you."

Silence.

Compress's expression was impossible to read. "Why me specifically...?" he said slowly, "And why do you seem oddly calm about it? What did you do? Or what did they do?"

"I asked Lethe to suppress my memory of one person, or two, in particular," Silk said coolly, "to eliminate any distractions. You're one of them, I take it, and the other was...not important. It's not important. I'm sorry for the confusion. You'll understand, it was necessary for mission. I'd be happy to just fight you now." She held up her screens.

But Compress didn't move.

It gave her a great chance to capture him, but she didn't. She was kind of unsure what to do here. She'd never met anyone else she'd tried to forget about again. It was like a ticking time bomb to her to see what would happen.

"Are you telling me--" Compress' voice was not as calm as his expression. He sounded either livid or ready to cry. It was hard to tell which emotion was making it hard to keep steady. "--That you purposely chose to forget about...all of it?"

Silk bit her lip. "I guess I am. Is it so hard to believe?"

"You...you're...you're heartless," Compress said, now openly angry, "You backstab someone and you don't even have the decency to remember doing it? Is there something about that you find anything less than detestable?"

Silk slipped her foot out of the net while he was talking. He didn't seem too nice. "I don't know, darling, what you're so shocked at. You know I'm a spy by now. You know what they call me here? The Black Widow. Is just nickname, but...I trust you understand."

Compress was well aware of what the term meant, and he looked more furious than before. "So, that's how it is, is it? The whole time...you were just a little, poisonous spider, and you bit... Well, I suppose, in all fairness, you did warn me not to trust you."

"I...did?" Silk said oddly, "When did I do that--? I mean," she shook herself, "that's irrelevant."

But not normally a thing she'd say. Wasn't it sort of giving away her position a little? Why did he not suspect her immediately?

What kind of idiot was this guy?

"If I did, though," she said aloud, "and you still fell for it, I'd say that's on you. Talk about foolish."

"Don't you talk about me like you know me now." Compress suddenly let all the venom into his voice. "If you've deliberately decided not to, then d--- it, you're going to stick by that. You don't know me at all--and I don't know you. If that's the case, I suppose there is no sense holding back." He pulled more marbles into view.

"I guess not." Silk yanked towards his feet with the threads she'd been using to snake towards them all this time--

But the Compress wasn't there. He was overhead.

"My dear," he said, voice full of scorn, "probably if you took it upon yourself to recall anything about my fighting style, you'd know that if I'm getting you to look one way, it's because there's something else I don't want you to pay attention to."

Suddenly marbles behind Silk expanded into...land mines? Where did he even get those?

"I'll have to thank that Tinkerer later for all his gear he had lying around," Compress said, as if to himself.

Silk managed to yank herself partly away from the mines exploded.

The impact still made her bones rattle though, and she rolled onto the floor and up against one of the homes, a little off kilter.

"One question." Compress threw some railing in front of her, pinning her in place. "Why? I get the spying part...but why did you let your head be messed with just to forget? Think, if you didn't, you'd have known how to fight me. Seems like an intentional weakness almost."

Silk pushed at the grating. D--- it...he knew her powers too well... She couldn't move this... How did he trap her so easily?

Compress came right up in front of it, ready to pull either another weapon or just compress her herself.

Getting captured would be bad...

Silk pulled a knife out of her sleeve and held it up to her own throat.

"Either you kill me, or I will," she said, "Getting captured is as good as dying for this group, and I find their methods more gruesome than this."

Compress stopped. "Answer my question," he said.

"I am not obligated to answer anything." Silk realized her voice was shaking... Why?

Compress flicked another marble into his hand. "You always have a good poker face," he said slowly, "so why do you look scared?"

Silk swallowed. "I admit this situation was not one I thought I would end up in so easily.... Perhaps it is weakness, being stopped so easily... Certainly I don't recall your abilities..."

The marble popped into a gun.

Silk lowered the knife. "Is faster--"

Compress fired the gun--shooting the knife right out of her hand, which hurt a lot, actually.

Silk grabbed her wrist in surprise. "Why--?"

Compress suddenly compressed the grating again, and before she could move, he shoved her into the wall, gun up to her torso.

"I could capture you, or I could shoot you," he said, deadly voice, "Either way, you're going to answer me. Why?"

Silk started to form threads, only to get prodded more.

"None of that, my dear Widow. I'm not as stupid as you think. I'm too familiar with sleight of hand to think you won't try that, but believe me, it will be the last thing you do."

Silk smiled wryly. "I think I see why you were my assignment. Clearly only person who would have caught onto me if I was just normal spy."

"Flattery is not what I asked for. Start singing or shut up." Compress pressed harder.

Silk was not a big fan of being hurt like this...

What would it matter? She was dead anyway.

She leaned back on the wall, looking up.

"Why? That was question, right?" she said.

[Image by Onerose, original design by original creator.]

[Talk about 'Russian roulette is not the same without a gun.' Compress took that line a bit literally, didn't he?]

 Compress waited.

Silk spoke slowly. "I find it's better to remove certain emotions from the equation... Too distracting. Too easy to have doubts about the mission."

Compress frowned at her darkly. "Emotions?"

"I've never been quite callous enough for this job, naturally," Silk said slowly, flatly, "It would be easier if I was sociopath...so to make up for it, I shoved aside all feelings and memories of jobs as soon as possible. I change name each time, change story a little...forget who I was. I adopt new role, as it were. I think you understand what I mean."

Silence.

"So you adopted a role," Compress said coldly, "and you went the extra mile on this one and just decided to forget for real? Meeting Lethe must have been real lucky for you."

"I'm not boasting of it," Silk said slowly, "I know it's crazy...but at some point, with this job, you have to renounce any sense of shame about it. Is ugly, but is true. Why make it harder on myself?"

"So you get off easy, but your victims get left with a string of broken hearts, is that it?" Compress said.

"I'm sure I never got anywhere near that close," Silk said, "Is not my style to really feign anything that deep. I play a little, that's all." She wasn't making eye contact right now, lost in thought. "After all, it's monstrous to play with people emotions at all, let alone those emotions."

https://youtu.be/guDdpB7D8Ag

[No Roots--Alice Merton]

"I can't tell if your being cruelly ironic, or if you're lying," Compress said bitterly, "but I think I could have taken just about anything  better than what you're saying. You snake! You're a d--- good actress. Normally, I'd be impressed." He sounded disgusted. "But there are some things even I, a magician, wouldn't stoop to."

Silk felt like that stung a bit more than she thought it would...maybe because he'd outsmarted her to this point?

"I'm sure you're not morally so straight yourself, if you a villain." Her accent came out like it always did when she was nervous, d--- it! She hoped this man couldn't tell. "Why judge? We're all trash, aren't we? I'm a little worse than you, is that what you're saying? Well, it might be true. But I don't matter here."

She looked back up finally. "I never did."

The look in his eyes made her stop talking though.

It was too raw...and angry...and something else she wasn't able to place.

"If I may drop the act for one moment in my life, Kira," Compress said, and there was a shocking amount of anger in his tone that didn't sound like it was just wounded pride, "it mattered to me."

Silk was speechless.

"Did you forget that?" Compress suddenly shook her violently. "Or did you just think it was fun! Well, it must have been a good show, wasn't it? Forgetting the final act, though, that just makes it not worth it at all. Nothing comes back to you, huh? Your head doesn't hurt?"

Actually her head was starting to pound. It was kind of hard to keep her emotions at bay under the circumstances.

"Do you know, I think it's too good for you?" Compress said, "I hope to Heaven that you remember before you die all the things you did! I hope the ghosts of those people come back to haunt you, and you feel something for once, you cold blooded, shell of a woman!"

Silk felt tears prick her eyes. She was losing her grip.

"Stop..." she heard herself say weakly.

"Stop? You want me to stop?" Compress shook her more. "You think that's what you deserve?"

Silk shook her head. "Nyet..." she admitted.

She leaned back again. "Whatever...do what you want," she said slowly, "Karma caught up with me, huh...? Sooner than I thought."

She didn't even move to use her silk. This whole ordeal had taken the fight out of her... Maybe deep down...she just knew it was her just deserts. Really, the ghosts if her past were bound to catch up with her sometime anyway.

Compress stared at her. "Do what I want, huh?"

"Da--I mean yes," Silk said in a quiet voice. 

Hesitating this much would get her killed by Hantai later, even if she escaped. He always had a way of finding this stuff out... Surely someone had seen them by now but wasn't bothering to help, so it was too late. She was dead either way.

She waited for the shot or for everything to go black, but it didn't come.

She looked up.

Compress was really close.

"Remember it was what you said," he spoke in a low voice.

Silk didn't quite understand, until he pressed her back into the wall and kissed her forcefully.

She was so shocked she didn't even fight back. That was the last thing she'd expected...

Then the force of it was too much for her to have pushed him off anyway...

She could have tried to strangle him instead. It would have been easy...but instead she found herself just giving in...

Pain seared through her head--but then it died away almost as fast.

The embrace hadn't been broken yet...

Then Compress pulled back.

[Image by the same, original template by original creator]

Silk stared at him... Recognition was sparking behind her eyes... She could feel it...

Compress gave her a questioning look like "do you know...?"

Silk couldn't speak for a second. She was too overwhelmed...

Then she just said, "Atsuhiro..."

Compress kissed her again. She didn't fight it that time either.

She was losing her mind! What was she doing!? Why wasn't she stopping this?

More memories were just flooding back...but it didn't hurt...

At some point, Compress let the gun fall aside, but that didn't stop either of them from making out...

But at some point Silk finally snapped out of it and shoved him back.

"Wha--what are you doing?" She realized the ludicrous nature of the situation. 

"What are you doing?" Compress said.

"I--you---" Silk sputtered.

"Don't pretend that was one sided. I know you too well," Compress said, "You could have stopped me if you wanted to...Kira."

"Stop calling me that." Silk realized she was shaking. "D--- you, why didn't you just kill me?" She put her hands over her face. "This is all wrong..."

"Well, you went this far," Compress said.

Silk turned red. "Why, you--"

"I didn't mean that," Compress said, taking her arms and pulling her closer again, "but if you're going to just give up, why bother being embarrassed about it? Never look back, right?"

"I..." Silk faltered, "You..."

"Two seconds to stop me," Compress said.

Silk frowned at him, then she rolled her eyes. "Oh, he--."

She kissed him instead.

Both of them had totally forgotten the clones by now and the other ninja...but...

"Perfect," suddenly a voice interrupted them.

Silk jumped.

Compress turned.

A few other ninja, ones Silk knew were higher ups and no doubt dispatched specifically for fighting the LOV or the heroes, were standing on the rooftops, regarding them smugly.

"Great work, Anya," said one, "I would never implement your methods, but you do know how to use them."

Compress suddenly tensed. "You--" He gave her a look of pure hatred.

Silk froze. "I--"

She what? This was her job, right?

Compress was too distracted by his anger to think as clearly as he normally would, or he would have known to dodge.

The other ninja threw throwing stars at his back.

He was still fast enough to start to move at least, but they caught the edge of him, and he went down, cursing.

"He's a hard one to catch." The squad came off the roof, pulling out their usual spears/staffs and knives. "Didn't want to risk guns in this civilian area, but what else can you do with an illusionist? Glad you were in the area."

Silk swallowed dryly. "I...well...um...came looking for them."

Compress started to move to pull something out of his pocket.

One of the ninja stuck their spear through his arm.

Silk wasn't ready for that.

"Oh, d---," one of the others laughed, "Jihi, that was hardcore."

[Jihi is just what I thought of. It means 'own expense.' I'd see it more as a pun here than anything else.]

"Well, I couldn't let him pull something out of his sleeve, could I?" Jihi said, laughing.

Silk looked from them to Compress.

"You want to help us take him back or keep looking?" Jihi asked her, without seeming to notice the look in her eyes.

Silk swallowed. "I'll keep looking."

Compress glared up at her but didn't say anything.

They pulled him up.

"On second thought, he could get away way too easily," said one of the others, "Let's just kill him now."

"Right." Jihi held up a knife. "You're right." She tilted her head. "Any last words, magician? I mean, I hear you're quite the eloquent speech maker. Should be amusing."

"Only that if not for my own stupidity, you would never have had a prayer of catching me," Compress said bitterly.

"That was amusing," Jihi smirked, "Guess you don't disappoint. Well, I hate long executions, so one quick jab ought to do it--" She raised her hand.

Fast as a spider, Silk suddenly lashed her threads around her wrist and yanked her into both of her comrades.

"What the?" they exclaimed.

Silk picked up the discarded gun and pointed it at them. "Don't try me," she said.

Compress stared at her.

"What the h--- are you doing, anyway?" Jihi was shocked. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I've decided to deal with the matter personally," Silk said coldly, "Don't try any s--- with me. You know by now I'm better than you are." She lowered the gun. "We clear?"

"You just said you didn't want to." Jihi was puzzled.

"I thought better of it," Silk said, "All of you spread out and find those clones. There's plenty of them terrorizing our people. I'll handle the villain. Go!"

They didn't argue with her. She had a gun.

"I swear, the elites are so eccentric," she heard one say, "Having a quirk must just put it into you DNA to flip like that. I thought she was gonna kill us for a second there."

"Twisting the knife a little more, are we?" Compress said dully.

Silk tossed the gun at his feet.

"Well played," she said bitterly, "Go, get out of here. I don't want to ever see you again, you understand me?"

"What?" Compress looked at her incredulously.

Silk wiped tears away from her face. "This is why I don't remember these connections... Is too hard at the end. I never once went through with it, the actually killing part, myself." She looked up. "I always had to leave it to someone else. I'm a monster, and I know it, but I can't go this far. You chose your revenge well. If you make it out of this alive, don't worry about me. I wouldn't go near you again for anything."

She turned.

"Except just now," Compress said.

Silk stopped. Clenching her hands. "That was just... I---was too shocked to think clearly."

"I think you were pretty clear with that little act just now," Compress said, "Only so many plot twists per story, Kira. I want to hear the truth for once, just for once in my life. Now."

Silk bit her lip, then she looked back. "You want to know if I cared, huh?"

Compress was silent.

"All right." Silk drew a deep breath. "I...did form some actual attachments...but you see what I am? I'm not capable of anything genuine. I knew that. I thought you knew that too. I could have sworn you did."

"I did," Compress said.

"Then what are we even discussing this for?" Silk said, "I'm not cold enough for finishing the job myself? Is that what you wanted to know?"

"I think we both know better," Compress said.

"You're the actor." Silk gestured helplessly. "For all you knew I was lying. Didn't it go right back to you?"

"But I wasn't lying about that, Kira," Compress said, "not about that."

Silk swallowed. "All right...neither was I," she finally said, kind of in a rush, "but that's the end of it. I hope you make your peace with what happened. I know I will have to."

"Oh, no, you won't have to," a new voice cut in.

Silk turned in absolute horror.

Commander Hantai was standing by a corner he must have just come around.

"I hadn't heard from you in too long, so I came to inspect the job myself," Hantai said, "and this is what I find."

"Who are you?" Compress said.

"Run," Silk hissed at him, barely audible.

"I must say, Widow, this is quite the unexpected turn," Hantai said, "I had believed you were as cold as I was... What a disappointing streak of weakness in you. Then again, I always did like your softness. Made it so much more exhilarating watching you complete those missions of yours and think that you were somehow any better than I am. You did, didn't you? But you're just the same as me--a sadistic devil, only you're one with a quirk, so perhaps it was to be expected."

"And you, who have no quirk, are admitting to being no better?" Silk knew it was insane to provoke him, but her sass was really hard to kick.

"I never did like that disrespectful streak in you," Hantai frowned, "I'm a sadist, but you're a traitor--you see the difference there? I should have seen this coming. You betray everyone else in your life. I guess we can't be an exception forever, but here's the difference between me and them, Silk."

Silk suddenly realized her quirk wasn't working. Her eyes got wide.

Hantai pulled out a gun and aimed it at her. "The difference is, I know a snake when I see one, and I'm not one to let them bite me just for the fun of it."

Suddenly a huge, metal pipe landed in front of him.

Compress grabbed Silk by the wrist. "Don't just stand here waiting for it. Run for it, you idiot!" He yanked her arm.

Silk was too dazed to resist it and let him start leading her away, but then she shook herself. "Wait, this isn't going to work. Hantai will never let this go. Let go of me!"

Suddenly the gun went off and something pierced her torso.

She crumpled over... So that what that felt like...

"Kira?" Compress said.

"You forgot that I can still aim even if you throw something at me, dumb---," Hantai called, "You're next, by the way, unless you can compress yourself."

But as he was saying that, suddenly some of the clones of Spinner and Shigaraki appeared--how the heck was Twice still making these? You'd think he'd run out of juice by now--and they attacked Hantai.

They always did seem to know who to defend.

Silk put her hand to her side. Blood was gushing out of it.

Compress dragged her out of Hantai's sight.

Her quirk worked again now...too late...

"Well, I take it they are very good to their employees," Compress said, examining the wound, "You definitely traded up for this job."

Silk laughed bitterly. "He has good aim... I need surgery for sure to survive this... I not going get it. You'd better just leave me here."

"No, you're my spoil of war. You're coming with me," Compress said, "I intend to pay that blaggard back for making an attempt on my life in this manner. Don't even try to argue."

"Even if I agreed, it won't matter," Silk said, "so you should just leave... Now, go on. If you all have a plan to get out of here, you might be able to get out. I just slow you down, and for what? You can't trust me, and I'm bleeding out." 

[Bleeding Out--Imagine Dragons]

https://youtu.be/jNFgynmVmx0

"Well, the bleeding out I might be able to help with," Compress said.

Silk pointed to his own arm. "You're going to need help soon enough--Ah, let me." She pulled out a lot more silk and started bandaging it. "I suppose this is some kind of cruel irony at my expense... You know, I don't know why I did that. Maybe I was tired of the game...sent myself into early retirement."

"I see that your sense of humor was not an act," Compress muttered.

Silk finished. "There... Go on, now."

"Sorry, but just this once, your compliance is really not a factor," Compress said.

"What?" Silk said blankly.

Compress turned her into a marble. "Normally, kidnapping someone is frowned upon in affairs of romance," he remarked, eyeing it, "but I think if your employer is trying to kill you, some allowances must be made for sound judgment. I can't stop you from bleeding out permanently with this, but it will slow it down at least while you're in this..." He popped the marble into his mouth, rather than risk dropping it out of his pocket, and ran for it.

[Hmm...

Well, that was whole lot of feels at once.

Think Silk will make it?

Either way, that scene was hot as heck...and also kind of heartbreaking. I mean, she's a real basket case.

Which is worse, do you think? Feeling guilty but still doing it, or not feeling guilty at all?

I kind of think both are equally bad, just in different ways, but if you want to comment your thoughts, I'd be into that discussion.

Otherwise, sit tight for the next chapter. More angst is coming...and probably less spice, to be honest. Can't have too much of it, right? It gets old, then.]