Fragile One Nudging

I replayed previous conversations with Contessa in my head. The decision she'd posed for us. The fact she'd been unwilling to make it herself. Was there a weakness there? A way past the Titan and to Contessa herself?

The flashback image of Amy's face crossed my mind, alarming and disconcerting, gross, perplexing. Somehow tied to the former thought.

***

I really didn't want to think about her, as much as that half-formed mental connection between her and Contessa nagged at me.

***

One of the rare times that I might have found myself on the same page as my sister. Neither of us wanted to remember that, and our individual reasonings were very selfish – there was a degree of self preservation in Amy not wanting me to see her disregarding my wishes, and those two moments of 'shushing' me where she'd altered my mind in real time to cancel out my protests-

*****

I wanted those memories gone because they got in the way of me thinking in a straight line, and they made the days where I didn't think as much about this stuff fewer and far between.

But they were necessary. As a warning, as a general awareness of what I was up against. They were context that, for some reason, got me thinking about Contessa, who I was watching now, standing there and healing while the Titans in her network fought on her behalf. Chess pieces in the hands of a machine that had solved the game and knew every permutation.

***

"Chris thinks they're aimless right now. Is our chessmaster Titan preoccupied with strategy? Figuring out some puzzle?"

"No," Rain said. The silver eyes of his mask looked out over toward the Titan Ophion, who was nested in his barrier, as capes tried to shoot through the gaps. "But I'm glad you guys noticed that too."

"Build on that thought," I said. "No why?"

"They're not fighting."

"Some of them are," Kenzie said.

"Aimless I see, but not fighting isn't right," I said.

"They're reacting, but they're on autopilot. The new ones are sticking to instincts, but they're increasingly disorganized. Nemean Titan's just running, Ophion's just growing his monsters and defending himself, Cinereal is walking and building up her ash. Custodian is just an asshole, I think. I think…"

- Infrared 19.3-5