Whiteout

"Five."

Val's eyes slowly opened. She groaned softly, like she was waking from a long, pleasant nap. Patti was staring back at her, a mixture of worry and cautious excitement written across her face. "Hey, Val. Welcome back. How do you feel?"

"Mmm..." Val looked around, her eyes adjusting to the lighting of the bar. Everything still looked desaturated, but maybe a hair more colorful than before. "I dunno. Fine?"

"Valerie?" a voice spoke up from behind Val. "Can you... can you turn around for me, please?"

Val slowly scooted around so she faced the opposite direction. Another woman was there, with a white undercut, a semi-healed black eye, and a black tank top. She was just as pensive as Patti, but without the excitement tempering her nervous tension.

A name floated towards the front of Val's mind. "Weiss..."

"Yeah," Weiss said, her voice cracking a bit as she smiled happily. "It's me. Do you feel alright? Any pain, anything?"

"No, no pain." Val squinted slightly. More and more memories came unbidden to the forefront of her psyche, but they didn't quite feel real. More like a half-remembered dream, just images flashing with little context or emotional attachment. "I... I know you

should

mean more to me. I can remember us, but it's... fuzzy. Like it belongs to someone else. I'm sorry."

Weiss' smile faded. She took a deep breath. "That's okay. Honestly, this is still better than I'd hoped for. Patricia and I didn't really know how to handle this. We did the best we could with what we were able to piece together."

"You really had us worried," Patti chimed in. "I wasn't sure we could do anything. Seems like Raymond fucked you up pretty bad."

"Ray..." Val swallowed. "I still can't call him anything other than 'Mr. Hawthorne.' But yeah, he got all of us. By now, he's probably got the whole team under his control."

With my help...

She paused. As she looked closer at Weiss, she noticed something on her chest, a red, slightly raised pattern that resembled a tree branch.

Weiss noticed where Val's eyes were focused and stood up. "I'll get you some water." She walked off behind the bar. Patti helped Val to her feet and led her to one of the barstools just as Weiss produced a cold bottle of water and handed it to her.

"Thanks," Val said as she unscrewed the cap and took a swig. "Um... I'm sorry, but what's with the..." She pointed at Weiss' chest.

"This," Weiss sighed, "is what happens when you get hit with a small bolt of lightning. Apparently it's called a Lichtenburg figure. I don't know if it'll ever go away."

"That was Yun, right?" Val replayed the scene in her mind, when her and Yun-hee's hypnosis session with Patti went so very wrong. It was strange; she could remember everything very clearly up until the moment Weiss showed up. After that, it felt more like looking at a bad photocopy of someone else's life.

"Oh, shit," Patti gasped, "Yun! Is she... did..."

Val's voice caught in her throat. "She... I..." She blinked away the tears and tried to keep her hands from shaking. "I brought her to him. I thought... God, I thought, I was

helping

her..."

Weiss gripped Val's hand tightly. "Valerie, it's... that wasn't you, alright? That's what

he

did to you. He took your kindness and abused it."

"But I did it," Val choked. "I let my friend get the shit beaten out of her. And you know what I did right after? I went back to my room and tried to pretend it didn't happen."

"You wouldn't have done it if-"

"You're not listening! I don't care what I

would've

done, I care about what I

did

! I let Yun get hurt! I let..." Val's voice quavered. "I let them

all

get hurt."

"Val, listen to me." Patti placed her hand on Val's shoulder. "This is

not

your fault, understand? This is all on Raymond. Did he even say why he was doing this? Was he just looking for a new group of 'employees' to abuse?"

"He said it was because of the stuff Blanc told him when she broke into his apartment."

Weiss pulled her hand away. She and Patti exchanged glances. "I..." Weiss swallowed. "I-I never told him to do anything like this."

"What are you..." Val's eyes widened. "Oh, shit. My memory's so messed-up, I totally forgot about... that."

"What-" Weiss furrowed her brow. "What did he say, exactly? How does me breaking into his apartment lead to 'I'm gonna brainwash a team of superheroes?'"

"Blanc- you told him to keep everyone off your back. So he got the cops to drop charges, and then he reasoned that the best way to stop Team Rainbow from taking you down would be to take control himself."

"I don't understand," Patti said. "Why did he decide to do that on his own? If Team Rainbow had gone out and arrested Weiss, I'd understand how that would make him step in. But you hadn't publicized things yet."

Val thought for a moment. "Marvin - the police chief - he probably told Mr. Hawthorne about it. But there's something else. He said that the machine you used on him was stronger than normal hypnosis. Those commands, they acted like a seed, and he took it in his own direction."

Weiss took a deep breath and covered her mouth with her hands, a pensive look on her face.

Patti darted her eyes between Val and Weiss. "So... what now?"

"I'm thinking," Weiss muttered.

Val stayed silent, taking another swig of her water bottle.

I wish I hadn't dumped all this on them. They're just civilians; they're way out of their depth on this.

"Okay. I've got a plan." Weiss hopped over the bar. "But I need to get ready first. Back in a sec."

"Get ready for what?" Patti asked.

Weiss pointed at Val as she walked towards the stairs. "It's not fair that only one of us is in costume. Mistress Weiss is not equipped to handle a situation like this, and neither is Gwen White."

As Weiss ascended to her room, Patti rolled her eyes. "Always so dramatic." She turned towards Val. "You

are

okay, right?"

"Mostly. Everything's still a little foggy, but maybe that'll pass." Val realized she was tapping her foot and stopped herself. "Um... if I can ask, how are you?"

"Well, I'm still scared shitless, but other than that?" Patti shrugged. "About a 6 outta 10."

"And Weiss?"

Patti cracked a wry grin. "You can ask her when she comes down. But I get the feeling you're not

just

asking about her."

Val sighed. "When I last saw her, I think she was taking it pretty hard. The breakup. But now it kinda feels like nothing's changed."

"I'm..." Patti's smile faded. "I'm still figuring that out myself. I think right now, we both just want to help. So we're willing to put aside our fight."

"You're doing that for me?"

"Hell yeah! And Yun too. She and I go back a ways. If someone hurt her, I'd bust their teeth in. Throw you into the mix? I'm going for the kneecaps."

"Remind me to never get on your bad side," Val chuckled.

"I can be nasty sometimes," Patti smiled. "I'm pretty sure Weiss has bite marks I've given her that still haven't healed."

Val squirmed on the stool.

God, I kinda want that right now...

"Oh, by the way," Patti said, scratching her cheek. "We haven't really talked since that night. Did you, like, enjoy that?"

"The thing with Yun?" Val thought for a moment. "Well, up until... all

that

happened... yeah, it was great."

Patti breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. God, I was super nervous the whole time."

"You didn't look it. Actually, you handle nerves a lot better than Weiss does."

"Oh, believe me, I know. It took a

long

time for her to get where she is today. But every so often, you can still see that shy girl she used to be."

"Hard to imagine someone so shy would go around dealing with superheroes."

Patti smiled. "Well, when they're as cute as you, it's a little easier to wrap your head around."

"Raymond's holding a lot of cards," Weiss said as she descended the stairs. "He's got money and status, not to mention four out of five members of Team Rainbow."

"Yeah, I-" Val did a double-take. The woman coming down into the bar was and was not Weiss. If it wasn't for the black eye, Val could've sworn it was literally a different person. It was surprising how just little things, like the way she carried herself and the specific, forceful way she talked, could make her seem so unlike Weiss. And Val had to admit, Madame Blanc rocked that suit like nobody's business. "I... know."

"But he's also holding a card he doesn't know about," Blanc continued. "And we're gonna get it back."

"Back?" Val raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. The device that led to all of this, the one which first brought you to me."

Patti groaned. "I

knew

leaving it there was a mistake..."

Val felt her stomach tie up in knots. "Where did you leave it?"

* * *

Mr. Hawthorne's apartment was just as lavish as Val remembered it. Not that her memory was especially clear at the moment. But even though she couldn't quite recall the details if she were to think of the place on her own, as she stepped through the portal, everything felt exactly right.

"Holy shit, this is tacky." Patti scoffed at the gold trim of the wallpaper, the lush velvet lining of the furniture, the extravagance of it all. "Apparently being born into a banking dynasty still can't buy even an ounce of taste."

Blanc - or Weiss, Val wasn't quite sure what to think of her as right now - ran her fingers through her hair and scowled. "It's utterly garish, isn't it?"

Val shrugged. "Not what I would've done, that's for sure. Anyway, where did you stash the thing?"

"There's a safe hidden behind the stereo," Blanc explained, motioning to the far side of the room. Val vaguely remembered Blanc sitting in the leather recliner, and then getting thrown into the speakers by Gibson. "Of course, I made Raymond forget it was ever there."

"Why hide it here at all?" Val asked.

"I figured your team knew something about my MO that I wasn't noticing," Blanc said as she knelt down pulled out some of the records lining the shelves. "So, if I went after someone else, I'd probably be interrupted again. And I didn't like my chances of making it out unscathed like I did back at Hammer Records. I knew that if I were to be caught, my machine would make it into the hands of the authorities, and it could lead them back to Patricia."

"So you needed to hide it," Val said, "and then make sure no one knew where it was."

"Exactly. Raymond gave me the combination, and then conveniently forgot he ever had the safe in the first place." As Blanc pulled away the last of the records, Val could see a small safe embedded in the wall. Blanc pulled out a slip of paper and entered the combination, swinging the door open. She turned around and smiled at Val. "Would you like to see it?"

Curious, Val walked over and knelt down beside Blanc. Inside the safe was what looked like a strobe light with a circuit board attached to the top, with a small tripod on the bottom holding it upright. Two jumpers clipped to prongs at the back, leading to a car battery with a shoulder strap tied around the handle. Next to it was a small remote, the kind one would use to play a PowerPoint without mashing the space bar to advance. "

That's

what got me?" Val asked incredulously.

"What? You're not impressed?"

"It looks like a piece of junk!"

Blanc frowned. "Let's see you make a better one." She hauled everything out of the safe and slammed it shut.

"Okay, that's step one," Patti sighed as she flopped onto the couch. "What's next?"

"Next?" Blanc held the device in her hands. "Next we destroy it. We destroy it, and I turn myself in."

"Wh-What?" Val's eyes widened.

"Gwen," Patti said sternly, rising off the couch, "what are you talking about?"

"Don't. Call me that." Blanc glared at Patti. "We can't let this thing fall into the wrong hands. Hell, I just

used

it on the wrong person, and look what happened!"

"But turning yourself in? Are you nuts?"

"I'm responsible for all of this. It was my invention, my commands."

"But you couldn't have known Mr. Hawthorne would take it this far!" Val interjected. "Or that he even had powers!"

"That doesn't matter," Blanc spat. "I put the ball in motion. I could've stopped after Sky, but I got paranoid. Greedy. If anyone should get the blame for this, it's me."

"But... but don't you realize what'll happen if you turn yourself in?" Val pleaded. "Mr. Hawthorne will just take me back and make me forget about you again!"

"Maybe you should!"

Val stared at Blanc, mouth agape. "What?"

"Maybe..." Blanc sighed. "Maybe that's for the best. All I ever did for you was trample all over your boundaries. Even if you enjoyed the results, knowing what I know now? That my stupid plan caused you so much pain? I know I'm just going to make things worse."

In that moment, it was like her suit and confident persona were stripped away. Val didn't see Blanc anymore. She didn't even see Weiss, not really.

She saw Gwen.

And Val knew, even if she couldn't quite remember, why she fell in love with her.

The dominance of Blanc and the seductive playfulness of Weiss got Val's attention, but it was her humanity that made Val stay. Even though Gwen had made mistakes - a lot of them, actually - she never pretended otherwise. And when she messed up, she was her own worst critic. Whenever she thought she had lost control, even a small amount, she would retreat into herself and fall apart. Even now, when she was suggesting something that seemed so callous, she wasn't being cruel. She didn't think she deserved Val after all she'd done, all the disaster her good intentions had wrought. She was so afraid of her own failure that she thought Val was safer on her own.

Even as Val knew what brought them together, she couldn't quite feel that same spark as before. All her memories were cold and murky. She

knew

what had happened between them, but couldn't

feel

any of it. There was a hole where their relationship should be. Even though Patti and Gwen had brought her into trance and done their best to fix what Mr. Hawthorne had done to her, they couldn't fill that hole.

But...

Val looked at the device Gwen held in her hands.

Maybe they still can.

"Madame..."

Gwen gasped softly. "Y-Yes?" she said, trying to recover her confident demeanor.

Val pointed at the machine. "I don't want you to destroy it. I want you to use it. On me."

"...Excuse me?" Gwen narrowed her eyes. "Did you not hear a

word

of what I said?"

"Yeah, I heard you. And that's why I want you to use it. You think you deserve to be punished for this, but rotting in prison isn't gonna help anything. You want to fix this? Fix it yourself."

"I really don't-"

"She's right," Patti interrupted. "At least, it's worth a shot. You can't run away from this, Gwen. That will only make things worse."

"But..." Gwen looked down at the machine. "I don't trust myself to not hurt you."

"I know." Val stepped over and put her arms on Gwen's shoulders. "But if anyone's gonna be messing around inside my head, I'd rather it be you."

Gwen looked up at Val. Her eyes were full of longing. As much as she wanted Val to be safe, she wanted

Val

even more. "Okay. We'll try it. But if it doesn't work?"

"It'll work."

"You can't know that."

Val smirked. "And you can't know it

won't

work."

Gwen rolled her eyes and looked over at Patti. "You really have been a bad influence on her. You've turned her into an utter brat, haven't you?"

Patti giggled, and Val let out a quiet chuckle of her own. "So," Val said, "we gonna do this?"

"Just a moment," Gwen replied, placing the device in Val's hands. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small box. "Patricia?"

"Those things always sting my eyes," Patti said. "Besides, I'm a little on-edge right now, a break would be nice."

"What is that?" Val asked.

Gwen held up the box and gave it a small shake. "Contacts. Fifteen bucks at a Halloween store. I've found they do a good job blocking out the flashes."

"Oh, yeah," Val remarked. "I

thought

your eyes looked different back when I first met you as Weiss."

"You were looking into my eyes?" Gwen chuckled. "What, were you expecting them to start swirling or turning colors?"

Val blushed. "I-I mean... it's just... I noticed it, is all."

"Honestly, though," Gwen smiled, "eye fixation

is

pretty hot..."

"Oi!" Patti interjected. "No stalling!"

Gwen sighed. "Fine. Back in a sec." She walked off down the hall. "Gotta be a bathroom somewhere..."

Val plopped down on the couch and waited for Gwen to return. Patti sat next to her and placed a hand on Val's knee. "It's gonna be alright," Patti said. She sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself than Val.

"I know." Val paused, the silence in the room expanding from one moment to several. Neither woman wanted to speak, both of them unsure of what could even be said.

"You know, uh..." Patti finally spoke up.

Val waited for her to continue.

"...never mind."

"Oh, come

on

," Val groaned. "I don't like sitting around in silence. Just say something, anything."

"I was just gonna say that you look good. In the uniform, or costume, or whatever."

Val blinked. "Uh... thanks."

Patti sighed. "Yeah, I knew I shouldn't have said it."

"No, I... I like the compliment. A-And you look good too."

"Tell me something I don't know," Patti giggled.

Val opened her mouth to speak-

FLASH.

"Ah! Fuck!" Patti cried, blinking rapidly. "Warn us before you use that thing!"

Gwen chuckled deviously as she walked into the room, and Val could now see that she was holding the machine in her right hand and the remote in her left, the battery hung around her shoulder. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Patricia! How terribly

rude

of me! And you, Valerie, are you quite alright?"

"Y-Yeah," Val stammered, her mind still reeling from the blast. She knew the feeling intimately, even if the actual memory was still hard for her to access.

"Very well, then. I'll do it again on the count of three. How does that sound?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Patti said, her face lighting up with excitement, "just use the damn thing already!"

"If you say so. One..."

FLASH.

"Buh..." Patti's head swayed slightly on her shoulders. "You said..."

"Said what?" Gwen grinned, clearly having a blast messing with the two couch-bound subs.

FLASH.

Val found herself smiling back. She didn't quite know why, but she was content to just sit back and let things happen to her. She drank in the happy, dizzy feelings her mind was submerged in.

"Oh, fuck yeah..." Patti giggled in a dazed, distant sort of way. "Now I remember... all those long nights, testing it-"

FLASH.

"-ouuttt..." Patti's eyes glazed over as her face went completely slack, drool creeping out the corner of her lip.

Gwen leaned down and kissed Patti on the cheek. "You were an excellent guinea pig, my dear. But you can stop thinking now. It's what we both want, after all."

Patti nodded slowly and sank even more into the plush fabric of the couch. Gwen turned her gaze towards Val, examining her just like she did back when they first met. "Yes," she purred, "just as susceptible as I remember."

Sus...

It was too much effort to make Val's brain do any kind of work. All she could do was sit there and soak up Gwen's words, letting them make their mark on her mind.

"I hope you can still understand me," Gwen softly, putting her hand under Val's chin and moving it so the superhero's eyes met hers. "I want you to know that... even if..." She wiped under her eye, her voice quavering just a touch. "Even if this doesn't work, I won't turn myself in. I want to make this work. We can run away together, Valerie. With your power, we could run and hide and they'd never find us."