Fortuna's Regret (A Worm AU): Part 1

Quick Author's Note: This one is another Worm AU. I saw this prompt from somewhere (Dont' ask me where, I can't remember), and my mind decided to dredge up the prompt and ask me 'how would you write this'? It'll predominately be a crack fic. ‘Through machinations of Contessa, Taylor is related to the Triumvirate.’ And how they deal with that particular fact once they find out. They probably hadn't given the thought of kids much thought, and suddenly there is a teenager that's their child. How do they deal with it? How will they wish to be perceived by Taylor?

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts and inputs to these questions and general opinions in the story idea!

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Fortuna had earned quite a few names and titles over the years. Contessa by most, the bogeyman, a cryptid... Her personal favorite is 'the woman in a trench coat'. found herself sitting at her desk, contemplating her life choices. 

Now, Contessa did not, generally speaking, spend much time regretting her actions in life. It was an all around useless endeavor, especially when such actions couldn’t be undone. 

Were some of them bad? Perhaps. But when faced with a multitude of horrible options she liked to think she’s chosen the least horrible. 

Trying to prevent the extinction of humanity wasn’t exactly clean. If humanity ever learned of some of the things she’d had to do over the years, they’d easily classify her as a villain. 

Well, so be it. So long as humanity was actually alive to remember them as such. 

Regardless, there wasn’t much room for regret. 

But now, staring at the report in her hands, she felt that almost forgotten feeling well up within her. Along with some stirrings of dread. 

Her ability, ‘Path to Victory’, was one she’d had since a girl, the ability to find a path to any goal. If it sounded powerful, then that’s because it was. 

Need to sneak into a complex? Contessa would know each step necessary to sneak past the guards, the timing to avoid the cameras, the codes to deactivate any alarm… If there was a chance of victory, she could take it. 

Doctor Mother had called it the strongest precognitive ability known. And save for perhaps the Simurgh, Contessa would agree. 

That being said, it did come with a few issues. 

Not including the usual interference one precog would receive from another precog, ‘Path of Victor’s main weakness lay in not being told any of the ‘why’. 

Fortuna might ask how to ‘destroy person X’s life without Cauldron or Contessa being implicated’, and the answer might be to bribe the jury member of a court case completely unrelated to person X or his work.

In a vacuum, the steps made little sense. Contessa could complete them, and her involvement in the ‘Path’ would be over. 

She wouldn’t know that the jury member would feel guilty from accepting the bribe. Enough so that when the police questioned him about a separate case, he told more than he normally would have, which resulted in the police conducting a stakeout of a warehouse in an attempt to stop a slave ring. During the bust, several slavers make a run for it, eventually crashing into a car with two other people - Person X and a lady he’s having an affair with. Due to the high visibility the capture of the slave ring brings, the news of Person X and his affair also gets blown up by association. His wife divorces him and sues, the knowledge of his infidelity broadcasted everywhere, all while he is left with multiple broken bones in the hospital.  

His life is destroyed, with no chance of Cauldron or Contessa being implicated. 

Yet Contessa would never know how it would happen, merely that barring another precog’s interference (Which happened more often than one would think) it would. 

Over the years, she’d gotten better. Better at asking the right questions, better at limiting collateral damage, removing unknowns.

But once, Contessa breathed out shakily, once there was a young woman named Fortuna. A woman that had grown tired of seeing her friends sacrifice, despite knowing there was no other choice. While she didn’t believe it, she wanted to hope there was still a chance for them to be happy in the end. 

Contessa couldn’t help but roll her eyes at her past-self’s naïveté. 

Still, it had been her hope. 

It was this hope that had led her to asking a question. 

‘Path that allows my friends and I to be happy without compromising any ongoing Paths’. 

It was that hope that had her move down the steps of that Path. 

Her younger self had placed far too much trust in ‘Path to Victory’. She followed the steps perfectly and without question. 

She collected DNA samples from herself, Alexandria, Hero, Legend, and Eidolon. Crafted several Tinker devices to further merge the samples seamlessly. Slipped into a laboratory and smuggled the result in a batch with other vials. Hacked into their computers and messed with records and schedules she didn’t understand. 

And… that was it. Her involvement in the Path was over. 

Years passed, and nothing came from it. Contessa grew more experienced with ‘Path to Victory’, and more jaded with it and her job. Then the Simurgh appeared, which interfered with precogs across the globe. 

Contessa learned to work around the Simurgh’s meddling. Figured out how to deal with the headache that was Glaistig Uaine. Worked on using her power without becoming her power (an idea that at times seemed pointless). 

Time moved on. 

Eventually Contessa forgot about the steps taken. A disappointing failure at the time, now merely a foolish memory. 

Now she stared at the folder that Doctor Mother had sent her, and she wasn’t sure what to think. To know that a Path she had started so many years ago was still at work?

Confusion? Pride? 

As Contessa heard a commotion outside her office, the noise making it clear who was coming. 

Dread. Contessa decided firmly. The proper emotion was probably dread. 

She resisted the urge to call for a portal to another reality. Earth Zeta was nice this time of year, wasn’t it? Cannibalistic murder robots weren’t that bad… 

The door to her office slammed open with a crash, cracking the wall as Alexandria marched in, eyes blazing. On her heels strode in Legend and Eidolon. And while they didn’t look nearly as angry, it was clear they were upset. 

“Contessa.” Alexandria slammed her own folder on the table without any fanfare or pleasantries. “Explain this.”

Several papers slid out when it had been slammed down, including the photo of a girl. Hair like her own, Alexandria’s eyes. Her facial structure was a mix of Eidolon’s and Alexandria, and if anything she got Legend’s height. 

From where the file had slid out, Contessa could read “DNA testing for Taylor Hebert: results triggered several red flags, resulting in interference and faking the records to prevent any knowledge leaking. True test results are included and marked as high priority, we -“ 

Alexandria stood (hovered really) in front of her, practically vibrating with rage. 

“Tell me how it’s possible that these tests insist that the three of us are this girl’s parents!”

Legend looked calmer, but only marginally so. And Eidolon had an air of confusion, like the idea of having children broke him.

Contessa sighed heavily. ‘Path to get out of this unscathed?’

… 

Yeah, she thought not. 

So Contessa stares Alexandria in the eye and told the truth. 

“This is one of my rare regrets deciding to punish me.”