Main Chain - Interlude 25

	I has especially mixed feelings as the world of Hellsing faded out around me. On the one hand, I had managed to resurrect my Companions, added Seras to the roster, had an entire bevy of vampire powers under my command without any of the drawbacks, and I had managed to save a majority of London's population. On the other, I had helped Alucard find the death he had been dreaming of for so long. As much as he had annoyed and pestered me during the years I spent as his servant, there was a certain something about dear old Vlad that echoed in my soul. I would miss him. Of that I was sure.
	I had only those few moments of transition to myself, however, as Her voice broke in upon my reflect before the white room had even fully formed. I barely listened, as I had heard a version of the tirade before. Taunting me for having feelings towards my toys, missing my flesh pots enough to resurrect them, needling me about turning down Girly-card's oh-so-obvious advances. Same song, different verse. Instead of bothering to process any of it, I stared at the Jump Coordinator instead.
	There was no more flickering in her form. After Alien she had been down to two forms, spending about half a minute in each at a time. But now, entire minutes had passed and she had not transformed once. Her form was attractive enough. She had the appearance of an older woman, faint lines trailing from the corners of her eyes and mouth, traces of grey licking through red-gold locks that trailed down to past her shoulders. Her skin had the faint tinge of tanning to it, but with no obvious lines. Her dress was black speckled with small, white dots. It wasn't until I saw a meteor whip past that I realized it was no mere pattern but some kind of enchantment on the cloth.
	Eventually she realized I wasn't paying even an ounce of attention to her and gave a short cry of disgust. Her fingers snapped together repeatedly, like she was trying to catch the attention of a particularly stupid puppy.

	JC: I told you to pay attention when I was talking. Do you want me to remind you what happens when I'm displeased? Perhaps I can murder your companions a few more times? Hmmm?

	That caught my attention like nothing else she had said. My hands balled into fists until I could feel my nails biting into skin. It only strengthen my resolve for what I had been planning.

	MC: Send me home.
	JC: Excuse me? I could not have possible heard that correctly.
	MC: You heard me very well. Send me home. I'm tired of your abuse and I'm done playing your game.
	JC: Why you little... I told you ages ago that I wouldn't allow that! You're not leaving until I'm done playing with you!
	MC: I thought you might say that.

	My hand was already moving as the words left my lips. My right hand slipped up the sleeve of my left coast sleeve to draw an item I had stolen specifically for this occasion. It was a long metal spike, flattened at one end and roughly etched to a point at the other. To look at it the item appears wholly unremarkable. Just a simple spike like so many others used to kill vampires over the ages. I could see the Jump Coordinator's eyes fix upon it and confusion dance in them for a few seconds as she analyzed and realized just what I was holding.
	The half-step back and sharp breath she drew in as she comprehended what she was looking at made the corners of my lips turn upward.

	JC: Why do you have that? You didn't buy one of those!
	MC: You're quite right. I didn't.
	JC: Then, what? You're trying to threaten me with a fake?
	MC: Of course not. I would never dream of trying to threaten you with a fake Nail of Helena.

	I gave the holy artifact a short, quick spin in my hand as we traded words. The mere fact we were still doing so and she hadn't simply punished me for the threat told me volumes.

	JC: I could unmake you to your very atoms before you made it three steps!

	These words were hissed at me from between clenched teeth, anger and a dozen other emotions so barely contained in her form that it was causing her to tremble.

	MC: Again, you're right. Thankfully, I won't need three steps.

	With one fluid motion, I reversed my grip on the cursed holy nail and plunged it towards my own heart. I attached every ounce of speed and strength I had gathered over the last two hundred and fifty years into the action. Time slowed down just long enough for me to see her face shift from anger and annoyance to pure and absolute horror.
	The Nail stopped an inch from flesh. As I had expected.
	What I had not expected was the state of the Jump Coordinator in the moments after she stopped my suicidal action. Her hands had latched onto my arm like a drowning person might grasp a piece of driftwood. Her face was what arrested the gloating thoughts that tried to spring to my lips. She looked, well, devastated. Her face was awash in a mix of fear and sadness that made her look far more human than I had come to expect. Sure, she had displayed emotion before, but never sadness.

	JC: You're not allowed to leave me too!

	The words were all but bellowed at me, a sob cracking her words. She seemed to have used the last of her strength of those words. Her hands slipped from my arm and she sank to the floor in a small heap. She cried wildly, far more like a scared child than some sort of pan-dimensional immortal. I stared down at her for a long moment trying to decide if it was an act or a true breakdown. I gave a resigned, frustrated sigh as I realized it was the latter. My fingers reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose.
	So, on top of the worst twenty years of my extended life, I now had to deal with whatever was bothering the Jump Coordinator. With the very real possibility that my only reward for the effort may be a series of kicks to the nuts.
	Sometimes I really hated that my one true weakness was crying women.

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	After a bit of effort, I discovered that I could open a portal to my Warehouse from the White Room. I walked in and quickly returned with the small tea table, a plate with a variety of small cakes, a full tea set, and a steaming pot. They all levitated in and settled themselves in their proper order without so much as a second glance from me. They were all well trained, after all. I had also grabbed the last bottle of 7,417 Year Old Tenkau-Shen Ice Wine, in case she wanted something a little stronger.
	With that finished, I turned to the girl still sniffling and sobbing on the ground. She had curled herself into the fetal position on the white floor, which had become gray and dingy as if reacting to her emotions. It even felt like cold concrete when I knelt down next to her. I held in a second sigh as I extended a clean handkerchief towards her. She did not so much as look up or uncurl a single inch as she reached out to snatch the cloth.
	I backed off and took a seat on the far side of the table to give her a few moments to pull herself back together. Eventually she sat up, wiped her eyes, blew her nose in a rather unladylike manner, and regained enough of her composure to take the chair across from me. Her eyes, puffy and blood-shot, refused to meet my own and stared instead down at her empty tea cup. I took the hint and filled it with the fragrant, steaming liquid. Walter had taught me well and given me a sample of his preferred blend. Of course I had immediately set them to growing in the garden.
	It wasn't until she had silently requested a second cup of tea that she choose to speak to me. However, once she started, there was little that could stop the avalanche of words that followed. The following is a condensed version of the facts, as reading through the entire conversation would take the better part of a half-hour.

	I was a bitch. I'll admit that, but I'm not apologizing. It's just the way this works. It's how /we/ work. An individual gets selected to have the opportunity to join our "collective" and gets assigned a "coordinator". Those aren't really the right words, but they're the best way to get you to understand right now. We're not just given one individual at a time. We're capable of much more than that. We're giving all iterations of an individual across all realities. It's to maximize the chance of one of you reaching the end of the "application phase". Sometimes a couple versions on an individual reach the end, but that's rare in the extreme.
	But you, you bastard!, the other versions of yourself were either not interested, extremely stupid, or went home after a few Jumps content with the small prize they had earned. You're the last version of you left to me. If you go home, die, or leave, I'm left with nothing. Do you know what happens when a Coordinator runs out of iterations of individuals to send through the Jumps? Nothing! They get left in this little white room for half an eternity as punishment for failing to get even one individual across nearly infinite realities to join us.
	She ranted for quite a while after this about how infinite power means little if one is stuck in a single, plain room for half an eternity with no way to leave or make the waiting better. She'd seen others released after failing and some of them had to be put down because of the damage to their mental state. Others went out and tortured the next "batch" they were given, even though they knew what their punishment would be for failing a second time. They get stripped of all their powers at that point and tossed into a random world to survive as best they can. Which never goes very well.
	So, essentially, I was her last chance to avoid being locked in the white room until she was half-insane. It seemed like a screwed up system and I said at much. She snapped back that it was tradition and the only way they had ever found that worked. It kept numbers growing slowly enough that competition for resources wasn't an issue and weeded out inferior "applicants" who had made it through the selection process.	She had never had problems running the process before she got to me.
	So I calmly explained that I wasn't going anywhere, so long as she stopped acting like an insane harpy. I was just as interested in seeing the process through as she was getting me through it. She seemed relieved and smiled for the first time since I'd started seeing her.
	As a side note, I learned that the reason she had stopped shifting forms was due to my other iterations leaving. Each of them saw her differently, but because she was interacting with all of us at the same time, she kept flashing between all the forms. It was a side effect of the process they used and I was told it was best not to think about it too hard. It was just something that happened. The fact she was locked into one form was because I was the last one left. Simple enough.
	I asked what she really looked like, which earned me a hard glare paired with a mischievous smile. Apparently I would have to wait until the end of this strange journey to find out.
	In the end, I was given a choice of where I wanted to go next. In fact, I was given free choice over all my next 24 Jumps. She did suggest not to waste all the vacation Jumps right now, as there was still a long way for me to go. So I told her and was just as quickly off to the pre-Jump planning session. Just like I had been allowed before the Jump Coordinator had lost her mind.
	I only hoped that she stayed fixed.