Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

pyrokinetic fire. The guards burst into flames, some dying immediately, others turning and running, as though they could leave the deadly flames behind. As they ran they lit the Court like so many blazing candles, until one by one they fell, and guttered out.
    Lionstone stared blankly at the charred and steaming carnage around her Throne, and then turned to her maids-in-waiting. "Kill them! Kill them all!"
    The maids surged forward like attack dogs unleashed. Pointed teeth showed in their snarling mouths, and steel claws snapped out from under their fingernails.
    They were trained and deadly beasts of prey, conditioned to die rather than fail, packed with cybernetic augmentations. And Jenny Psycho stepped forward to meet them alone.
    "This has gone on for far too long. It's time to end it now."

    Her mind leaped out and dropped upon the maids, sinking deep into their minds and battling the conditioning at its roots. The maids fell to the ground, screaming and crying out, rolling and clawing at the floor like animals as an invisible war was waged in their minds. Jenny ripped away the conditioning with her esp, undid the neural connections and reconstituted the damaged brain tissues, returning the maids to who they had been before Lionstone took them to be her slaves. It was all over in a few moments, and then Jenny withdrew from their minds. The maids stopped their animal behavior and sat up, suddenly human again for the first time in years. At first they were stunned, and then slowly they came to themselves—their old selves. Some screamed, and tried to hide their nakedness. Some screamed, remembering what they had done, had been commanded to do, by Lionstone. They shook and shuddered, unable to cry with their artificial eyes. And some just looked around them in utter confusion. Toby Shreck stared intently at one of the maids, and then stepped forward.
    "Clarissa? Clarissa, is that you?"
    She looked at him blankly for a moment, and then recognition flooded her altered face. "Toby! Cousin Toby!"
    She ran forward into his arms. He held her tightly for a moment, and then took off his battered jacket and wrapped her up in it. Clarissa looked around her, at the Hell Lionstone had made.
    "Are we dead, Toby?"
    "No, love. You're alive again. The rebellion is here, and all the prisoners are being set free." He looked back at the others. "She's Family. Gregor's niece.
    Lionstone took her as a maid and made a monster out of her, and there was nothing any of us could do. Thank you, Jenny. Strikes me there are a lot of
    people who are going to want to thank you, too."
    "No big deal," said Jenny Psycho. "I think there's been enough fighting and killing. That's Lionstone's way. We're supposed to be different. You and Flynn look after the maids. We still have work to do."
    And as Toby and Flynn gathered up the maids and ushered them away out of the line of fire, Jenny moved back to confront Lionstone again. And then she stopped, and looked around sharply as Captain Silence moved uncertainly forward, staring at her searchingly. She looked at him flatly, not making it any easier for him, but eventually recognition flooded into Silence's face.
    "Diana?"
    "Not anymore," said Jenny. "That was somebody else."
    "I hardly recognized you. You look so… different."
    "It's called growing up, Captain. Happens to everyone eventually."
    "You know this person?" said Lionstone, frowning.
    "Of course he does," said Frost. "This is his daughter, Diana Vertue. Ship's esper on his last command."
    Silence looked at Frost. "You knew? How long have you known?"
    "I recognized her face on a Security posting some months back."
    "Then why didn't you tell me!"
    "You weren't ready to handle something like this. I'm not sure you're ready now.
    And I didn't want you distracted from your other responsibilities."
    Silence turned back to Jenny. "I'd heard you joined the underground. But what happened to you? To your voice? You look…"
    "Like I've been through Hell? That's because I have. This place doesn't frighten me. I've seen the real thing. I'm not Diana Vertue anymore. She died screaming in the esper interrogation cells in Silo Nine. Also known as Wormboy Hell. I'm
    Jenny Psycho now. For now and always. But then, we're both different people than we used to be, aren't we. Father? You've changed, too. This close, I can feel the Maze's energies working within you. How does it feel, Father, to know you've become the same kind of person you used to track down and