Era of Ezri

The Mad Woman, the Spy and the Bug (Prologue)

Year- 3000, Spring.

Where there's chaos, curiosity is there to pursue it.

It was an unusually stormy night in Gloria Bridge, the wind howled at the moon tirelessly and sleet stoned windows in hopes of shattering the panes of glass.

Maude, a woman in her late forties paced around her bedroom in the attic of a house on the Truman estate as the storm roared on.

Her room was a mess. The desk had been flipped, vases were smashed, books were pulled off shelves, and the bedding and mattress were on the floor. Someone had done a number on the place, and there was no question as to who.

Maude continued to pace, mumbling to herself with her eyes closed as though she was saying a prayer, but Maude's heart was black as coal, there wasn't a God in the Universe that would accept her.

As the mad woman rambled quietly, the tone and pitch of her voice changed repeatedly, as though she were playing the roles of two people in a conversation. She paid no mind to the levitating mirror in the centre of the room and the face of the man that could be seen through it.

"Maude, calm down, it was merely a suggestion. I know you'll find the girl's location soon enough, there are only so many places Lady Ocean could've hidden her daughter." A figure with a dark buzzcut and skin the colour of sand spoke, the man on the other side of the Mirror. 

His prominent accent was impossible to miss and his overgrown beard which was the colour of soot, made his face even more memorable to Brok, who was hiding by the slightly open doorway, peering in through the small gap.

Maude groaned in frustration. "We'll find her? We've been searching for the girl for four years and we've got nothing. If only Lady Ocean would talk, that righteous bitch, I should cut her tongue off next."

The man in the mirror sighed, listening to Maude continue to rant about the things she was going to do to poor Lady Ocean of Finch, who after years of torture still wasn't prepared to share any information on the whereabouts of her firstborn child.

The tanned man was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a tearing sound. It was Maude, who was now ferociously ripping the wallpaper from the walls.

'It was only a matter of time before she lost it, inhaling Tune will do that to a person.' The tanned man thought, thinking of the many times he'd caught Maude sneaking the purple orbs from the laboratory.

"Maude, we also need to talk about the serum. It's not working and the results are getting worse by the day. Most patients are dying before showing any signs of becoming a Collector and those that don't, die a day after they begin to exhibit signs of possessing an ability." The bearded man, voiced.

"What did you just say?!" Maude exclaimed, in between tearing off a large square which she haphazardly flung to the floor when she was done with it.

Maude moved back to the middle of the room to look the bearded man in his eyes.

"You don't wanna hear the truth but I won't lie," the tanned man spoke determinedly, " 'Your miracle potion' is never gonna happen and you're making a mess. People are dying and it's only a matter of time before Factions start to realise that their natives are leaving and aren't coming back. It'll raise alarms and us Buggs will be the first people on their radar. You need to shut this down now, Maude." The bearded man finished, breathing heavily. As his people's leader, it was his job to protect them and Maude's activities were doing the opposite.

Maude stood facing the mirror but her eyes had drifted to one particular spot and had become fixed there. It was as though she had been hypnotised by the ripples of energy circling around the enchanted object and had been put in a trance.

The man in the mirror dragged a hand down one side of his face frustratedly as he waited impatiently for Maude's outburst. He was well aware of the side effects of Tune and delayed responses happened to be one of them.

Tune was an addictive drug and chemical byproduct of large-scale spells, mainly found as a purple powder but often condensed into marble-like balls and sold.

Like she had never frozen, Maude jumped to life, her previous stoic expression transforming into one of unbridled rage. Her eyes became daggers and her eyebrows arched, even her teeth made an appearance as she began to breathe rapidly through flared nostrils.

"Listen here Doom, you work for me, not the other way round. I give you a location and you go there to search for the girl, to bring back to me, you do nothing more and nothing less." Maude bit out as she pointed a crooked finger at the mirror. "Also, what happens to the test subjects is my business and I'll have you know that I will have my antidote and there will come a day where I'll possess the same powers as you and everyone else but until then, I won't give up." Maude spat quite literally, with drool dribbling down her chin and a dissociated look in her eyes.

Doom placed his face in his hands, knowing that he should've known better than to try and convince a mad woman to see reason. At the start of the conversation, he'd attempted to warm her cold heart by stroking her ego first, but as soon as he'd hinted at calling off the search for Lady Ocean's daughter, Maude had lost it and destroyed the whole room.

It had been years since Maude had begun desperately searching for the whereabouts of the six-year-old girl. That idea she'd been outsmarted by Lady Ocean, who'd managed to send her daughter away from the tricky situation, had made her more sadistic than before. But Doom could've sworn there was something deeper going on, it seemed like Maude would die searching for the child and he couldn't understand why.

There was no guarantee that Lady Ocean's daughter would inherit her mother's powers and become an Elite, but even so, Lady Ocean was going nowhere and Maude could use the woman's abilities however and whenever she wanted.

"And have you forgotten Doom, that I'm on my way to having the final Mirror in my grasp?" Maude cackled. "Anything will be possible once I have all eleven."

From Brok's position beside the door, his jaw almost hit the floor when Maude proudly announced that she had the missing Mirrors and ten at that. There was no doubt in Brok's mind that Maude was speaking the truth, her ego was larger than the sun, if she had the means and opportunity to flaunt those reptilian scales of hers, she would do just that.

Doom looked up in surprise, he was aware that Maude had a couple of Crystals in her possession but not all eleven. It was clear that the Tune had taken a toll on her brain, Maude liked to tease you with bits and pieces of information to keep you guessing, she never blatantly gave away the whole truth.

Over time, Doom had gotten familiar with Maude's manipulative nature and wasn't stunned she'd managed to acquire three of the Mirrors two years prior by doing what she did best, become a snake. Although Maude couldn't literally turn into the creature, her behaviour was nothing short of the deceiving reptiles.

Even though Maude has no physical abilities like the Collectors or the Creators, she had mastered the art of words, and believe me when I say that words can destroy nations when chosen considerately.

"How?" Doom commanded, having forgotten that he wasn't talking to one of his people.

"Watch your tone, rat." Maude hissed, knowing full well that the name would get under Doom's skin.