Okay, so in the vein of people getting more complex stories and coming around to Wanderer rather than being one-note characters there to hate Wanda and make her look ever so saintly compared to them, I present: Sharon.
I imagine, the first time Sharon sees Melanie after Wanda is removed, she, like, starts to sneer at her, and then catches her eyes and realises, oh my God, Melanie's back! The parasite is gone!
And rushes to hug her cousin.
Only for Melanie to either flinch away, a residual reaction of Wanda's, or hold out a hand to stop her, a reaction all her own for having been right there with Wanda as all of Sharons rage was directed at them, and still being mad at her cousin for it.
And, you know, by the time the books nearly over, I can't imagine that most everyone in the caves didn't know Melanie was still conscious in her body, or at least hadn't heard that Wanda was saying that, if they didn't believe it. So, I think Sharon knew the rumor and didn't believe it. Wanted to believe the worst in Wanda, you know.
And I think Melanie would know that.
And I think, Sharon would say something like "I missed you, I'm so glad the parasites gone."
And Mel, it's probably only hours after the extraction. Emotions are high. Melanie probably starts to tear up because, of course, Sharon loves her but hates Wanda, and oh God, Wanda really was almost gone like Sharon thinks.
And Sharon hugs her. And Melanie, missed her cousin, this cousin she remembered from childhood who loved her, would hug Sharon back and say she missed her too.
She could tell her cousin she was in there, that she remembered all the hatred she sent Wanda, could tell her she loves Wanda and that Sharon shouldn't hate her, but all that can be left for another day. Today has already been bad enough, and Sharon probably needs this win. This one good thing. She'll find out soon enough that Wanda's not gone anyway, it don't have to come from Melanie.
Sharon probably finds out all too soon.
She probably goes to Doc, later that day or the next, intent on making up with him, since he was the one that removed the parasite from his cousin, and she misses him.
Only to find Ian there clutching a cryotank, and Doc examining the other two tanks. And she realises what's been going on.
They're not killing the parasites.
But she just got her cousin back, and maybe that unadultered joy, that first glimpse of hope she hasn't had in years, is still filling her chest with a bubbly sort of excitment, and she's honestly tired.
She doesn't want to be angry again.
So she walks up to doc, past a woman she doesn't know, watching her fearfully. Past Ian who watches her with warey distrust, as he clutches the tank closer.
Then she sidles up next to Doc, and when he turns to look up at her, she asks.
"What are you doing?" In a tone that's maybe not soft, but soft for her.
And Doc tells her, hesistant and unsure what's happening. He's making sure the tanks are still functioning, though he's not sure how to tell if they start to shut down or how to fix it, but he needs something to do.
She asks why.
And he knows everything that one question intels. So he answers all the unspoken questions instead.
"Wanda wouldn't tell me how to do it, if we didn't promise not to kill them. She's didn't want any more death. We're gonna send them off planet."
But inevitably, there it is. The rage. She clinches her fists and chokes with the effort not to shout, not to start raging. She's here to make up with her boyfriend, not make things worse.
But still she has to make sure she understands this correctly.
"So they'll just be... taking over someone else." She bites through her teeth. "Some other alien on one of the other planets the parasites invaded?"
And, he knows her so well, he answer more than just the questions she asking- responds to the implication that he's becoming complicit in their alien oppressor system of things.
He says. "We can't save everyone shar. And we can't help anyone if we can't help ourselves first. What can we do from a cave, ma cher, for the blind bats, the walking flower, any of them, from a thousand light years away?"
And he keeps going. Should they steal a rocket ship and launch themselves into space to a planet with an atmosphere that will kill them upon arrival? To aid what resistance there? The 37 people in these damp dark caves are the sole resistance against an empire that spans 12 planets and quadrillions of citizens.
"I know we're only shuffling the problems around. Making more, maybe, as we solve just a handful. But it's somewhere to start. They think we're monsters as much as we think they are. At least doing this, in a century or so when they wake up and can tell the story of how they were kidnapped and though it was death, that, appently the humans have the capacities mercy. At least we had some kindness. We spared them. We only sent them away when we could have been the violent killers they've been lead to believe we are. And maybe that will start a movement there. Maybe that will be the thing that turns these souls, or some other souls into people like Wanda, who regret their empire's actions, regret the lives they took."
And really, that's why she loves doc. He's kind and thoughtful, and he always knows what she needs to hear.
Because, begrudgingly, she understands. Of course they can't save other planets, they couldn't even save their own. Killing these souls wouldn't save the aliens they would use for hosts. It would just be some other parasite that took the body.
And she hates Wanderer. She hates her so much, but the damn parasite is actually helping. They don't need it, Sharon knows it could die in that tank, and they would continue to survive, but... They had medicine now. They have so much more food than they ever have. Their cars all have current licenses plates and tags from all over the country that can't be traced back to some theft in the dead of night, a fridge full parashables hooked up the a portable battery, and solar powered charger in the crop field under all the mirrors, they had new clothes and soft soaps, and conditioner. Some days Sharon almost feels like a person again.
And all because it can go shopping like it's a person.
So fine. They need Wanderer, and Wanderer's help comes with conditions. Fair enough. So would hers.
"Okay." She says, and Doc looks surprised.
"Okay?"
"Yeah. Okay. I'm tired of fighting."
"Me too." And he smiles all sappy in the way that makes her chest flutter.
And then the souls are gone, and Wanderer is back, and Sharon tries to avoid her more than anything.
The hate disappears a little, as she watches Melanie, the primary victim of the parasite, smile at her and laugh at Jamie dumb jokes right beside her, a laugh that sounds so frighteningly like Melanies even in that little body, and as Melanie sneers and snaps right back at her mother when the damn thing won't defend its self even after all this time.
Melanie tells her eventually that she really had been in there the whole time. That the most antagonistic thing Wanderer had ever really done to Mel was cut her hair. That once they'd gotten here, she'd spent most of her time trying to make things right for Melanie, and everyone that looked at her.
If Melanie's forgive the parasite, well, Sharons not going to go that far, but it goes a little way to making it easier not to flinch when she catches the tale-tell silver glint in those obnoxiously big brown eyes of her. It makes it more tolerable to work beside her in the fields. To help her with inventory after a raid.
If her hot-headed cousin with a petty streak a mile wide can forgive the damn thing, she can learn I live with her around at least.
