Before the Storm! Overcoming Sorrow 5.1
February 22nd, 2011
I was ejected from my bed forcefully as a shrill scream pierced the fog of my fading dream. Sheets tangled around me while I struggled to make sense of the world. I was in my room at home, the person in my bed ceased their screaming only to shift to wailing sobs. Amy was in my bed, she was crying. She had another nightmare.
I was back on my feet and crawling back onto my bed in an instant, pulling the disheveled brunette into a tight hug as her crying seemed to only grow worse.
"Shh, it's okay Amy, I'm right here." I whispered into her ear, while tracing soothing circles along her back. "Nobody will hurt you here, you are safe."
The girl in my arm shivered. "I keep seeing their faces. Their eyes…" Amy said between her wailing. "I unmade them. I ended their existence."
"Yes, you did." I answered. "Because of you they can't hurt anyone else ever again."
"How can you just say it like that? My power should be a Panacea yet I used it to kill. Thirty seven people Tay, three of which were children."
"Heartbreaker's children." I reminded her. "All of them were powerful Masters in their own right. You did the right thing, Amy. None of your friends will hold it against you."
"What if I hold it against me?" I held her tightly as she spoke. "Carol was right about me. I should just turn myself over to the Birdcage before I do something to someone I care about, something that I can't take back."
"If you did that, I'd break you out." I said as she sucked in a sharp breath. "I told you, I'm not going to give up on you. You mean far too much to me, and I wouldn't stand around doing nothing while one of my most important people was sent to a literal hell on earth."
"I don't deserve to have you in my life."
"Face it, you're stuck with me Ames." I glanced at my alarm clock and saw just how close it was to going off regardless. "Wanna surprise Dad with breakfast?"
I was grateful to see the ghost of a smile across her face.
I let Amy use the restroom first while I got started on breakfast. It wasn't anything fancy, but thanks to our training we tended to eat a lot. Scrambled eggs with sausage links and toast. Two dozen eggs met our mixer and were set to sizzling.
Amy came down and took over the prep work while I headed back upstairs to take care of my own needs. The cooked eggs and sausage were covered with cheese in a casserole dish and tossed into the oven, then it was off for our morning run and spar. We were keeping it light in the mornings where school would get in the way, so there was no spectacle and no Vicky. Genkai had her on a special program now that she was starting to tap into her own latent Spirit Energy.
I did not envy her.
The snakes on the other hand? Maybe a little.
We mixed up our routes, mostly to avoid the paparazzi that were having a field day that Amy had moved out of the Dallon home and into mine. Add in Carol's mandated therapy after being Mastered by Cherish? The media circus was a bit much, which is why I shouldn't have been surprised that they were getting creative with stalking us.
One person was jogging along the path we were on, and just as we came up alongside him, grabbed my arm. "Ms. Hebert, care to make a state—"
I slammed him to the ground and pinned his arm behind him until I heard it dislocate.
Let it be known, I hated vultures.
"Quit your bitching." I hissed. "You chose to attack an out cape in public, you can fucking deal with the consequences."
He looked up at Amy, hope sparkling in his eyes.
"I'm not healing you."
We left him there and continued our jog, placing a call to the police as we did.
I really hated Mondays.
It said something that the police were content to take a verbal statement rather than ask us to come in. Amy had put enough of them back together after gang attacks to earn more than a bit of good will, not to mention everyone knew she had stopped Heartbreaker. The Guild was even in the process of paying Amy his considerable bounty.
That didn't erase the trauma Amy endured thanks to him. Seriously, fuck Heartbreaker. If he wasn't already doomed to what amounted to eternal torment, I would ask for him to be brought back from the depths of hell and send him back myself. Slowly, and in pieces.
He deserved nothing less.
It was almost surreal that after all that, Amy wanted to return to school to finish out her year, but I understood the resolve she was showing. She refused to be seen as weak, she didn't want anyone to take her choices away from her like that stain on humanity had tried to do. It was her choice to kill him, and she accepted that it had to be done. She had killed people just as I had, we were both killers now no matter how we justified it.
We both knew that made the next time easier, we'd crossed the line once, doing it again would be simpler reasoning. Humanity was a fragile thing, something easy to lose sight of when you stood above others, or had something worth sacrificing for. We could justify anything in the name of an ideal or goal, and we'd crossed a line we could never take back.
Genkai was helping us as she could, between her council and history lessons. Her love, Toguro, was a bastard, but he did what he felt was necessary to never be weak again. Yusuke had been his challenge to that way of thinking, to see which path was right. In the end, Toguro accepted he had been wrong, he learned that lesson, that might doesn't always make right, even if it cost him his soul to learn that lesson. He did it so others might learn from him, and Yusuke had. I wanted to count myself among that number, others learned the hard lessons through experience, it was only right that those to come after heeded the lessons of those who walked before us.
Arcadia put Winslow to shame. I already knew this from my visits over the last month to meet up with Amy and Vicky, but there were clean halls, no obvious gang activity, hell, not even a clandestine drug deal in the bathroom according to my senses. The teachers were on point when things went bad, which was a rare thing. If homeschooling wasn't working out so well for me, I might have considered putting in a request to enroll next year.
It didn't matter, Amy was a senior and I was testing out for my GED in June, high school was a fleeting thing for both of us. I'd follow her to Brockton U if she wanted to attend, otherwise we would forge our own path.
It still surprised me that Arcadia didn't object to my shadowing Amy in the wake of Heartbreaker's attack on the school. The alternative was to pull her from school, and Arcadia likely didn't want to lose the clout of having one of the biggest names in Capes attending. That she often healed students when injured, especially on the sports teams? Yeah, they would be fools to let her go.
The teachers didn't even bother me as I did my own class work, my phone was granted access to the repeaters at all times in a similar way most of New Wave's was, Vicky had lost the privilege long before all the drama went down. It beat having to explain how my phone was seemingly Tinkertech for how it could bypass the faraday cage over the school. Still, I had a laptop paired to my phone and was blitzing through my schooling.
"Kinda jealous you're getting to graduate after only two years of high school."
I glanced over at Amy beside me, she was writing a short essay on the One Hundred Year War. "Says the girl that skipped second grade."
"High School is so awkward when you are normal, add powers onto that?"
I winced. Amy had triggered in public during her freshman year, when Vicky was almost killed in an attack by some two bit group. Add in her family already being unmasked, it would make things incredibly awkward.
"Not sure you want to go through what I did to escape high school." I said, softly.
Memories of the locker weren't pleasant, spending two days slowly being eaten while dying of hypothermia and dehydration? Absolute hell was one word for it. Arcadia wasn't that school, but it was close enough to dredge up the memories.
Amy fell silent, her essay forgotten as what she said hit her. I hated it, but we were both broken girls with heaps of trauma to work through. Hiding from it wouldn't do either of us any favors in the long run.
Still, Amy's trauma was fresher, raw. I'd tried to talk her into taking it easy for at least another week, but she wasn't having any of it. The nightmares hadn't stopped, but they weren't as frequent. All I could do was be there for her as she handled it in her own way.
"Vicky's picking up pizza." I said, attempting to lighten the mood. "Pity it takes so much energy to fly."
"Yeah…" She agreed, wistfully. "We'll get there eventually."
That we would. Genkai's training was never easy, but the results spoke for themselves. Two months and I could bench press a bus and survive massive explosions. Even less time and Amy was able to spawn forests at will. Castiel lacked our raw power but he could hold his own thanks to fine control of his energy in conjunction with his power. Vicky was able to see Genkai in her spirit form now at least, but she still hadn't managed anything resembling external control of her Spirit Energy. Sophia…
Well, Cas was putting her through the ringer if the recent picture of her broken nose was any indication. A simple message accompanied the photo.
'I warned her.'
It had been a good laugh before school, something that we both needed. Sophia was a monster, she had a hand in killing me. It irritated me to no end that not one of the trio had been brought to justice. Madison skirted out by latching onto Insight, Emma's dad claimed a psychotic break and got her into a psych ward instead, and Sophia had gone to ground until shit hit the fan and bizarrely ended up being one of the few to stand with me.
Sophia helped me get Amy back. Even if she might not have been needed in the end, she hadn't backed down in the face of Heartbreaker. Amy had saved herself, but she hadn't been in any condition to do much else. Who knows how far she might have slipped if we hadn't found her, or how far Heartbreaker's scheme might have gone if Sophia hadn't helped bring Uber down.
I didn't like it, but Sophia had stepped up when it counted. It didn't absolve her of what she did, but it was still something. Enough at least that I wasn't planning on chasing her down again to put in prison. That her association with Cas kept her close enough to keep an eye on her only helped, even if they were nominally in Insight's camp.
Something about her didn't sit well with me, and Cas agreed. She had her hands in too much, something told me Insight would be willing to do a great many things to accomplish her goals. Hiring my bullies was among them for whatever reason. She had to know that would only serve to push me away, so why bring them onboard if I was one of her recruitment targets?
I was missing something and it irritated me to no end.
"You're overthinking things again." Amy said, just as the lunch bell sounded. "Come on, greasy pizza will do us both some good."
"You can't unclog your own arteries." I teased, pinching her side.
"Nope." She said with a faint smile as she swatted my hand away. "What I can do is make a super plant that does it for me, and tastes like chocolate."
I froze in place. "No way."
She turned back and smiled. "Be good and I might even share."
I shook my head, chuckling to myself. "You are a cruel woman, you know that?"
She grimaced. "I know, but I don't want to be."
I flinched and pulled her into a hug. "You be whoever the fuck you want to be."
"And if I wanted to subjugate the world?" She whispered.
"Then I would be right by your side, helping you." I said, firmly, to her surprise. "If you felt it necessary, the world obviously deserves it. Now chin up, we have pizza to conquer first."
Her smile broke through again, "Sure thing, Tay."
I would do whatever was necessary to protect that smile.
Vicky swooped in with an armful of boxes loaded with cheesy goodness, the table cheered as she set down and began to distribute them. More than a few curious looks were directed at Amy and I as we took our seats.
More than that, I could sense other Parahumans at the table. Dean wasn't among them either, which meant other Wards were sitting with us. I recognized Dennis and Chris from prior visits to Arcadia, but the buff guy two seats down from them, Aegis, wasn't familiar otherwise.
Were they really that obvious about their identities and friendships? It was a wonder any identities remained secret in this city. I knew Amy could sense them too, whatever mental blocks had been restraining her powers were gone, blown away in her weakest moment. She could freely manipulate plants without burrowing them into her flesh, she could even fire her Spirit Energy.
Amy was one of the most dangerous people in the world, no question. She could end countries with a thought, fight back armies with her own power. I doubted even the Triumvirate could bring her down without casualties.
I knew I couldn't stop her if it came to that. I just didn't have it in me to hurt someone I cared so much about. She was there for me, prickly as she could be, a rock in the storm that was my life even as her own soul was adrift in turmoil. I would do everything in my power to protect her, even from herself.
Dean was watching Vicky from a few tables over, and seemed to be glowering at the rest of the Wards that had elected to sit at our table today. It was hard to turn down free pizza, and this was Amy's first day back since the Heartbreaker incident. They were worried about her, I could practically feel the concern wafting off their auras.
Dennis wasted no time digging into the pizza, practically cramming the entire slice into his mouth. We all sat there, watching with a bit of morbid curiosity if he would end up choking on the damn thing.
"What?" He asked, his mouth still stuffed.
"If you choke, I'm making Vicky Heimlich you and I won't heal you after." Amy said dryly, taking a few slices of cheese pizza as she did.
Whatever he tried to say was lost in an indecipherable mess of grunts that earned him no shortage of derision from the rest of the table. I couldn't deny that there wasn't a certain amount of macabre entertainment to the display. I did have to bite my tongue on a joke that might have outed him as a Ward though. There were a few of Vicky's friends at the table that weren't parahumans and I didn't want to risk it. There was far too much faith being left to the 'unwritten' rules for my tastes.
"As amusing as this is, I have to second the sentiment. Amy's still on a break and I'd rather not have to do the first aid necessary to keep someone alive after Vicky crushed their rib cage."
"Taylor, right?" Chris asked.
I nodded. "I also go by Esprit when I'm playing hero."
Aegis snorted. "Isn't your costume just a green domino mask?"
I grinned. "Basically. Ever since the fucking Empire outed me I just didn't see the point of having a proper costume, so I just grabbed a pack of green masks and called it a day. Besides, normal clothes are cheaper to replace than a costume."
Chris laughed. "It's kind of hilarious that PHO still hands out bans for posting your civilian name when you're so open about it."
"Not by choice." I grumbled. "I just don't see the point of trying to downplay it."
"The Empire is a blight on our city." Aegis said. "My family hasn't had an easy time of things."
"They won't be around much longer, Carlos." Vicky said. I was grateful for her saying his name because thinking of him as Aegis was likely to see me slipping up on his name. "With everything they've pulled over the years, they can't hide behind the rules for much longer."
"Easy for you to say." Dennis interjected now that his mouth wasn't stuffed more than the crust. "Say you manage to get rid of the Empire, all that does is invite Lung to take over, or someone else comes in. What's to prevent that?"
"The Protectorate." I said, coldly. "Kinda their job."
"Dennis may act the fool, but he has a point." Carlos said. "A gang war would be a disaster."
"So, you put them down." Amy said with surprising vehemence. "They chose to be villains, so treat them like fucking villains."
"You sound like you want the heroes to kill them." Chris muttered.
"Because I am." Amy snapped. "Groups like the Empire should have never been allowed to become entrenched. The Empire should have died the same day Fleur did."
"It isn't that simple." Dennis tried to say, but I cut him off.
"Why isn't it? The Empire attacked me with the intention of turning me into a sex slave. Look what happened with Rune when they failed. The rules only protect those with power, the villains, all because we need them to show up if an Endbringer attacks."
"That's a rather pessimistic outlook." Dennis said.
"Doesn't make it any less true though." Vicky said. "Just look at the Nine. You can't tell me that a sniper from a mile away couldn't have ended Jack Slash by now."
"Crawler and the Siberian both laugh off bullets." Dennis countered. "Hell, just last week the air force attempted an airstrike against them. The Siberian shrugged it off."
"Where did you hear about that?" I asked with a smirk.
Beside me, Amy was typing out a message to Insight, which I wasn't happy about, but the know it all had been helpful, so I was willing to play nice for now. He had likely seen some classified PRT file at a debriefing and I intended to have some fun at his expense.
A laughing emoji was followed by a 1 sec on Amy's phone before the video popped up. Before Dennis could find his words, Amy had the video playing.
"Huh, she can apply her invulnerability to those she touches." I said, watching the tinker tech recorded video.
We watched as Jack Slash was all smiles, dusting off Bonesaw's ruffled skirt when Amy abruptly stood, leaving her phone on the table as she hurried off. I grabbed it and moved to follow, reassuring Vicky as I did. Something had spooked her, it was obvious with how rigid her movements were as she hurried outside. Amy was barely two steps out the door before she threw up. I was at her side in an instant, a pale blue wafting off me as I traced gentle circles across her back.
"I'm just like her."
The words were a ghost of a whisper between retching sobs and dry heaves, but I heard them all the same. My arms were around her in what I hoped was a comforting hug, holding her tight as she descended into further fits and cried into my shoulder.
We stayed like that well after the bell sounded, the only noises were her sniffles and the occasional sob. I'd handed her a tissue and set her in my lap. Another bell sounded before she finally spoke.
"Carol once told me how Bonesaw could have been one of the greatest healers to walk the earth, but her selfishness drove her to become a monster. Carol made sure all I ever did was heal, and guilted me each and every time I tried to branch out." A choked chuckle followed at the pun, I let myself smile because it was a little humorous. "Early on, she always asked me if I was sure that I hadn't missed anything, that I hadn't made any mistakes… I couldn't take time to rest or relax, the guilt was always too much thanks to her."
"Oh Amy." I pulled her in tighter, tears now dripping off my own cheeks. "Carol was such an ass."
Amy snorted and I didn't even care that she shot snot all over me, I'd managed to get a laugh out of her.
"She really was."
Author's Notes:
Okay, so I originally said I wasn't going to restart this until I had Canberra finished... Well, I'm not that patient. Arc 5 is short, 4 chapters with all four clocking in around the length of a longer Inheritance chapter. (Which remains my primary focus) Also, whoops, forgot to toss this up over here.
I was ejected from my bed forcefully as a shrill scream pierced the fog of my fading dream. Sheets tangled around me while I struggled to make sense of the world. I was in my room at home, the person in my bed ceased their screaming only to shift to wailing sobs. Amy was in my bed, she was crying. She had another nightmare.
I was back on my feet and crawling back onto my bed in an instant, pulling the disheveled brunette into a tight hug as her crying seemed to only grow worse.
"Shh, it's okay Amy, I'm right here." I whispered into her ear, while tracing soothing circles along her back. "Nobody will hurt you here, you are safe."
The girl in my arm shivered. "I keep seeing their faces. Their eyes…" Amy said between her wailing. "I unmade them. I ended their existence."
"Yes, you did." I answered. "Because of you they can't hurt anyone else ever again."
"How can you just say it like that? My power should be a Panacea yet I used it to kill. Thirty seven people Tay, three of which were children."
"Heartbreaker's children." I reminded her. "All of them were powerful Masters in their own right. You did the right thing, Amy. None of your friends will hold it against you."
"What if I hold it against me?" I held her tightly as she spoke. "Carol was right about me. I should just turn myself over to the Birdcage before I do something to someone I care about, something that I can't take back."
"If you did that, I'd break you out." I said as she sucked in a sharp breath. "I told you, I'm not going to give up on you. You mean far too much to me, and I wouldn't stand around doing nothing while one of my most important people was sent to a literal hell on earth."
"I don't deserve to have you in my life."
"Face it, you're stuck with me Ames." I glanced at my alarm clock and saw just how close it was to going off regardless. "Wanna surprise Dad with breakfast?"
I was grateful to see the ghost of a smile across her face.
I let Amy use the restroom first while I got started on breakfast. It wasn't anything fancy, but thanks to our training we tended to eat a lot. Scrambled eggs with sausage links and toast. Two dozen eggs met our mixer and were set to sizzling.
Amy came down and took over the prep work while I headed back upstairs to take care of my own needs. The cooked eggs and sausage were covered with cheese in a casserole dish and tossed into the oven, then it was off for our morning run and spar. We were keeping it light in the mornings where school would get in the way, so there was no spectacle and no Vicky. Genkai had her on a special program now that she was starting to tap into her own latent Spirit Energy.
I did not envy her.
The snakes on the other hand? Maybe a little.
We mixed up our routes, mostly to avoid the paparazzi that were having a field day that Amy had moved out of the Dallon home and into mine. Add in Carol's mandated therapy after being Mastered by Cherish? The media circus was a bit much, which is why I shouldn't have been surprised that they were getting creative with stalking us.
One person was jogging along the path we were on, and just as we came up alongside him, grabbed my arm. "Ms. Hebert, care to make a state—"
I slammed him to the ground and pinned his arm behind him until I heard it dislocate.
Let it be known, I hated vultures.
"Quit your bitching." I hissed. "You chose to attack an out cape in public, you can fucking deal with the consequences."
He looked up at Amy, hope sparkling in his eyes.
"I'm not healing you."
We left him there and continued our jog, placing a call to the police as we did.
I really hated Mondays.
It said something that the police were content to take a verbal statement rather than ask us to come in. Amy had put enough of them back together after gang attacks to earn more than a bit of good will, not to mention everyone knew she had stopped Heartbreaker. The Guild was even in the process of paying Amy his considerable bounty.
That didn't erase the trauma Amy endured thanks to him. Seriously, fuck Heartbreaker. If he wasn't already doomed to what amounted to eternal torment, I would ask for him to be brought back from the depths of hell and send him back myself. Slowly, and in pieces.
He deserved nothing less.
It was almost surreal that after all that, Amy wanted to return to school to finish out her year, but I understood the resolve she was showing. She refused to be seen as weak, she didn't want anyone to take her choices away from her like that stain on humanity had tried to do. It was her choice to kill him, and she accepted that it had to be done. She had killed people just as I had, we were both killers now no matter how we justified it.
We both knew that made the next time easier, we'd crossed the line once, doing it again would be simpler reasoning. Humanity was a fragile thing, something easy to lose sight of when you stood above others, or had something worth sacrificing for. We could justify anything in the name of an ideal or goal, and we'd crossed a line we could never take back.
Genkai was helping us as she could, between her council and history lessons. Her love, Toguro, was a bastard, but he did what he felt was necessary to never be weak again. Yusuke had been his challenge to that way of thinking, to see which path was right. In the end, Toguro accepted he had been wrong, he learned that lesson, that might doesn't always make right, even if it cost him his soul to learn that lesson. He did it so others might learn from him, and Yusuke had. I wanted to count myself among that number, others learned the hard lessons through experience, it was only right that those to come after heeded the lessons of those who walked before us.
Arcadia put Winslow to shame. I already knew this from my visits over the last month to meet up with Amy and Vicky, but there were clean halls, no obvious gang activity, hell, not even a clandestine drug deal in the bathroom according to my senses. The teachers were on point when things went bad, which was a rare thing. If homeschooling wasn't working out so well for me, I might have considered putting in a request to enroll next year.
It didn't matter, Amy was a senior and I was testing out for my GED in June, high school was a fleeting thing for both of us. I'd follow her to Brockton U if she wanted to attend, otherwise we would forge our own path.
It still surprised me that Arcadia didn't object to my shadowing Amy in the wake of Heartbreaker's attack on the school. The alternative was to pull her from school, and Arcadia likely didn't want to lose the clout of having one of the biggest names in Capes attending. That she often healed students when injured, especially on the sports teams? Yeah, they would be fools to let her go.
The teachers didn't even bother me as I did my own class work, my phone was granted access to the repeaters at all times in a similar way most of New Wave's was, Vicky had lost the privilege long before all the drama went down. It beat having to explain how my phone was seemingly Tinkertech for how it could bypass the faraday cage over the school. Still, I had a laptop paired to my phone and was blitzing through my schooling.
"Kinda jealous you're getting to graduate after only two years of high school."
I glanced over at Amy beside me, she was writing a short essay on the One Hundred Year War. "Says the girl that skipped second grade."
"High School is so awkward when you are normal, add powers onto that?"
I winced. Amy had triggered in public during her freshman year, when Vicky was almost killed in an attack by some two bit group. Add in her family already being unmasked, it would make things incredibly awkward.
"Not sure you want to go through what I did to escape high school." I said, softly.
Memories of the locker weren't pleasant, spending two days slowly being eaten while dying of hypothermia and dehydration? Absolute hell was one word for it. Arcadia wasn't that school, but it was close enough to dredge up the memories.
Amy fell silent, her essay forgotten as what she said hit her. I hated it, but we were both broken girls with heaps of trauma to work through. Hiding from it wouldn't do either of us any favors in the long run.
Still, Amy's trauma was fresher, raw. I'd tried to talk her into taking it easy for at least another week, but she wasn't having any of it. The nightmares hadn't stopped, but they weren't as frequent. All I could do was be there for her as she handled it in her own way.
"Vicky's picking up pizza." I said, attempting to lighten the mood. "Pity it takes so much energy to fly."
"Yeah…" She agreed, wistfully. "We'll get there eventually."
That we would. Genkai's training was never easy, but the results spoke for themselves. Two months and I could bench press a bus and survive massive explosions. Even less time and Amy was able to spawn forests at will. Castiel lacked our raw power but he could hold his own thanks to fine control of his energy in conjunction with his power. Vicky was able to see Genkai in her spirit form now at least, but she still hadn't managed anything resembling external control of her Spirit Energy. Sophia…
Well, Cas was putting her through the ringer if the recent picture of her broken nose was any indication. A simple message accompanied the photo.
'I warned her.'
It had been a good laugh before school, something that we both needed. Sophia was a monster, she had a hand in killing me. It irritated me to no end that not one of the trio had been brought to justice. Madison skirted out by latching onto Insight, Emma's dad claimed a psychotic break and got her into a psych ward instead, and Sophia had gone to ground until shit hit the fan and bizarrely ended up being one of the few to stand with me.
Sophia helped me get Amy back. Even if she might not have been needed in the end, she hadn't backed down in the face of Heartbreaker. Amy had saved herself, but she hadn't been in any condition to do much else. Who knows how far she might have slipped if we hadn't found her, or how far Heartbreaker's scheme might have gone if Sophia hadn't helped bring Uber down.
I didn't like it, but Sophia had stepped up when it counted. It didn't absolve her of what she did, but it was still something. Enough at least that I wasn't planning on chasing her down again to put in prison. That her association with Cas kept her close enough to keep an eye on her only helped, even if they were nominally in Insight's camp.
Something about her didn't sit well with me, and Cas agreed. She had her hands in too much, something told me Insight would be willing to do a great many things to accomplish her goals. Hiring my bullies was among them for whatever reason. She had to know that would only serve to push me away, so why bring them onboard if I was one of her recruitment targets?
I was missing something and it irritated me to no end.
"You're overthinking things again." Amy said, just as the lunch bell sounded. "Come on, greasy pizza will do us both some good."
"You can't unclog your own arteries." I teased, pinching her side.
"Nope." She said with a faint smile as she swatted my hand away. "What I can do is make a super plant that does it for me, and tastes like chocolate."
I froze in place. "No way."
She turned back and smiled. "Be good and I might even share."
I shook my head, chuckling to myself. "You are a cruel woman, you know that?"
She grimaced. "I know, but I don't want to be."
I flinched and pulled her into a hug. "You be whoever the fuck you want to be."
"And if I wanted to subjugate the world?" She whispered.
"Then I would be right by your side, helping you." I said, firmly, to her surprise. "If you felt it necessary, the world obviously deserves it. Now chin up, we have pizza to conquer first."
Her smile broke through again, "Sure thing, Tay."
I would do whatever was necessary to protect that smile.
Vicky swooped in with an armful of boxes loaded with cheesy goodness, the table cheered as she set down and began to distribute them. More than a few curious looks were directed at Amy and I as we took our seats.
More than that, I could sense other Parahumans at the table. Dean wasn't among them either, which meant other Wards were sitting with us. I recognized Dennis and Chris from prior visits to Arcadia, but the buff guy two seats down from them, Aegis, wasn't familiar otherwise.
Were they really that obvious about their identities and friendships? It was a wonder any identities remained secret in this city. I knew Amy could sense them too, whatever mental blocks had been restraining her powers were gone, blown away in her weakest moment. She could freely manipulate plants without burrowing them into her flesh, she could even fire her Spirit Energy.
Amy was one of the most dangerous people in the world, no question. She could end countries with a thought, fight back armies with her own power. I doubted even the Triumvirate could bring her down without casualties.
I knew I couldn't stop her if it came to that. I just didn't have it in me to hurt someone I cared so much about. She was there for me, prickly as she could be, a rock in the storm that was my life even as her own soul was adrift in turmoil. I would do everything in my power to protect her, even from herself.
Dean was watching Vicky from a few tables over, and seemed to be glowering at the rest of the Wards that had elected to sit at our table today. It was hard to turn down free pizza, and this was Amy's first day back since the Heartbreaker incident. They were worried about her, I could practically feel the concern wafting off their auras.
Dennis wasted no time digging into the pizza, practically cramming the entire slice into his mouth. We all sat there, watching with a bit of morbid curiosity if he would end up choking on the damn thing.
"What?" He asked, his mouth still stuffed.
"If you choke, I'm making Vicky Heimlich you and I won't heal you after." Amy said dryly, taking a few slices of cheese pizza as she did.
Whatever he tried to say was lost in an indecipherable mess of grunts that earned him no shortage of derision from the rest of the table. I couldn't deny that there wasn't a certain amount of macabre entertainment to the display. I did have to bite my tongue on a joke that might have outed him as a Ward though. There were a few of Vicky's friends at the table that weren't parahumans and I didn't want to risk it. There was far too much faith being left to the 'unwritten' rules for my tastes.
"As amusing as this is, I have to second the sentiment. Amy's still on a break and I'd rather not have to do the first aid necessary to keep someone alive after Vicky crushed their rib cage."
"Taylor, right?" Chris asked.
I nodded. "I also go by Esprit when I'm playing hero."
Aegis snorted. "Isn't your costume just a green domino mask?"
I grinned. "Basically. Ever since the fucking Empire outed me I just didn't see the point of having a proper costume, so I just grabbed a pack of green masks and called it a day. Besides, normal clothes are cheaper to replace than a costume."
Chris laughed. "It's kind of hilarious that PHO still hands out bans for posting your civilian name when you're so open about it."
"Not by choice." I grumbled. "I just don't see the point of trying to downplay it."
"The Empire is a blight on our city." Aegis said. "My family hasn't had an easy time of things."
"They won't be around much longer, Carlos." Vicky said. I was grateful for her saying his name because thinking of him as Aegis was likely to see me slipping up on his name. "With everything they've pulled over the years, they can't hide behind the rules for much longer."
"Easy for you to say." Dennis interjected now that his mouth wasn't stuffed more than the crust. "Say you manage to get rid of the Empire, all that does is invite Lung to take over, or someone else comes in. What's to prevent that?"
"The Protectorate." I said, coldly. "Kinda their job."
"Dennis may act the fool, but he has a point." Carlos said. "A gang war would be a disaster."
"So, you put them down." Amy said with surprising vehemence. "They chose to be villains, so treat them like fucking villains."
"You sound like you want the heroes to kill them." Chris muttered.
"Because I am." Amy snapped. "Groups like the Empire should have never been allowed to become entrenched. The Empire should have died the same day Fleur did."
"It isn't that simple." Dennis tried to say, but I cut him off.
"Why isn't it? The Empire attacked me with the intention of turning me into a sex slave. Look what happened with Rune when they failed. The rules only protect those with power, the villains, all because we need them to show up if an Endbringer attacks."
"That's a rather pessimistic outlook." Dennis said.
"Doesn't make it any less true though." Vicky said. "Just look at the Nine. You can't tell me that a sniper from a mile away couldn't have ended Jack Slash by now."
"Crawler and the Siberian both laugh off bullets." Dennis countered. "Hell, just last week the air force attempted an airstrike against them. The Siberian shrugged it off."
"Where did you hear about that?" I asked with a smirk.
Beside me, Amy was typing out a message to Insight, which I wasn't happy about, but the know it all had been helpful, so I was willing to play nice for now. He had likely seen some classified PRT file at a debriefing and I intended to have some fun at his expense.
A laughing emoji was followed by a 1 sec on Amy's phone before the video popped up. Before Dennis could find his words, Amy had the video playing.
"Huh, she can apply her invulnerability to those she touches." I said, watching the tinker tech recorded video.
We watched as Jack Slash was all smiles, dusting off Bonesaw's ruffled skirt when Amy abruptly stood, leaving her phone on the table as she hurried off. I grabbed it and moved to follow, reassuring Vicky as I did. Something had spooked her, it was obvious with how rigid her movements were as she hurried outside. Amy was barely two steps out the door before she threw up. I was at her side in an instant, a pale blue wafting off me as I traced gentle circles across her back.
"I'm just like her."
The words were a ghost of a whisper between retching sobs and dry heaves, but I heard them all the same. My arms were around her in what I hoped was a comforting hug, holding her tight as she descended into further fits and cried into my shoulder.
We stayed like that well after the bell sounded, the only noises were her sniffles and the occasional sob. I'd handed her a tissue and set her in my lap. Another bell sounded before she finally spoke.
"Carol once told me how Bonesaw could have been one of the greatest healers to walk the earth, but her selfishness drove her to become a monster. Carol made sure all I ever did was heal, and guilted me each and every time I tried to branch out." A choked chuckle followed at the pun, I let myself smile because it was a little humorous. "Early on, she always asked me if I was sure that I hadn't missed anything, that I hadn't made any mistakes… I couldn't take time to rest or relax, the guilt was always too much thanks to her."
"Oh Amy." I pulled her in tighter, tears now dripping off my own cheeks. "Carol was such an ass."
Amy snorted and I didn't even care that she shot snot all over me, I'd managed to get a laugh out of her.
"She really was."
Author's Notes:
Okay, so I originally said I wasn't going to restart this until I had Canberra finished... Well, I'm not that patient. Arc 5 is short, 4 chapters with all four clocking in around the length of a longer Inheritance chapter. (Which remains my primary focus) Also, whoops, forgot to toss this up over here.