"I was so stupid," Mavis said, her voice little more than a croak.

Zerelda brought over the cups of tea, sat down next to the bed. "No, you weren't. She was tricking you. Heck, I'm the dumb one, if you thought it made sense for me to tell you to do something as crazy as go out in that weather."

Mavis shook her head. "I thought I... had to protect my voice. I thought that was -" She stopped, the deep rusty cough swallowing her words for a moment. "I thought that was what was most important. That no one else here understood, when... really I was the one who didn't understand things..."

"I didn't understand much either," Zerelda said. "It's my fault alla this happened, right? But... I thought she was okay. I thought... well, I guess I thought I was in a movie."

She wanted to tell Mavis everything Gwen had said, how her face had slipped into Zerelda's own and she'd put her head on one side and said, in a mocking drawl, gee, aren't I just wunnerful? Look at me, this is how I play Juliet... She thought if she got it out of her head, it might hurt less. But Mavis was so pale and sunken-eyed she couldn't start putting all her thoughts on her, so instead she just said, "I just sure am glad Miss Peters and the others found you."

Mavis nodded. "So... they'd gone out looking for the horses? In the storm?"

"You know what that Bill is like. And the others reckoned, you know how Daphne can make people see what she wants them to? They think Gwen swiped that and made Bill hear stuff. 'Cause Thunder was fine when they did track down the herd. Gwen just wanted her outta the way while she snooped."

She grinned as she sipped her tea. "You oughta see how Bill's changed her tune, though! She said she owes Miss Peters big for listening to her, taking the jeep out there to find the horses. I thought she was gonna quit, run away and live wild with 'em, but now I reckon she'll stick it out here, start doing what Miss Peters wants -"

"And visit Thunder after work hours!" Mavis said, and laughed, though it turned into a cough again. When she could speak, she said, "What about you – are you staying here?"

"I don't reckon so. I don't... I don't trust me round fancy scary stuff like this. Maybe I'll go see if I can be an ice cream girl at the cinema. Or sell tickets at the theatre. I reckon that could be kinda fun." The smell of popcorn, the murmur of plays beyond the walls, being in a real place again with people all around. "You'd get to meet the stars!"

"I think you should. I think you'd like that." Mavis glanced down at her tea, blew on it. "Alicia said I was welcome to come back with them, if I wanted. I think it's mainly she wants to see what losing the... the way my power manifests does to its abilities, but... I might go. Being somewhere different sounds... nice, right now."

"I hear you."

"Is Gwendoline going to be all right?" Mavis said. "It can't have done her any good, being so close to that thing."

"Well, she's still alive and all. Been sleeping a lot, as I hear it. They dunno what she's done to her powers, though. And I guess they'll want to ask her why she did it all. What she was gonna do to the inhibitor, why she switched it on."

"Well, she was us." Mavis took a tiny sip of tea. "I think it sounds like she didn't understand a lot, either. So it makes sense. I think... I think we've got more to come back to, though. Don't you think? It might be nice to learn how... not to be... exceptional."

"Hey, at least you were exceptional. I'm just seeing what's really there." She didn't say that this morning she'd stood in front of the mirror – the mirror which still didn't have lights round it – and shifted her way through all the faces of the stars, let herself feel for the last time what it was like to be Somebody. She'd been saying goodbye, though maybe it wasn't a goodbye forever. "Listen – you write me if you do go high-tailing it off to England, okay? Us normal people gotta stick together."

Mavis was coughing again, but when it cleared, she smiled and nodded.

ooo

Gwen looked pale and exhausted and you could almost feel sorry for her lying in the infirmary bed, but Sally could hear the stream of [it wasn't my fault] [how dare they] [I hate them all] and it was decidedly lessening any sympathy she had.

"I don't see why I need to tell you anything," Gwen was saying now, scowling. "Perhaps I just wanted to look at your special machine."

"You may be an idiot," Alicia said, "but even you can't think any of us will believe that."

"I was worried about it," Gwen said. "I heard about it and I thought someone like you shouldn't be able to stop people doing what they want with a machine like that."

"So you wormed your way in here, the way you always do -"

"Zerelda offered to let me come," Gwen said, delivering her words to the ceiling. "That's not my fault, is it?"

Sally felt a flicker of anger from Miss Peters, but it didn't translate into any spoken words.

"And then you manipulated several people enough to nearly get someone killed," Alicia said, "all so you could go and look at this machine. And you just happened to switch it on – and clearly had no idea what you were doing, because you nearly wiped yourself out. I think we've actually created an electric version of you – remember what you did to Mary-Lou? We can suck the life out of anyone now." [And don't I wish]

Gwen shrugged.

"And it's ironic," Alicia said, "because I think you might just have been given a taste of your own medicine." She grabbed Gwen's wrist before the other girl could shy away. "All right – so this is an excellent opportunity to take some of my power, isn't it?" [can feel] [horrible]

Gwen wrenched her arm away, glowering. Alicia, unconcerned, held out her hand to Sally, who passed her the first scalpel.

"Let's see who heals fastest," she said. "Oh, don't worry – it's been sterilised. Unlike you, I don't put people at risk through my own idiocy."

Sally might have argued with that, if she'd still been so angry, but as it was she just hid a smile and carried on listening to Gwen's thoughts, which were echoing her shout of, "Don't you dare -"

Alicia grabbed her arm again and made a shallow cut on the back of her hand. Gwen yelped, but Alicia was already reaching for the second scalpel and making a similar cut on herself. Then she held her hand next to Gwen's, and they watched.

Alicia's skin was already knitting itself back together, making Sally think of raindrops evaporating. But the cut on Gwen's hand remained stubbornly open. She stared at it, eyes widening, [no] [no] [no] and then, "What did you do? You beast, what did you do?"

"I haven't done anything," Alicia said, as the cut vanished and she flexed her fingers. "You did all of this to yourself. Maybe your powers will come back. Maybe they won't. But either way, you can't have wanted this – so what on earth did you want?"

Gwen bit her lip, tears starting in her eyes.

"Whoever you're working with, they really didn't do you any favours," Alicia said, softly. "Don't you feel an idiot for trusting them?"

"I didn't trust anyone!" Gwen snapped. "But I didn't exactly have a choice after the way you treated me. You ruined my life -"

"You did get a number of people killed and tried to murder one of my friends," Alicia said.

"She told me to come here and find out what was going on," Gwen said, stumbling over the words. "She said we could use the things here to really teach you a lesson. She doesn't like you much either. Not many people do, do they?" She glanced at Sally, smirked. [anyone can see]

Sally kept her face blank. Whatever had happened to Gwen had removed whatever skill she'd had at stopping her thoughts being read, which was useful but extremely unpleasant for the reader.

"And then?" Alicia said, shrugging off the jibe like she had the cut.

"I didn't mean to switch the stupid thing on, not then," Gwen said, turning red. "I tripped, I couldn't see in the dark. I fell against the buttons. Then I didn't know how to turn it off."

"So you haven't even de-powered yourself for any useful gain. That really is a pity."

Gwen's thoughts sharpened themselves into a line of hatred pointed directly at Alicia.

I wonder if mine sounded like that? Sally thought. She'd never thought about it before, but Gwen would be the only person who could ever read her mind like she could read the rest of the world's. (She'd said, once, to Darrell, do you feel it's unfair? That I can hear what you're thinking and you can't do the same to me?

Darrell had said, No. I don't need to hear what you're thinking, do I? I usually know. And then she'd grinned and added, Besides, if I had to hear all the mean things and stupid things people think, I'd be going up in smoke a hundred times a day! This is much better.)

"So," Alicia said, "Who exactly is this person with all the terrible ideas?"

"I don't know."

"Oh, come on."

"I don't!" Gwen sat up a bit. "She's not stupid, you know. I've spoken to her on the telephone and written letters to her. That's it." [would like to] [see her and scold her, she's spoilt everything!] [all I know is] "I know she is a she, and she's as sick as I am of arrogant people who think they know everything about powers -"

"This isn't information, Gwen -"

"And she really hates you," Gwen said, a wry smile crossing her face. "She really hates you, Alicia."

To anyone watching, Alicia seemed to take that as a melodramatic line she didn't need to give two hoots about. Only Sally heard the catch of her thoughts, the [it -] before she deliberately, with a glance, switched into mentally reciting the Periodic Table.

"What do you think?" she asked Sally afterwards. "I assume you'd have said if she were outright lying?"

Sally nodded. "No, I didn't hear her hiding anything. And I didn't sense any more knowledge about this person, either. She's right, as far as I could tell – just phone calls and letters. Since before she did everything the first time, even."

Alicia nodded. "Well, I don't think we can get much more information out of her, then. I want to see whether her powers come back, but then – I'm thinking, Sally, that it's a lot better to be able to keep an eye on her than to turn her over to the police. If they'd even be able to do anything, considering how much of what she's done is based on her powers."

"I can understand why you'd say that, but please don't tell me you want her to move in with us."

"Not exactly," Alicia said. She was smiling her usual thin smile and Sally could feel her thoughts lighting up with a new idea. "But I think, considering everything that's gone on – and that I seem to have got myself a nemesis – that might not be a bad idea to try and gather as many people with powers to me as possible. A collection of the gifted, as it were. And then -" She glanced briefly out at the desert, which was back to blue skies and still sand. "And then, whatever happens, hopefully... we'll be ready."