My dad squeezed my shoulder. "You sure you want to do this, Taylor?"

I looked through the one-way mirror. Madison sat there, dressed in casual clothing, her hands were unbound. The room was otherwise bare, save for the chairs and the metal table. "I have to do this." I said quietly.

Armsmaster stood at my right. He pointed to the cameras. "We're having this recorded, and when we're done, I'll run everything through my lie detector program. I'll be reading things as we go, but this is for your benefit afterward."

I nodded slowly, then I looked at him. "Why are you going through all this effort for me, Armsmaster?"

His lips curved into a frown. "It's the right thing to do. Admittedly, if I hadn't been...told, certain things, I wouldn't have considered this. I tend to be good with machines, not people. I very nearly failed you in our first meeting because I was inconsiderate. We were concerned you weren't who you appeared to be, but that's an explanation, not an excuse. Had things gone slightly differently, one of the gangs might have gotten you recruited or killed. And that would have been my responsibility, however indirectly. That's why I'm doing what I can, now."

I shivered a little. He had a point. By all rights, Lung should have gotten me. I let out a deep breath. "Whatever your reasons, thanks."

He nodded slightly. I stepped out of the observation room, and nodded to the officer at the side of the interrogation room. He opened the door, and I stepped inside.

Purposefully deepening my voice slightly, I spoke as I walked in. "Hello, Miss Clements."

She looked up at me, and her eyes widened. She paled. Did she recognize me? My helmet should have helped prevent that.

I stepped closer, about to take the chair, when I stopped. Something was familiar about her. Something bright. It was as if I'd seen people like her a hundred times or more.

Something of Dracul turned in my head.

Belmont.

Her entire body straightened, and she pulled back, jumping into a corner of the room. "P-please, don't hurt anybody else! Please! I know what you are, please, kill me if you have to but leave everyone else alone!" She glanced to the mirror, blinked, then looked back to me.

I looked over at the mirror, myself. What? I look scary, sure, my eyes were glowing red...they're glowing red? No wonder some people freaked out while looking at me. I'll have to see how that works. But why glance at the mirror...wait. Huh. Apparently, she was checking to see if I even had a reflection. And I do. Weird. And it's weird that I thought it was weird.

She knows I'm a vampire. And yet, I'm not the kind of vampire she knows.

I froze for a moment, mulling over what I could feel at the back of my head. Rage, recognition, respect, excitement...sadness, regret, loneliness, despair. Something about what Madison had was familiar to Dracul in some way. But it was only faint impressions of emotions, not the real knowledge from the man turned vampire god himself. There wasn't any context attached. All I had from him was this vague desire to kill her before she could be a threat to me.

I knew that Dracul would have done it in a moment. Fortunately, I wasn't him.

Finally, I spoke. "I'm not here to kill anybody, Miss Clements."

Her eyes searched mine for long moments before she swallowed, hard. "Then why are you here?"

I tilted my head slightly. "I am known as the Scarlet Knight. And while your life is safe from me, your future is in my hands."

She swallowed, licking her lips. "Why would you have that choice?"

"Personal interest." I said, my voice cold.

Madison shuddered, looking scared to death as she stared at me.

I took a seat, putting my hands on the table. Then I looked to her. "Have a seat."

She carefully stepped toward me, sliding into her seat with all the reluctance of someone going to their execution. She kept trembling as she looked at me.

I folded my hands in front of me. It felt good to be in control. Almost disturbingly so. "Miss Clements, I read your confession. You could have easily chosen to simply file that Sophia had threatened your family, or claimed that it was only Emma and Sophia as responsible for the death of Miss Hebert. You chose to name yourself as responsible as well. Why?"

Madison let out a small, bitter, dead laugh. "Because I was. The three of us put all our attention on Taylor. We didn't choose to make anyone else's life hell, we did it to her. I didn't put her in there, but I was killing her all the same. I can't speak for Emma's or Sophia's reasons, but I knew mine.It was a game. I did it so I could be on the top of the school, so I could be great. I never considered anything about what my actions were doing to her. I never thought anything other than how much fun I'd have once I pulled whatever trick. I...was a complete fucking idiot."

She licked her lips, her face filled with shame. "You know why I wasn't involved with the locker? Because my brother caught the flu and passed it on to me. I was sick the entire week. Not because I'd have thought it a step too far or because of the thought that nobody would deserve that. I know how I'd have reacted on hearing the idea about locking Taylor in a locker with trash for a few hours. I'd have liked it. I would have found it funny. And that idea, more than anything, makes me sick to my stomach."

It took everything I had to stay still as Madison spoke. To imagine her laughing about me as I struggled and screamed in The Locker. Only the sheer remorse, the tears running down her cheeks, kept me listening.

Madison took a deep, shuddering breath. "That was it. I know how I'd have reacted if they shot the idea past me. I'd have gone along with it, like a happy, stupid little sheep. Because I was. I'd have gone along with any horrible thing they suggested as long as it was aimed at someone outside my friends. Because those folks aren't people, like little special snowflake me."

She shut her eyes. "And then Taylor died. It wasn't a game anymore. It was real, it was serious, and Taylor was dead because I never thought to tell Emma or Sophia to back off, to stop, to consider what we were doing and what kind of people we were becoming. Never thought about what I had been doing. Never thought that being admired meant nothing when it comes to who you are. You know I used to like looking at myself in the mirror? I don't, today. I haven't since January eighth."

She shivered, staring at her hands. "What kind of person pushes someone to the point of death without any thought whatsoever? Me, apparently. I wanted to say something after all of it. The only reason I didn't is because Sophia threatened to kill my entire family. I didn't care about me, I deserved whatever happened to me. But Mom, Dad, Trevor, they didn't. I didn't deserve them." She sniffed, wiping her tears.

I considered that for a long few minutes, keeping a tight clamp on my surging emotions. "Why did you step forward now, and not before?"

She hiccupped. "Because someone broke into our house. Went through all my things. I thought Sophia went in to make sure there wasn't anything left to tie her to things before she killed me. I thought she'd finally decided to tie me up as the last loose end here in town. Who else would?"

Oh. Oops. I hadn't been thinking, there. But then again, I had just climbed out of my grave that morning.

Well, teleported. If I'd had to dig myself out, I'm pretty sure I'd have gone cackling evil mistress of the universe by now.

I spent long minutes examining her features. The face of one of my worst tormentors, who had smiled and giggled and played little nice girl while making my life hell. She was broken, had been by her own actions, and I hadn't even had to lift a finger. All I'd done was expose it to the fresh air. Without even knowing I'd done it.

Finally, I spoke. "If you could say anything to Taylor, what would it be?"

She made a helpless laugh, shrugging, tears flowing freely. "What could I possibly say? I'm sorry I tormented you? I'm sorry I was crushing your academic dreams? I'm sorry I wrecked your clothes? I'm sorry that I was part of the clique that killed you? I'm sorry that I'm a complete fucking idiot? What could I say?"

I bit my lip. This was probably a very stupid decision. But, if I was going to make a choice that would affect the rest of her life, she had a right to know who was making it, and why. It's more than I ever got. And that's why I felt I had to do it.

With a casualness I didn't feel, I pulled off my helmet and set it on the metal table. Her features went completely white.

My lips thinned. "Try."

Madison's mouth worked for a few moments. She shook uncontrollably, then burst into tears. "H-how?...o-oh god, you..."

I kept staring at her.

She wiped her face, then took a deep, shuddering breath. "Taylor, oh god. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I can't say enough how much. I can't say anything that would ever fix what I did to you."

Madison went on for long minutes while I listened, babbling about how much she regretted what she'd done. Finally I rose a hand, and she quieted, struggling to breathe.

"You're right. There is nothing you can say to make this right. There's nothing you can possibly say that would make me forgive you. Because of a thousand little choices you, Emma, and Sophia made, I ended up in a grave for three fucking months. There is nothing you can say. We could sit here for the next two hundred years and it wouldn't change a thing."

Madison's face crumbled. I could almost see her soul breaking. I leaned forward, looking her in the eye.

"But there is something you can do."

Her breath caught, her eyes flaring with a desperate, impossible hope. I'd seen it before, when my dad realized it really was me.

"Because you have powers now, the Protectorate wants you in the Wards. However, because of all the shit you put me through, they are also willing to press charges against you on my behalf. And with your signed confession, it wouldn't be all that hard to make stick. Maybe you'd get some leniency, whatever, but that isn't the point." I tapped my fingertips on the metal table.

Madison took a deep gasp of air. "Th-that's why you've got my future in hand."

I nodded. "That's why. It's only fitting, all things considered. You and your friends? If I hadn't gained my power, you'd have stolen mine. Now, before I walked in this room, I was considering throwing the whole damn library at you. But you've already tortured yourself more than I'd get any satisfaction out of sending you to a prison, however they'd sentence you."

"So here's the deal, Madison. You got two choices. You join the Wards, on probation. You act out there in the world as you should have acted in the school. You help people, you protect them, you fucking think about what you're doing. Or you turn it down. You accept responsibility, and sit in a cell for five to ten years or however long, thinking about what you've done. I don't care much either way. But if you ever want to be able to look me in the eye again, or be able to look at yourself in the mirror again, you'll join the Wards. You save lives. You do it for them. You do it for your own soul. You do it for the girl who died in that locker. Because I fucking died in there."

She shook in her seat, trembling with fear, sorrow, and guilt. She made a small, hysterical giggle. "Kinda always wanted to be a hero."

I rose from my seat, a small twitch coming to my lips as I picked up my helmet and put it back on. "So did I."

I banged on the door, strode out when it opened, and went to the next room.

"Well?" I asked Armsmaster.

"She told the truth about everything. Highest she hit as for probability on lying was seven percent. We did find one lie, though." He tilted his head. "Considering prosecution before you went in?"

I made a small smile. "Yeah, I lied there. I was leaning towards her going to the Wards before I went in. But I had to see her for myself. If she wants to redeem herself, I'll give her a chance. One chance."

My dad came up to me and hugged me. "Proud of you, kiddo."

I returned the hug, letting out a shaking breath. "Thanks, dad." I looked to Armsmaster. "There's two more things, before anything else. Tell Director Piggot Madison can stay in Brockton Bay, if it's reasonable. I want to be able to keep an eye on her. For now, anyway."

He nodded. "And the other?"

"If I'm going to be staying here for a while, to get my life back in order, we need to help prevent misunderstandings. I want to meet the Wards."