AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Worm. If I did, I would be FAR more productive.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!

Pronouncement 03

"Vista, I do not have time for this," Piggot said with a scowl directed at the young hero.

There wasn't much to keep me entertained in the Master Stranger quarantine cell, and the PRT hadn't done a very good job of maintaining seals on the building - or perhaps that was Leviathan - so I had brought some of my bug patrols in to eavesdrop on people. It was proving quite amusing and highly enlightening. Piggot was apparently absolutely livid at Chief Director Costa-Brown's decision regarding Amy and was taking it out on the local capes.

Vista was in the middle of pushing back. On my behalf amazingly enough. Not that it was required, since I was here voluntarily, but the sentiment was nice.

"Make time," Vista snapped. The door to the Director's office opened, revealing two PRT troopers and Vista used her ability to expand the room to three times its normal length. She remained planted in front of Piggot's desk as the troopers peered across a veritable football field of space towards their boss. The heavy-set woman just scowled and waved them off. The door slammed shut again and Vista let the room snap back to its normal dimensions.

"You've been attempting to prove, for the past few months, that you are deserving more responsibility and harder assignments. This conduct just proves how much of a child you are."

Vista scoffed. "Oh please, the Protectorate heroes do this shit all the time and it doesn't make them children. It just makes them heard."

"And yet you still sound like a whiny little girl," Piggot replied folding her hands in front of her. "Speak, child."

Vista's lip curled exposing some of her teeth as she fought to keep her temper in check at the Director's words. At least I wasn't the only one who got pissed at the bitch. "You've kept Queen in M/S for nearly two days now. This is entirely unreasonable! Heartsight was in there for less than four hours!"

"As far as we know, Heartsight wasn't affected by her own power, Queen was. We have to take precautions."

"She volunteered to let us test her! Test! This isn't testing. This is harassment."

"We are perfectly within our rights to keep anyone under observation for up to - "

"Bull. Shit!" Vista snarled. "Everyone knows you're just pissed at her and her team because you got overruled with Amy Dallon. Now you're exercising whatever little power over her you have, you horrible shrew!"

Piggot went very still and her eyes narrowed. "Be careful Vista. I advise you to be very careful what you say next."

"I'm done being careful," Vista spat. She slammed her hand on the desk and centered her gaze onto Piggot. I was starting to be disappointed that I didn't have any popcorn. "Queen is here because we couldn't keep a leash on our new Ward. A Ward who has admitted to previously assaulting her! Now you leave her in M/S just because you fucking can?! She asked us to make sure that she was okay!"

Piggot's eyes narrowed to slits and her hands laid very carefully, palm side down, on the desk in front of her. "Heartsight was in the presence of her team leader as well as two of Queen's own teammates. If they couldn't stop her, I don't see what you expected me to do." Yeah, I did have to give her that one; that was a good point. "As to my handling of her now." Piggot's lips lifted into a predatory smirk as she shrugged. "The little girl should understand that just because the Chief Director agrees that her pet monsters are under control, doesn't mean we all are so careless to ignore a threat in our backyard. I will make certain she is safe before letting her step foot outside of this facility, make no mistake about that. Now, get out of my office, Vista. And consider your pay docked for the week."

Vista just laughed as she shook her head. "You know what? Keep it. Keep it all. I quit."

Piggot was too professional do anything overtly obvious like flinch or gasp, but her eyes did widen and the bugs I had near her hand did notice the subtle tightening of her fists. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I. Quit. I'll get my things from the ready room and I'll leave the costume. I know I'm not allowed to keep it. At least I was able to make you people let me keep my name if I left before I hit 18." She laughed again as she turned on her heel and started to walk towards the door. "Nobody ever suspects that a pre-teen actually knows what the hell they're talking about when they start negotiating. I was never going to be able to get Glenn to let me keep a costume, but if I tried for that then he wouldn't care when I bargained him down for just my name. Because who'd ever think there was a chance that I'd leave before I hit 18 right? Congratulations, Director Piggy, you made my potential worst-case into a reality. I'll be back with the Outcasts and their lawyer before the day is out."

"If you walk out that front door Vista, don't come back. Not as a Ward. And certainly not in my city," Piggot said, the line of her mouth so thin that I could barely see it with my bugs.

"Don't worry. I won't."

The door slammed behind her and I was treated to the rather entertaining view of Piggot slumping back into her chair with her eyes closed. She shook her head and growled to herself. "Fucking capes! They always do this! Trumped up little prima donnas the lot of them. Never want to clean up their own fucking messes, never willing to prevent a fucking monster from establishing a powerbase!"

I pulled back with a shrug. Piggot wouldn't be changing. But Vista was interesting. I left a message for her in her bed with some of my bugs and sought out more interesting people to spy on - err, watch over.

Hmm, a few members of my swarm had gotten caught in a breeze from the air conditioner and blown into a part of the building I hadn't explored yet. A part I was suddenly finding myself rather eager to keep exploring though as I listened into the conversation I had stumbled upon. Making sure to deaden my emotions as I offloaded them to QA and the swarm in general before I fully focused in, I nodded to myself and let my mind settle into the bugs as they flew up to the ceiling of the small room with the Asian therapist and the newest Ward.

"Emma," Doctor Yamada was saying, her clipboard laying on the table as she leaned forward, her hands spread wide before her. "You don't have to talk to me, but you have to talk to someone. It's been two days and you haven't spoken since your friend brought you back. You're not going to be allowed to remain here much longer if you don't start to talk, Emma."

One of my flies shifted, trying to fly down to her but I clamped down on the urge. Shifting more of the swarm out of the room so I could keep an easier control over the remaining individuals was simple, I just set up more roving patrols outside the building. It did make it a bit harder to hear them talking, but it wasn't like I had much to distract me in my own room anyway.

"I don't have friends, Doctor," Emma mumbled.

Yeah, well whose fault is that Emma? I thought to myself sighing as I draped an arm over my forehead. Goddamn this was fucked up.

Yamada's posture relaxed a touch at Emma's words. Huh, I had been avoiding Emma's section of the building so far. Had she really not spoken this entire time? "I'm sure you feel that you're alone right now, but that's not true. Your teammates are here to support you."

"They've known me for a week. And I'll hurt them just like I hurt Taylor. I break everything I touch. Ever since the alley, I break everything. I listened to Sophia, and I threw her away because Sophia saved me and I needed Sophia to stay. I…I don't know why."

Yamada nodded, but I saw through her ruse, she was confused even if she did hide it pretty well. "What were you unsure of, Emma? Why you wanted Sophia to stay? That seems perfectly reasonable to want the person who helped you to continue to be in your life."

"…Why I listened when Sophia said that Taylor was weak. She wasn't, but it made sense…then."

Yamada leaned back and I saw her eyes narrow slightly. "And I suppose it stopped making sense two days ago." Inside my cell I snorted. Didn't affect herself my ass.

"I knew I was a monster for what I had done, but I still understood it," Emma pulled her legs up to her chest and hung her head letting her forehead rest on her knees. "I needed Sophia to stay and help me be strong and hurting Taylor made me strong. But now…after what happened, I don't…I don't understand how I could have ever felt like that! She's my - I mean, she was - my best friend! How could I ever betray her like that?! What kind of evil monster does that?!" She started to sob and I had to clamp down hard on the swarm as all of the bugs in the room fluttered their wings and lifted off for a moment before I got them to settle down again. Ugh, that was annoying. No wonder Lisa and Cassie had attacked her if I had been that frustrating just after she whammied me.

"Emma," Yamada said softly. "Everyone makes mistakes. You experienced trauma and you reacted badly. That is not entirely your fault."

"I broke her!" Emma snarled. "I used our friendship and I broke her again and again and again!"

Yes, you did. And you've prevented a proper reconciliation now too which just makes this even worse. Goddammit Emma, can't anything ever be easy?

"I don't deserve this…reset! Dennis should've let that girl kill me!" Fuck. She was suicidal now. Perfect, just perfect.

Yamada was apparently too professional to wince though my bugs were close enough to notice that she stiffened at Emma's comment. "Emma, I need you to focus on me please." The redhead shrugged her shoulders just enough to indicate assent and Yamada continued. "Thank you. Now, did you actively mean to do anything in the restaurant or were you just trying to say hello?"

She was silent except for the crying. Yamada seemed content to wait her out. Finally, after almost a full minute, Emma replied. "I don't know what happened. I see ties between people. Cracks and connection points. I'd never been that close to the cracks before. My power…it felt like I could heal the crack…like I should heal it…I touched it, and then we were on opposite sides on a canyon…and then the canyon was gone and everyone was screaming and yelling and Taylor was my friend again. And it was all wrong. It's not supposed to be easy like that. I'm not supposed to be forgiven like that. Not after what I did to her before. Not after what I just did now! She should hate me and I made her like me again. I made me like her again. I wiped away our history! This is all wrong…" She trailed off and her hands clenched tighter around her knees.

I didn't try so hard to keep control of the swarm as some of the prettier bugs broke loose and flew down to settle on her hand and her hair. It was almost sweet in a way, like a head pat from bugs.

Emma's crying softened by a small degree, though Yamada stiffened immediately, her eyes shifting to follow the lone butterfly that had settled on Emma's hand.

"Busted," I muttered in my cell.

The therapist slowly got to her feet and forced a smile onto her face. "Emma, I have to take a quick call outside. I'll be right back, okay?"

She just nodded. Yamada glared at my visible bugs and jerked her head towards the exit as she walked out of the room. Sighing, I had most of the swarm follow her out, though I left the butterfly in the room with Emma; I did let it off of my main consciousness though and just gave it general orders to keep her entertained. The swarm's general desire to treat Emma well would see to the rest until I pulled those emotions back.

As the door to the room closed, Yamada turned to the small bug swarm I clustered into a tiny ball in the corner near the PRT trooper. To the trooper's credit, the guy didn't appear fazed at all by the little bug ball. Sadly, I didn't really have enough to form any sort of appreciably-sized face or body for my mini-cluster. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. "Am I addressing Taylor Hebert or the entity known as Queen Administrator?" Yamada asked.

I snorted in my cell as I had the bugs shift into a hand over a small heart. "Ouch. Going right to my name, in front of a witness too." Ah finally, a reaction! She flinched as her eyes darted to the trooper. "I'm just messing with you, Doc. It's fine, everyone in this building knows who I am. And if they don't, they should be fired by now. You're talking to Taylor. QA generally used the swarm clone, true, but I'm bored as hell, so I'm co-opting it. Heck, it's probably bored as hell now. I still haven't gotten a large enough swarm that it can go and play on its own very easily at the moment."

The therapist nodded, her arms crossing. "I see. Well, in that case, I would appreciate it if you remove your creatures - "

"Bugs or critters please."

"I'm sorry?"

"Not creatures. Creatures implies that they are evil, mean, or just otherwise unnatural. These are just bugs. For Darwin's stuff I mainly refer to them as critters. Those aren't natural, but they aren't mean and are still under my control. Please don't call them creatures or beasts. It's insensitive. Leviathan is a beast. My critters are not." I sighed as I explained that. It was probably a stupid distinction, but it seemed like an important one to make - especially to a psychiatrist.

"I understand. And I do see why you would be touchy about that. However, we can get into that later. I'll be coming down to speak with you shortly, Miss Hebert. Right now, I need to speak with Miss Barnes. Please keep your bugs out of the room when I go back in."

I formed them up into a tiny person pacing back and forth across the table in front of Yamada. It had the desired effect of putting her off her game for a moment as she blinked a few times, though it didn't really seem to do much more. Ah well, it was worth a shot. "A large part of why you're here is to make sure that the girl who can talk to Endbringers isn't being controlled by the girl who used to torment her. A large part of that for me is to hear it from Emma's own mouth without her filter - unconscious or conscious - when I'm sitting in front of her. This has helped to confirm what I already suspected."

"All the same, this is a private conversation between my patient and I. It is not fair to her or to you if you listen in on private matters without her knowledge."

I had mini-me shake my head at her. "I disagree. Emma violated me. Again."

Yamada frowned. "As I understand it, you see her as your best friend again. That statement just now seems to contradict the Mastering implication."

I smirked and my avatar did the same just before it flew up back into a small smiley face. "You're learning. I'll explain when we have our session. For the moment, I'll just confirm that I have a way of minimizing the effect for short term interactions concerning Emma. I still feel like I should listen in to hear the rest of this. It would help."

Yamada shook her head. "No. Before I finish, I will ask if she is comfortable with me advising you of some general things that we discussed. But even then, it would be only the vaguest of items. You must speak with her yourself."

"You know what? Whatever. It's not worth fighting this battle."

She apparently wasn't quite done. "I must also require that you don't spy on other private conversations in this building; or anywhere else in your range for that matter."

This time I scowled and had my dispersing swarm form back up into their ball again. I pulled more of my emotions back to me and glared through the bugs at her. "No."

"I insist. It is an invasion of - "

"Fuck. You." I cut her off. "Look bitch, I volunteered to sit here, in this prison, under the watch of someone I know hates me, because, for a little while there, I didn't trust myself. I figured it would last maybe a few hours. This is not a few hours. I found my workaround. Now I admit, Piggot may be a bigoted bitch who is largely keeping me locked up out of spite, but she does have a good point in that I have threatened 'bad things' before, so it's understandable to be safe when it comes to me. However, there is being careful and there is dragging your heels just to be a bitch; and she is toeing the line. You want me to stop spying? Get the fuck down here and interview me so I can get out and go home."

My estimation of Yamada went up several notches as she didn't even flinch at my small rant. "I will be with you shortly, Miss Hebert. In the meantime, I must insist that you keep your efforts at alleviating boredom to the common areas."

I just laughed. "See, Doc, I've been trying to get two of my friends onto a cape therapist's schedule for almost three months. Another friend for over the past three weeks. So, yeah, maybe if you, or anyone, had been able to give even one of my people just an hour I'd be willing to play ball. But you didn't, so, yeah. I'm going to go see if I can find anyone having sex or something that might qualify as juicy blackmail material. I'll agree to not listening to you and Emma right now. Beyond that, you get nothing from me. See you soon!"

I dispersed the swarm and was treated to a pleasant little grimace from her and an amused snort from the PRT trooper before the bugs shuffled out of the room through the ventilation. Onwards and upwards. There had to be something fun to do here…right?

Unfortunately, I was completely unable to find anything worth spying on after that. Aegis was talking shop with Velocity and Dauntless about how each could work on fixing the city infrastructure. Armsmaster and Dragon were having a heartwarming talk about the operation of a nanothorn halberd he'd made - well what passed for heartwarming for them. Weird couple. Hannah was reading a…manga? Really? Huh, go figure.

What were all these Protectorate capes doing in the PRT building anyway? Were they here just because I was here? Was Piggot seriously that worried I was going to fly off the handle that she had stacked the deck with people who might be able to calm me down, or kill me?

There was something darkly amusing in that thought. Even if I wasn't quite as paranoid as I had been a few days ago, there was no need to tell her that. Being respected was nice after all. Actually, it might have just been fear, but that's pretty much the same thing, right?

Now I just needed to figure out how to help Emma sort herself out and then I go home and talk with people and we could focus on - fuck I was doing it again. I offloaded my emotions back to the swarm again and reset my priorities. First, I needed to go home and talk with my people. Then I could deal with the suicidal friend who wasn't a friend. Then I could go after the escaped monster shard thing.

And I needed to fit a date night in there somewhere too since now I apparently had a girlfriend and the first date, I'm fairly sure, no longer counted.

And I should probably talk to my father to make sure that he didn't try to kill Emma either…Actually I should probably move that one up the list since he'd be trying that as soon she stepped out of the building…or possibly sooner now that she was talking.

Damn, this was going to be a busy week.

"Taylor, can you please stop shifting so much of that bullshit to me and just send it straight to the swarm instead? It's getting annoying," QA groused as a small head formed from the flies in the corner.

"Sorry. I was reprioritizing and I didn't want the patrols to seek Emma out to try and calm her down. People get freaked out by bug swarms, you know, even if they're trying to help."

"Well, I don't want to like the bitch, so stop offloading to me."

"Go yell at Restore, not me," I commented waving my hand.

QA scowled. "It doesn't work like that. Besides…this is technically good data. I'm…actually learning quite a bit from how you're reacting to this."

I turned my head to glare at the face. "I swear, if I could figure out how to punch you, I'd be punching you."

"I wouldn't even blame you. Sadly, we are all slaves to our own natures in some fashion. Your doctor is here." The face dispersed back into a regular cluster as the door to my cell opened and Yamada walked in, her clipboard held to her chest with one hand and her other arm swinging against her side.

I kicked my legs over the edge of the bed and sat up, nodding to her. "Oh good, we can get started!"

Yamada smiled as she sat down in the lone chair near the singular desk, turning it to face me. "Are you that eager to be, as the kids these days putting it, 'psychoanalyzed'?"

I snorted. "I'm eager to go home. And to get away from this building. The Wards are boring, the PRT officers are boring, Piggot is a bitch, but she actually does have a few good points, which is annoying, and you guys having the Protectorate hanging around to play babysitter in case I snap and ask Monarch or their own powers to kill everything, which has got to be annoying for them."

"I think you'd be surprised how often these sorts of incidents can happen. You're not the first to go into Master/Stranger quarantine and you're not the first to trigger extra safety measures." Yamada shrugged. "It's one of the reasons there are quarters for capes in every PRT building."

"All the same, gotta be annoying. I'm glad they didn't rope Assault or Battery into this."

She cocked her head to the side at that and narrowed her eyes. It was slight and I almost missed it. "Oh? Why specifically those two?"

" 'Cause Assault would never let me hear the end of it and Battery'd be pissed at me for giving him teasing ammo." I shrugged. "The guy carried me around half the city like a sack of potatoes while we ran from freaking Leviathan. He's earned the right to tease me however he wants, but I'm not actively going to help him do it."

Yamada relaxed and nodded. I mentally sighed. Really? What, did they think I was going to poach those two from them? Hell, if I was going to be swiping anyone out from under them, then it would probably end up being Armsmaster after the stuff with Dragon and how he seemed to actually somewhat talk to us compared to his general horrible social skills and…oh god, I was stealing Armsmaster from them wasn't I?

Fuck, I needed a bigger house…he's going to steal the whole basement if he moved in! How were supposed to support a Tinker?! Though…mmmm Tinker…No! Bad Taylor! Focus on the good psychiatrist.

Shaking my head, I smiled at Yamada and she raised her eyebrows at me. "Was the mental image that amusing?"

"Sure. Let's go with amusing."

Yamada gave me a look that had me rather impressed she wasn't rolling her eyes at me. "Taylor, I can't help if you don't talk to me."

"I'm talking. I'm talking quite a bit, are you sure you're listening?" I threw a smirk and a wink at her. "What do you want to know?"

She pursed her lips at that, clearly annoyed, score one for me. "Yes, you are talking. Between the little stunt earlier and right now, you're being remarkably chatty even if you're spacing out somewhat. My profile on you implied that you would be more, shall we say…reluctant to speak with me at all. I don't mean about yourself; I mean in general."

I shrugged again and leaned back against the wall as I crossed my legs under me. "Well yeah, there's nothing wrong with talking. I mean, it's natural to be chatty and I don't mind talking to people. I just - " I snapped my mouth shut and scowled as I narrowed my eyes to slits, glaring at nothing. "Motherfucker! I'm doing it again! Give me a second."

Breathing in and out, I closed my eyes fully and centered myself before rebalancing my emotions. I shifted out some of my happiness, left the annoyance present, pulled back some of the anger, and sent a hefty portion of my general satisfaction into the swarm. Taking stock, I nodded once and opened my eyes again. This time as I looked at Yamada, my mouth was twisted into a small frown and my posture was stiff even if I didn't move from my spot against the wall.

"Taylor…what did you just do?"

"I cheated," I growled in reply. "Emma betrayed me two years ago. I didn't know why though, not until this morning, now I know there is an actual reason which is good. It gives us a starting point. But that's not important right now. What's important, is that because of her, coupled with my father being a horrible person who essentially abandoned me to go and build his little empire, made me extremely paranoid. I don't talk to anyone I don't trust and it takes a shit-ton of work to get me to trust anyone at all."

She nodded. "That's in line with what I expected."

"That was two days ago." I waved my hand at the wall, vaguely towards Emma's position in the building. "Now, while I remember her turning against me, I don't feel it. So it's just my father; which I found out about much later and didn't hurt anywhere near as much. I'm not nearly as paranoid or as snippy. Except…I can cheat."

"And what does 'cheating' entail," she asking leaning towards me.

"I used to be able to just shove all my emotions into my swarm. Now that I've practiced for long enough, I can do it to different degrees with different emotions. I'm rebalancing on the fly when I start acting too different from my own normal. I can't keep up the balancing act forever, but it's enough to approximate my old mentality. It's also very annoying. Which actually helps, since I was largely annoyed at the world in general before Emma fixed whatever she broke between us."

Yamada frowned as she considered what I was saying. "That doesn't sound like a healthy way to continue long term, Taylor. From what I understand, this situation is permanent. You can't continue to make yourself into a frustrated, angry individual for the rest of your life, just because it's how you were a few days ago."

"Of course not, that's stupid!" I exclaimed looking at her like she'd grown a third head. "I'm not an idiot, Doc. I just don't want to change everything about who I am and how I react to people and things around me in five fucking minutes because Emma's power fucked us both over. I'll let my new normal rebalance itself slowly and stop shunting things a little at a time over the next few days. Like talking to you while being generally pissy. But I'm not doing that in larger measures until I get out and I'm around people I know and trust."

"Your team."

"My family."

She nodded again and smiled. "I can understand that sentiment perfectly, Taylor. And as long as this isn't something you intend to hold for long, I don't see that it is a problem. You seem aware of the limitations and are approaching it from a very mature perspective."

"I had to grow up fast," I commented with a scowl. "Losing your mother and then having your father basically walk out of your life does that to a person."

She sighed. "Yes, it can."

One of my patrols caught sight of a small group of people leaving a car that had just pulled into the parking lot and pinged my attention. My eyebrows raised as I shifted my focus a bit and checked in with the mini-cluster. Okay, yup, I had to deal with this.

"Excuse me for a minute. I need to potentially defuse a volatile situation outside."

"What do you mean?" Yamada asked, her eyes narrowed at my raised finger as she moved her own hand towards her pocket, presumably to get a phone.

"My team and my lawyer have apparently arrived. I need to actually focus on this so I won't be able to hold a full conversation with you. I can multitask, but not enough to hold two conversations while I'm splitting emotions as well. I'm sorry, just give me a second." Casting my mind into the mini-cluster I pulled another patrol into it and formed a smallish body with the swarm. It wasn't anything as impressive as QA, but it would do.

"Hey guys," I said waving to Amy, Lisa, and Madison as they walked to the side of the parking lot along with a taller man I didn't recognize and Vista in civilian clothes and a domino mask trailing along right beside them. All five heads shifted towards my swarm clone as they heard me.

"Taylor!" Amy shouted with a smile. She started to run towards the clone, but pulled up short, her eyes narrowing. "No…QA? Fuck."

"No, you were right. It's me. I'm bored so I'm stealing the constructs," I replied shrugging. "Also, I'm in the middle of an interview with Yamada at the moment. I'm trying to convince her I'm sane and not Mastered so that she can convince Piggot that it's safe to let me go. Should make tall, dark, and fancy's job there easier. So we'll have to keep this short."

"Quinn Calle, I'll be representing you if it's required, Miss Hebert," the lawyer stated. He had a wicked looking scar and hadn't reacted at all to talking to a bug clone. Cool. I liked this guy already.

"Thanks. Are we already under client privileges?"

"You are."

"Good." I turned to the others and focused on Lisa and Amy. "You two know I have to ask: are you going to hurt her?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Amy replied immediately.

In my cell I sighed and banged my head against the wall. "Goddammit Amy." Taking the reins of my clone again I shook its head. "Too fast and too firm. Girls, come on, this was a fucking accident from powers that she didn't even understand. You can't hurt her for something she didn't even know she was doing until it was too late."

"That's why Cassie isn't here," Lisa replied, also far too smoothly. She wasn't smiling - at all. Fuck. This was worse than I had thought.

"Sonofabitch," I muttered in the cell. "Yamada don't let my friends into the building until I okay it."

"Why?"

"Just don't fucking let them in!"

I swapped my attention back to the clone and leaned against the wall with a forced nonchalance I definitely wasn't feeling. I didn't even have to rebalance my emotions. "Look, girls, I need you to listen to me. Okay?"

Madison shook her head. "You're compromised. Your judgement can't be trusted. We'll get you out, we'll get you home, and we'll take care of the problem."

"Madison…Fuck, okay, guys, listen. Do I think of Emma like I did two years ago: as a friend? Yes. That doesn't mean that I don't still remember what she did to me. It also doesn't mean I can't work around the emotional attachment. She didn't Master me, she just…wiped away the resentment and hatred or some such bullshit."

"Sounds a lot like Mastering," Amy replied, a far too pleasant smile on her face. "Vicky has been quite vocal about her feelings on the matter and I happen to agree with her."

"Okay, well if she Mastered me, she Mastered herself too. She's suicidal now because she hates what's happened even more than you guys do. Whatever you have planned, I can guarantee you, it would be easier to wait until she eventually walks outside give her a knife and let her solve it herself. Don't do that!"

The girls looked between each other. "You're defending her awfully strongly," Madison said frowning. "That's…not a strong point, Taylor."

"I'd be defending anyone in a similar position," I said sighing. "This is what I do. It might as well be my secondary power for Christ's sake! I defend broken people, and give them a second chance. Every one of us has joined up like that; it's in our damn team name!"

Vista coughed and held up a hand. I smiled at her. "Vista, you don't have to pretend like you're in class to voice an opinion."

I could see her blush around her temporary mask and it was rather adorable. "Right. Sorry. Um, yeah, I just wanted to say that what Queen is saying is what I've seen as well. I've talked with um, Heartsight, um, Emma, and she is really upset about this whole situation."

Lisa shuffled uncomfortably before finally shaking her head. "It still doesn't change that she violated who you are, Taylor. She basically mind raped you!"

I grimaced as I slowly nodded. "Yes. Though, honestly, this might be for the best in the long run. I've been talking with Yamada and I kinda like not being paranoid that everyone is going to turn on me anymore. Plus, this isn't a full 180 for me, Lisa. You and Amy, you two both know better than anyone else what I can do with my swarm and QA. How I can use the two of them as emotional sinks."

Amy frowned, but Lisa narrowed her eyes as she stared at the clone. "You're…deadening yourself to get back to normal?"

"Yes."

Amy scowled. "You can't keep that up long term. Remember when we met?"

"I've gotten a lot better since then and I know my limits. I'm also mostly just doing it when I need to make decisions or prioritize things. I can even approximate my regular emotional state with correct balancing. It's…difficult, but I can do it."

Madison slowly nodded. "If you're telling the truth, that would mean that we could take a step back…But like Amy said, it's not a full answer."

"It's not an answer, it's a workaround, but if I let my new normal slowly meld with my old emotional state, within a week or two, three tops, I won't have to keep doing this and you guys won't even notice the difference. I'm okay. I got this. There's no need to kill Emma because of a power fuckup. We've all messed up with our powers before. Hell, Amy and I made mine sentient. Let her go. It's okay, girls, I promise." My clone moved off the wall and laid a hand on each of my friends in turn, only Amy didn't shudder.

They sighed and after looking at each other, nodded. Madison was the one designated to speak as she looked at me, "Alright. We'll trust you for now, Taylor. But Lisa has to interact with you for a full, in-depth interview when you get home before we'll fully accept that you're okay. Is that acceptable?"

"Totally understandable." I replied nodding. I turned to Vista. "My message still stands. You can stay or go, it's up to you."

She wrung her hands before shaking her head. "I…don't think I want to live with you guys. But I can't stay here anymore. I just…I just can't. Clock has been talking about…leaving too. His family's house was destroyed and I don't know if I want to live with my parents right now…I might move in wherever he's going. He's definitely annoying, but he's good at being a big brother figure when he tries."

The lawyer perked up at that. "You know, I believe there's a bit of real estate that is opening up near the property your group already has, Miss Hebert. I could help to arrange something if you wish."

Damn…I did need a second house, and a tinker workshop. Sighing, I nodded. "Talk to Madison. She has authority on my behalf. I have to get back to this interview. Talk to you guys soon."

Dispersing the swarm, I groaned as I leaned against the wall. "Fuck, that was exhausting."

Yamada was still right where I had last seen her, sitting on her chair, clipboard in hand, though this time she was scribbling heavily on said clipboard. "Is everything resolved?"

"Yeah, it's all cool. They can come inside now."

"I will let the PRT know in that case." She smiled at me as she flipped out her phone and typed out a short message. "Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you say to them to defuse the situation?"

I sighed and shook my head. "I just reminded them that we all fucked up with our powers at some point. It's a rite of passage of being a cape it seems."

"And…"

Grinning I flipped all of my emotions off so that my expression was as disturbing as I could make it. She flinched as I did so then I turned my emotions back on and burst out laughing. "And I showed them that I still had control of my mind. So…are we going to finish this so I can go home or are we going to talk about my friends and my powers more?"

Yamada recovered admirably as she glared at me and set her clipboard down. "Well as long as there are no further interruptions, I suppose we might as well continue where we left off. Now, about your father…"

Fanfic Rec: 'Like Mother like Skitter' by LD1449. This is on Sufficient Velocity and SB. This is a complete fic, woohoo! It's mostly crack, but serious crack. And it is hilarious! Basically, Annette is Marquis, Danny is her unpowered lieutenant and Taylor is unaware, yet wants to be a hero. Despite being a highly creepy, highly successful canon bug powers girl. Annette's efforts to make Taylor into Mommy's Little Villain are continually stymied by Shadow Stalker of all people who refuses to let PR get rid of her badass edgy new teammate. And Emma is convinced the entire Hebert family is insane, not that this stops her from being a good friend to Taylor. Simply put, this fic is awesome.