Amelia was angry. That was why she wasn't at the PRT. She had a meeting, and she was angry.

I should have realized it was going to be a bad day…

"Amelia," Merlin said. "Come in."

"Yeah, I'm ready to do the next experiment," she said. She'd actually been thinking about it in the little on-base apartment the PRT had for her. "I know I can't, not directly, do silicon-based life, but what if I wiggled around…"

She looked at Merlin. "What?"

"Sit down, please."

Okay. Merlin was being gentle. Merlin was being Gentle.

And then she found out why.

Amelia came to the house she'd spent most of her life in, and knocked on the door. Vicky wasn't here. Vicky was back at the PRT talking about world-ending monsters.

She was here to hopefully kill another monster.

The door opened. Carol was there, staring at her. She looked awful, hair undone, bags under her eyes. Amelia saw that every light was on.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ending this," Amelia said. Carol backed off, and Amelia saw flickers of energy. "You trusted him. Didn't you?"

"What?"

"I talked to Aunt Sara on the way here. I read the PRT files."

"Those are classified."

"I'm apprenticing with the guy people talk about in the same breath as Alexandria and Eidolon." Amelia tilted her head. "I can give a guy a dick that never quits or a woman boobs that never sag. You wouldn't believe how many doors that opens for me."

"So you bribed people." Carol looked disgusted.

"Maybe. And you're not answering the question. The man who kidnapped you. You trusted him. Then he tried to murder you, there in the dark."

Carol looked like she'd been struck. Never talk about someone's trigger event. How right they were. How wrong they were. Because it wouldn't help the experiment if people got help. Make it taboo to talk about, so that people feel they have to handle it alone.

"And you couldn't trust me, could you? I was someone from outside, not family, someone who might convince you I loved you…and then turn on you."

"I—Amy…"

Amelia let it pass.

"You were right. You couldn't love me. But…" Amelia paused. "I never went hungry. I never wanted. You never struck me, or told others you didn't love me. There's a lot of people in the Bay who would kill for a childhood like that."

"I made a promise."

Amelia nodded. "And you kept it, best as you could." Merlin would be snarky, but as much as she… Well, respected him, he wasn't always right. "Thank you."

"Amelia—why didn't…" Carol looked to the side. "Help Mark."

"I was afraid to," Amelia said. "I can fix brains, but that means I can change them. If you want to know how terrifying that is… I could be the next Heartbreaker, easy, only I wouldn't have to see people."

Carol twitched at that.

Amelia sighed. "But D-Mark doesn't need me to fix his brain, he needs to take his meds on time. Come down to the PRT building, and we can have Armsmaster build an implant that will regularly give him his dose and warn you when it's about to go dry."

Or maybe I could incorporate something to synthesize… No. Carol would always distrust that. And maybe I had that urge because my power just wants to be used, and causing Carol to distrust me more is just a happy side benefit.

"I… Thank you." Carol looked down, looked back, like she was about to…

Amelia spared her. "I have to get back to the PRT. A lot of things to do."

"Right." Carol nodded. "Lots of things to do, but if we… see each other when Victoria is around…"

"Yeah. Try to keep from traumatizing her any more than we have to." Amelia nodded. Carol was worried about Vicky, more than she was—more than she could be—about Amelia.

That hurt.

A lot.

But trying to pretend… In the end, Amelia had a feeling it would hurt worse. Trying to pretend, letting others choose for her, moping around…

She was done with that. Win or lose, for good or ill, Amelia Claire Lavere was going to forge her own path and destiny.

"Carol, just one thing. We're capes. You know that every cape is screwed up, right?"

Carol tensed. "And?"

"We don't have to stay that way. Good bye," she said, and turned away from the building that she'd once called home.

She'd take her time going back. First she had to figure out the best tools to help everyone eliminate the Nine.

Then she could get to work on the things that would help pay back Scion for all the things she had to thank him for.

A passerby blinked at the girl walking down the street.

Then she smiled, and he flinched, keeping his eye on her as she passed him, before he kept walking in the other direction.

Presently, he broke into a not-quite-run to get out of her sight.