I wake up, and the ceiling is gone. Which is...huh.

Oh. No, this is familiar. The bright light, blue sky...and that noise, on the edge of my hearing. Like the wind off the bay. Combined with the stillness of this place, it's not particularly comforting.

'The Void'. Now that I think about it, it's pretty fitting...I blink, slowly, and settle back to watch as an island drifts by overhead. Looks like one of those expensive tourist-traps from the boardwalk, only...old, and falling apart. Is it supposed to mean something? Don't most dreams have all kinds of hidden meaning?

"But then, this isn't really a dream, is it?"

I flinch, and push myself upright...the Outsider. Looking up at the 'sky', not paying any attention to me, but still reading my thoughts like it's nothing.

"Is that what I'm doing?"

He turns empty eyes on me, and I manage...not to look away immediately. Which is something. But then I focus on the floor, and stand up. Shake off the momentary disorientation while he watches, just like he does every time he decides to show up out of nowhere…

He's gone when I look up again.

Alright then.

So, here I am, in...I don't know. I don't think it's really Victoria's room. More like a representation of it? That makes sense...especially considering Victoria is glowing.

Shining, a lighthouse, warning and welcome in one. Impregnable to all. It demands and defies, but a protective limb shields my eyes and I see.

I move a little closer, squinting past the light. It's weird, seeing her frozen in place and looking like she's burning, under her skin. Sitting on the edge of her bed, hunched over...I think it's a picture. I can't make out any details, between the glow, and the way she's clutching it, but…

This is...weird. Or it feels weird. Invasive. I think I'll just...leave.

Yeah.

I turn to the door, and pause when I realize it's already open a crack. Somebody is there. For a moment, I think I might need to...I don't know, fight? Run? Except I realize they're probably frozen, too. So...not a problem, but maybe blocking the door. Not that that's a problem, because besides the ceiling, half the wall is missing. I guess that's useful...I move-

-dropping to the floor on the other side. This...isn't the hallway I remember. It's too brightly lit, tile instead of hardwood...wait. No, this is...this is a hospital? I turn back to where the door should be, and it's right there. Victoria's room, just jammed into place. And the watcher...it takes me a second, with the light from inside casting everything in such stark contrast, but that's...Amy?

I move unconsciously around the shadow she casts...and that's definitely Amy. Which is...alright. She's...checking up on her sister? Worried? Why the hospital, though?

Hands grope uselessly at me, dripping clay like river-mud. Sharp things unfold behind me to nudge them away before they can sculpt and change...

Does it matter? Probably not.

"Do I need to be here?" I look around again...see purple light flickering, down the hall. Which is probably as much an answer as I'm going to get right now. Which is fine. I can play ball. Walk down a creepy hospital hallway that really shouldn't be here, toward the creepy light, because why not?

There's an open doorway, and I step through into a...not a hospital room. Or, I don't think it is. It's too big; there are almost twenty beds in here, jammed in next to each other. Every one is occupied by a body frozen in time...people in gang colors. ABB.

"The hell?"

"No matter where you go, you will find them."

Shit. I turn, as the Outsider steps up beside me. What the hell?

"The dull and disillusioned, flocking together in the hopes that they might find their fortunes. But the men and women that they choose to follow so rarely deliver on those promises. So often...they offer only more pain."

He moves, toward one of the beds, and after a few seconds I follow. This particular guy is battered, bruised, but he seems mostly alright. Except for the bandage around his neck. Now that I think about it...now that I look again...he's not the only one. That seems...it can't be a coincidence, right? What does that mean, though? If it does mean anything?

"Of course, not all of these people were willing followers. I suppose that makes some difference, doesn't it?"

"What?" That draws my attention immediately, because...not 'willing'? What the hell was that supposed to mean? "They seemed pretty willing to shoot at people in the middle of the street last night. To bomb the city for a week and a half."

Silence, and a steady nod...the Outsider looks at me again. Curious. "Is that why you fight them?"

There's a yes, right on the tip of my tongue, but something about this whole thing makes me stop, and consider his question a little more carefully. Is that why I've been going after them? I never really...decided to focus on the ABB. Not really...they were just the ones I'd run into the most. And I'd gone after them sometimes even before the bombs…

"Isn't that a good enough reason?"

"There are those that might not agree." I fight to stay still as the hospital falls away around us, bits and pieces being replaced at random, until we're standing in the middle of a street...in the middle of a fight.

It's a mess. Men, women...the large majority of them are ABB, but there are more than a few capes...I don't recognize all of them, but I pick out a couple that might be from Faultline's crew. And...those are definitely some of the Undersiders.

Too many shapes and forms, too much at once, and gEntleLimbs tuRn my Eyes aw-

How many of these people are there? I try to move through the crowd, but for every group I manage to get past, there's another just waiting to trip me up. Finally I have to stop, because this is stupid. There are rooftops right over there-

-so I might as well get a decent view of the fight. Battle? Considering the numbers involved, I think that might be more accurate. It even looks like a war zone; what isn't covered in patches of darkness is either on fire or filling with bodies, weapons, and broken pavement. And I just...when the hell did it get this bad? This is insane.

"It may be what drives them. Their own insanity, or the insanity of others." I glance up, but the Outsider is focused on the people below. "But there's nothing new in that, is there? This…" He waves a hand at the street below, and turns to look at me. "This is where power so often leads, isn't it?"

"You don't need super-powers to be a bad person." I turn back to the frozen battle below, scowling at nothing in particular. "These people could have done something good with their powers. Instead they just…" Wreck things. Steal and hurt. "They're selfish."

"I wonder, then...are your motivations more pure?"

My stomach clenches.

"Have you never felt the urge...to take your revenge? On the ones who have wronged you?"

I have. More than a few times, I've just wanted to...hurt them. And it'd be easy. I might even be able to get away with it, without being found out.

I look up again, and meet his eyes. "Heroes don't do that."

There's a long moment of silence, as we watch each other. And, just before I think I'm going to have to look away...he nods, and turns to walk away from the edge of the roof. "They don't."

Right.

I move to follow him, and stumbled as the gravel disappears, replaced by concrete a rooftop anymore, this is a broken down...warehouse? No, a boathouse. I think. It might not even be broken down. The fact that there are holes everywhere might just be because of where we are...where we actually are. That being the 'Void'.

Wait, are those the Wards?

I frown, and start towards them, edging around piles of yellow foam, captured ABB. There are men in full-body armor, Kevlar and high tech chain-mail. PRT troops? I don't know much about how they usually work, but this seems a little strange…

It's taking me much longer to cross this room than it really should...and I belatedly realize that Vista being here is the most likely cause. Considering the ways she's waving in my direction...her power lets her warps space, if I remember right.

I look on it from a great distance, but it's still so close. It affects its place, its own relativity, simply by existing. A soft chittering in my ear, frustration from the thing beHindM-

I shake my head, and teleport to her side. From there I can skirt the wall, and circle around to get closer to the center of the action. Which, in this case, isn't very active. Clockblocker, with his hand on...something. Some kind of machine. And I flinch as it flickers, letting out a single click before stopping again. The sound was almost deafening, in the near-silence...

It isn't holding the thing anymore. Or yet? But at the same time, it still is. The way it twists in and around itself is sickening, and I have to look away.

Is that Bakuda?

I move around another PRT guy, blink at the woman, frozen in mid-fall. The gas mask and bandoleer of grenades makes me think 'yes'...the fact that it looks like she's missing a foot makes me a little less certain. She flickers too, as I watch; this time, I don't flinch. What is that? Everything I've come across so far, here, has been frozen...?

Clockblocker's power lets him freeze things in time. If this was something that...happened? Is happening? Then he must have frozen Bakuda and that thing. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a bomb. So his time-freezing is interacting with the Void's time-freezing? Somehow?

"These children fight because they are told. Because they believe their power is a calling."

I shiver, turn away from the villain to see the Outsider, examining the bomb.

They 'believe'...implying that it might not be true. "If you've got power, then you should use it to help people…" I frown. "You...when you gave me these powers, you said it was my choice how I use them. Why are you questioning me now?"

He looks up. "Is there a better way to get an answer?"

"...I want to help people."

"Because you have been helpless?"

I grit my teeth. "Yes."

He nods, and there's another long moment of quiet before the world shifts again.

And I'm alone, in Victoria's room.

"Once, there was a village by the sea. There were helpless people there." I look around, but his voice echoes from everywhere. "They were afraid of the world...and fear became their tool. They succumbed to it, and thought that it was strength."

That's...what? What's he talking about now?

"There is no village there anymore. It was worn away by time, and forgotten."

The light starts to fade, and I feel...weak. Can't help myself, as I slump to the floor.

"And that's the way of things."

"They...end."

I wake up, for the second time.

From the way I'm shivering, the cold sweat clinging to me, this time it's real. And...it's early. I can tell that much already. The sun's not even up yet..

I don't think I'm going back to sleep.