Many thanks to dwood15 for betareading.

Twinkle 2.6

"Aegis," said Piggot coldly. "You want to explain yourself?"

Carlos stood stiffly by my bedside. I was lying down swaddled in white bedclothes in the infirmary, my blurred vision barely allowing me to make out the shape of the woman by the door. I couldn't see her face clearly enough to tell her expression, but her tone made it was fairly clear that she wasn't smiling.

"I took the actions I deemed most likely to fulfill our mission objectives, Ma'am," said Aegis, his back straight as a board.

"Including sending an untested trial Ward in with a member of the team with whom she's known to have issues to infiltrate a hostage situation? You're going to need to walk me through that bit of reasoning."

"At least two of the enemy parahumans were largely unknown quantities. Tattletale is a combat thinker of unknown potential, and the mechanics of Hellhound's control over her minions are still unknown. I couldn't authorize a direct engagement, and maintaining a stalemate only allowed them further time to take advantage of their hostages. Since Annatar informed me that her stranger abilities defeated Tattletale's thinker rating, I opted to allow her to infiltrate. Rather than sending her alone, I sent the only other Stranger on the squad in with her. I stand by those decisions, Ma'am."

"You are aware of the procedures surrounding a hostage situation, Aegis?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Then what would you say is the first step to that procedure?"

"Establish communications with the perpetrator, Ma'am."

"Is that what you did?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Why not?"

"Because this was not a conventional hostage situation, Ma'am. The Undersiders aren't desperate criminals with a bad case of tunnel vision like those protocols were designed for; they're trained parahuman combatants with at least one thinker. Given the unknowns surrounding Tattletale in particular, I made the call to forgo mediated negotiations as they may have been detrimental, and would have been dangerous."

"And sending in an infiltration team wasn't?"

"With all due respect, Ma'am, I trust Annatar and Shadow Stalker's abilities to infiltrate more than I trust myself to negotiate with a thinker of unknown capability," Aegis reported, his pose loosening slightly. "In addition, Annatar's shaker abilities were ideal for protecting hostages once she was able to get between them and the Undersiders."

Silence fell. I tried to blink the fog out of my eyes, and then clenched my eyes shut to try to ride out the headache.

"Ma'am?" Aegis said, his voice perfectly devoid of emotion. After a moment's silence he spoke again. "If there's nothing else, I'd like to give Annatar a chance to rest."

Piggot sighed. "You're right. Get out of here, all of you; we'll continue in my office."

After a short moment, I was alone in the medical wing.

I reached over to my bedside and picked up the Jewelry Box. I took a couple of deep breaths to steady myself, and then spoke, clearly and firmly.

"Edro a adlenc."

The box snapped open.

Off came Nenya, and on went Vilya. My ring-bearing hand went straight to my pounding head, and I began to channel my power. Vilya's sapphire shone blue as its power flared, casting light which played on the walls of the room and shone even through my closed eyelids when I blinked.

Slowly, the pain receded and my vision cleared. With a snap, I shut the Jewelry Box.

I stared up at the ceiling, running through all that had happened in my head.

I'd had my first real experience in parahuman combat as part of a team, brought the wrong Ring to the fight, left both Aeglos and my box (not that I could have carried both them and Sophia regardless), gotten myself concussed, probably compromised the security of the Jewelry Box, and just generally made a fool of myself. I'd failed to capture an enemy cape even after knocking her out, and left Sophia to care for the hostages while I went in to fight even though I was the one suited for defense.

"Well, that could have gone better."

Panacea came in some time later. The light streaming in through the windows had changed slightly in quality as the sun began to sink low, taking on a faint golden tint. I'd been humming a tune idly, but stopped when the door opened.

"Annatar," she greeted, all business. "I can't fix your concussion—"

"No need," I interrupted, sitting up. "I dealt with it."

She blinked at me. "…You have a healing factor? No one told me."

"New power," I admitted. "I manifest them fairly often. And it's not a healing factor; it's healer-striker. Like you!"

She just stared at me. I watched her face as it shifted, lightning-fast, between expressions. A widening of the eyes, the faintest scowl, a clenched jaw, a slackening as of exhaustion, a pursing of lips, and finally, neutrality. Resignation.

"How does it work?" she asked eventually.

I considered. "I suppose I touch someone who..." I paused, thinking through my wording. "...who I know has something wrong with them," I continued slowly, "and then I focus on fixing that thing."

"You can do it to yourself?"

"Yeah. You can't?"

"No," Panacea shook her head. "I can't manipulate my own biology."

Manipulate my own biology. Not heal myself.

I considered her. "Do you have any injuries you want me to fix, then?" I offered.

"I'm all right," she said quickly. "Um, I should probably give you a diagnostic anyway. May I?"

I nodded, then pointed at my face. "Afraid you'll have to use my chin, unless you want me to undo the gauntlets."

"No, that's fine," she said, and set a finger against my skin.

I waited.

She frowned. "…That's weird," she mumbled.

"What is?"

"You definitely used powers to fix your concussion, and it's fixed, but…"

"But what?"

"Well, your gemma's… small, I guess."

I blinked at her. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not sure, although I admit I don't know much about the gemma. It's the part of the brain that manifests after trigger events. You've got one, but it's atrophied. With the lack of activity I'm seeing there, it seems… dead."

"…Should I be worried?"

"Probably not," Panacea said. "The gemma appears in a different place and manifests differently in every parahuman. I can only recognize it because it and the corona are the only parts of the brain that my power doesn't help me make heads or tails of. You clearly have powers, and some capes don't even have brains. You're probably fine. Uh, you do still feel like you have powers, right?"

"Definitely," I said, thumbing the cool band of Vilya on my finger.

"Well then. Should be fine."

I shrugged. "All right. So what's your diagnosis, doc?"

"Well, your concussion's healed," Panacea reported. "You had some bruising on your shoulder, probably from bouncing around in that tin can. I fixed it for you."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it," said Panacea, then hesitated. "…Could you have fixed it yourself?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "I didn't notice it because I haven't moved much since I fixed my concussion. In the future, so long as I'm conscious, you probably won't have to worry about me."

Panacea nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help at the bank. I appreciate it."

I grimaced. "I could really have done better, but you're welcome."

Panacea stepped away from my bedside. "I'll let them know you're better," she said, "and then I've got to run. I should probably be headed home. Later, Annatar."

"See you, Panacea."

A few minutes later, I was standing across from Piggot's desk in her office. The whole scene deeply reminded me of my initial Wards interview. So much had happened; it was strange to think that was only two days ago.

This time, however, I was Piggot's subordinate, rather than someone she wanted on board. And by the grim frown on her face, she wasn't especially happy with me.

"Annatar," said Piggot, studying me over steepled fingers. "The medical staff have told me you've fixed your own concussion?"

I nodded. "It's a power on the Air module. It's actually Air's central power, I think."

"Central power?"

"Each of the Three has a theme," I explained—partly for Piggot's benefit, and partly to walk myself through what I'd only recently discovered. "Fire is strength, Water is protection. Air is healing."

"I thought Air was the master/striker one?"

Grimacing, I nodded. "I don't really know how that one ties in, honestly."

Piggot grunted. "Well, that doesn't matter. Do you know why I wanted to talk to you now, before I sent you home for the day?"

"No."

"No, Ma'am."

I twitched slightly, but nodded. "No, Ma'am. Sorry."

"You're new," Piggot said. "I'll forgive you not knowing procedure, so long as you learn—which is why we're going to have a conversation, now, instead of giving you a month's worth of console duty on top of the mandatory training hours you're going to receive."

I grimaced.

"Do you know what the first thing you did counter to protocol was, Annatar?"

I thought about it. "Using my new power to get to the bank," I guessed.

"Close," Piggot said. "Not waiting for clearance to do so before you did. You should have called console, or me, first. Do you know why?"

"So you can keep track of my powers?"

"That's a side benefit. No, it's so that our people don't see an unknown speedster approaching a combat zone and shoot on sight because a potentially hostile parahuman is running at them."

I twitched.

"You're fortunate your driver called ahead." Piggot told me. "Otherwise, you could have been covered in containment foam for the duration of the fighting. My job is to coordinate these things, and facilitate communication between on-the-ground leaders like Aegis, Annatar. I need to know about them."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"What was your next mistake?"

"Charging at Trainwreck?"

Piggot nodded. "You left the hostages exposed," she said. "Shadow Stalker was nearby, but you were the one with the barriers, and you left them to engage an armored tinker in CQC. That's another mistake: don't engage power armor in CQC, unless you have a countermeasure. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"The hostages should have been your priority, not the enemy parahuman. Your job is, first and foremost, protecting innocent people, not taking in villains."

"Understood. Sorry."

"Just don't screw it up again." Piggot leaned forward. "Now, what was your last mistake?"

I blinked. "Um… Getting knocked out of my pursuit of Circus?"

"You shouldn't have been pursuing her in the first place," Piggot said darkly. "Your last mistake, Annatar, was staying in combat after sustaining a debilitating injury—namely, a serious concussion. That's the kind of thing that makes enemy parahumans assume you're a resilient brute, which makes them stop holding back. Which Circus then did. You were lucky not to sustain serious brain damage."

"It was a combat situation," I protested. "I couldn't just stop fighting—"

"When the options are withdraw or risk serious injury," Piggot said flatly, "I want you to choose to withdraw every time. Wards are not supposed to get killed in the line of duty, even here in Brockton Bay. You understand me?"

I gritted my teeth, then sighed and nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. I'm not in the habit of explaining myself to my subordinates," Piggot said, "so don't expect me to explain next time. You're getting off easy because you've only been in the Wards for two days and if I had my way you'd still be in intensive training rather than going out into the field, if we had the facilities and weren't as understaffed as we are. Still, don't expect this again. Clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

She nodded, and then sighed. "For the record," she added, "I applaud you on quick use of a new power. Getting yourself and Shadow Stalker to the combat zone was well done, although you should have called it in."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

Piggot nodded. "All right," she said. "Do you plan to do any tinkering here tonight, or are you headed home?"

I considered. "Do you want me here for some reason?"

"Not particularly."

"Then I'll probably head home. Dad'll want to talk, and my plans can wait for tomorrow."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure you start committing combat protocols to memory."

"I will."

"One more thing, Annatar," said Piggot just as I turned to leave. "You were using the Water module, correct?"

"Yes," I confirmed.

"I thought that gave you enhanced senses? Why didn't you detect Trainwreck and Circus?"

I grimaced. "Loophole in the power, I think. I'll need to do some testing." I bit my lip. "My current guess is that the power technically reveals the hidden, rather than just enhancing my senses—which means, basically, that it shows me more wherever I'm looking, but doesn't help me at all if I'm not looking. I was looking in at the lobby for the Undersiders. Once I found them, I stopped looking. Since I didn't think to check for other parahumans, I didn't find Circus and Trainwreck."

"That's… a bit arbitrary."

"Like I said, it's just my best guess. I still need to test it."

"See to that tomorrow, then, before you start tinkering."

"Yes, Ma'am. Anything else?"

"No, that'll do."