Chapter 2.e
Friday, April 15th 2011
The Teeth.
Why did it have to be the Teeth?
Of all of the groups that Taylor could have gone crying to so that they would fight her battles for her, why had she picked the group of murderous psychopaths who try to burn young girls ali—
Breathe.
If Emma was being completely honest, the weakling's choice did make a twisted sort of sense. Taylor wasn't Asian (not that the ABB was still around, and good riddance), she wasn't a druggie (not that the Merchants were still around either…), and for all that Emma made fun of her, she wasn't stupid enough to be a white supremacist. That left the Teeth as the only group who would offer protection to someone who had as little to offer in return as Taylor.
Seriously, what would a group of murderers and vandals want with an ambulatory doormat? It wasn't like the girl could fight; hell, she wouldn't even stand up for herself, nevermind fighting an actual, real opponent. Emma almost laughed at the idea of scrawny Taylor in one of the Teeth's fighting pits, frantically trying to run away from one of their crazed murderers.
As for the other reason they might want her, well… Emma knew what one member saw in her, at least. That the member in question was pretty much the head bitch of Winslow's Teeth, and almost certainly Vex out of costume? Well, it explained why the regular members were deferring to her.
Chrissie Dawson was a cunt, there was no other way about it. The bitch thrived on making trouble, picking fights with the Empire and ABB at every turn. That didn't bother Emma so much; no, what bothered her was how the villain kept Emma, Sophia, and Madison from doing anything to the Winslow Teeth. The irritating girl barely had a secret identity to speak of, and she leaned on that heavily. She wouldn't be afraid to use her powers if push came to shove. The problem was acting on that information — until the crazy bitch used her powers at school, there wasn't much Emma could do about it.
Somewhere along the line Dawson had gotten to Taylor, taking a perverse interest in the useless weakling. Taylor was absent for almost a week before she showed back up in Teeth colors, so that had to be when the cunt got her claws into her former best friend.
What infuriated Emma was that the Teeth were able to stop most of her fun with Taylor. Sure, they could still start rumors and throw insults, but the Teeth protected her in the lunchroom and between classes. Worse, it was only because of the Teeth that Taylor felt bold enough to throw insults of her own — and… recruitment pitches…
Breathe.
Emma hated it, and so she had finally come up with a plan. Truth be told, even Emma felt a little bad using this secret, one that she had kept from Taylor all of these years. Emma might not even have remembered if not for wondering (privately) what had finally caused Taylor to give up.
The other girl had certainly taken her sweet time about it. Despite knowing Taylor for many years, Emma could simply not fathom how or why Taylor had let everyone walk all over her since the beginning of high school. Oh, there had been the occasional flare-up, but whatever force of personality the other girl had once possessed had been completely abandoned in favor of her now miserable existence.
Seriously, Taylor sat there and let everyone make a victim out of her! She never fought back, never projected any emotion other than resigned acceptance, never seemed to care about how worthless she had become… all from a girl who had survived her mother's death and bounced back. Taylor should have known better, and it infuriated Emma that the other girl simply let everyone use her as a punching bag.
However, even the most sturdy punching bags eventually ruptured. Taylor hadn't fought back after the flute. She hadn't fought back after the locker. Both of those were trigger worthy events; one of them should have worked, had Taylor been able to get powers. Madison had even raised that concern after the locker, only for Sophia to mock her for a week for thinking someone like Taylor would trigger.
Well, if Taylor had powers, she wouldn't have needed to join the Teeth. She'd have real power, not the false strength of weaklings banding together for protection. Worse, Taylor had even convinced uncle Danny that she was fine! How Taylor fooled him, Emma would never know… though aunt Annette would have been ashamed of them both.
Thus, it was Emma to the rescue, saving yet another pathetic waste of space from the Teeth. She would show Taylor how terrible her decision to join really was, and when she was at her lowest…
She would say the words that would break Taylor.
Taylor had killed her mom.
On that horrible night that her dad had picked up uncle Danny and Taylor when he was too drunk to even feed her once and maybe future sister, Emma had overheard his ramblings when she went back for some of Taylor's clothes. She had heard him asking Dad if it was wrong for him to blame the phone call for Annette's death — the call that Taylor had made.
Emma wasn't sure how much of it was true, and how much was the alcohol, but there was no way that Taylor could just brush that accusation off lightly. For all that she had bounced back, Taylor loved her mother intensely. Knowing that even uncle Danny might blame her, plus some choice comments about how Emma missed her too… followed up with insinuating that at least Annette didn't need to see Taylor sell herself to the Teeth…
Oh, maybe Taylor killed her mom intentionally to become a gang whore! They wouldn't even need to cut her up —
Breathe.
The real problem was that if she finally broke Taylor, Emma would potentially hand the Teeth another cape. Emma knew better than anyone about how amazing it was to finally get powers, but even still, imagining Taylor in a bone-clad costume as she gleefully murdered people sent a chill down Emma's spine. She didn't want that, but if she did make Taylor trigger, she could inform the PRT afterwards and make sure Taylor was arrested as soon as she did something illegal.
It wouldn't be hard to have her Dad help Taylor get a probationary Ward membership, after Emma took down the Teeth's newest supervillain. Emma almost smiled at that, thinking that — after all this time — she might finally get to be a superhero with Taylor! Of course, she doubted that Taylor would get a good power, but Emma had been a Ward for almost a year now and could teach her how everything worked. They could crush the Teeth together, Emma could show her what real strength was, and they could deal with that annoying cunt at school.
And if Taylor didn't trigger, well… it wasn't like the PRT were going to cut a teenage gang whore any slack for attacking a Ward out of costume. In fact, given that Emma had been trying to help Taylor not fall in with the Teeth and she was reporting it as bullying of all things…
All she needed was five minutes alone with the girl, without the fucking Butcher keeping an eye on everything. Surely the insane madwoman had better things to do after robbing a bank, fighting the Wards, subjugating the Undersiders, breaking into PRT HQ, and apparently taking down Coil. How and why Butcher cared enough about protecting her stupid cannon fodder at Winslow, Emma couldn't fathom.
Luckily, Butcher seemed to be recovering after her antics yesterday, so Emma was not going to let this opportunity slip through her fingers.
The only wrinkle in the plan was that Madison was absent. It had been a pleasant surprise to discover that the other girl was also a cape, and even more so to learn that she was happy to keep the Winslow rabble in line. However, in the last week, Madison had been avoiding everyone and everything, deflecting all of Emma's attempts to dig for information.
At least Madison had not hesitated against the Butcher at the bank. As absurd as the thought was, Emma suspected that Madison might feel bad about Taylor joining the Teeth.
"Hey Emma!" Julia called as Emma rounded the last hallway corner. "I think you were right, Dawson ain't here and I've broken two of those shitty necklaces and not a single fly landed on me. Weaver's gone too."
"Perfect!" Emma chirped. "Where's Taylor now?"
Julia grinned, pulling up a photo on her phone of Taylor, timid as ever. "Sarah saw her slip into her old haunt." Right, the bathroom from the juice prank.
"Good work Jules. We'll take it from here."
She laughed. "Just be sure to send us pictures after she breaks down sobbing, that'll teach her to not act so high and fucking mighty around here."
Yes, yes it would. Emma pulled her own phone out and called Sophia. "We've got her, are you ready to break the wimp?"
Sophia's voice was practically salivating as she spoke. "Always, survivor."
Arriving at the nearly abandoned bathroom, one of Emma's followers confirmed that nobody was in there except Taylor, and that she hadn't left. This was it, the opportunity she needed. It was time to make Taylor into a hero whether she wanted it or not. A glance to Sophia showed that she was ready too.
Sophia pushed the door open first and strode inside, Emma stayed close on her heel. The Teeth liked to give their normals Tinkered knives, and with Taylor being the girlfriend of a cape, there was a good chance that she might have one. Sophia was the safe choice to go first, even if it meant outing herself. That was when Emma noticed that something was wrong.
Taylor wasn't in a stall, she was leaning against the far wall, scrolling through her phone in one hand while eating a pita wrap in the other. She hadn't even looked up at them when they walked in, just quietly chewing away at her lunch.
"Took you two long enough." Taylor said after swallowing. "I thought you might be getting cold feet."
"How the —" Emma started, but she stopped herself.
Nothing about the situation was as she expected, and all of the instincts she had honed in battle were screaming at her that she had just walked into a trap. Were there other Teeth in the stalls? Had she messaged someone and reinforcements were incoming? This wasn't Taylor's usual stoic defiance, this was something else, something… deeper.
Taylor was too confident. It was the calm assuredness of someone who wasn't afraid. Emma had seen it before, she just couldn't place it. Unfortunately, it didn't appear that Sophia had noticed, or maybe she had and just didn't care.
"You," Sophia spat. "See, if you had just learned your place, Hebert, we might have finally just ignored you like the worm you are. But now you're the Teeth's newest whore, so we don't even need a reason to beat you up."
"Before you do," Emma cut in. She needed to regain some control and she knew the perfect way to do that. "Tell me Taylor, how can you even hold a cell phone knowing that was the weapon you used to kill your mom?"
That seemed to have struck a nerve as Taylor actually went still for a moment, her disinterested expression faltering, her lip quivering… Then it was back again, as if she hadn't been shaken at all by the revelation.
"Huh, maybe I did, now that I think about it the timing does match up," Taylor said with a shrug.
Emma fought to not show her frustration. "Uncle Danny certainly believed it. I overheard him blathering on and on about how he blamed you for killing your mom when Dad picked him up while he was too drunk to remember you even existed."
"Wish I could get that drunk," Sophia quipped.
Emma gave that the appropriate chuckle and to their surprise, so did Taylor.
"Just what happened to you Taylor? What happened to that sweet girl who actually cared about her parents?"
Taylor lost all levity in that moment and actually stood up straight. It had been long enough that Emma almost did a double take, and had to force down the instinct to cringe back.
"That's simple, Emma. You bitches killed her." Emma found herself growing angry, because now Taylor was showing a spine, now she was fighting back. If she had only done it before she joined a fucking gang, before the goddamn Teeth got their fangs in her. "Are you two done? If you are then get the fuck out of my way, I've got shit to do."
That was absolutely the wrong thing to say to Sophia.
Sophia didn't bother to try and hide what she was doing, she telegraphed the punch as much as a person could, baiting Taylor to react, to give Sophia a reason to escalate. Taylor didn't react even as Sophia hit her as hard as she could square in the stomach. Not even a flinch. Shit, everything was wrong with this, she just needed to—
Sophia lashed out again, as fast as she could and connected squarely with Taylor's jaw. Once again, the girl didn't even move from the impact, as though she were a statue. Then Taylor let out a weary sigh.
That was when Sophia pulled back and drew the knife she kept hidden.
Sophia was fast. Emma knew this firsthand from numerous sparring sessions, both before and after Sophia had joined the Wards. Sure, Madison could move quickly and Carlos could fly, but Sophia had survived on the streets alone with just her wits and speed; she was probably the most dangerous Ward out of costume.
Taylor was faster.
In the blink of an eye, Taylor caught Sophia's knife in her bare hand before twisting viciously; the sound of delicate wrist bones snapping was immediately followed by a much louder crack when Taylor lashed out with a kick and broke Sophia's shin. The other Ward buckled under her own weight, only for Taylor to twist her extended leg into another kick and send Sophia flopping across the floor like a thrown fish.
Emma's brain was still processing this series of events when Taylor hoisted her by the front of her coat, single-handedly, and slammed her against the near wall. She refused to go quietly, though, and threw a Brute rated punch right at Taylor's face. She didn't even flinch.
Taylor then pulled Emma back, which she took the opportunity to knee Taylor's stomach before the girl slammed her back into the wall. "Well, you're stronger than Sophia, I'll give you that."
Despite the pain, and the temptation to use her power to be rid of it, Emma couldn't keep a grin from curling on her face. She gave the recently-revealed parahuman — Taylor was a parahuman! — a few more perfunctory smacks, but someone had already done the hard work for her, apparently. And Taylor had even beat up Sophia already, so all Emma needed to do was get out of here and the Teeth would lose their newest cape.
It was a flawless plan, because despite the warning sirens blaring her head, Emma was completely sure that Taylor wouldn't actually hurt her. "Fucking finally, Taylor. What the hell took you so long? I mean, you're in a shitload of trouble but glerk —"
"Shut up, Emma." Taylor's voice carried a deadly finality, and Emma felt her surety of her immediate safety crack slightly with the pressure on her neck. "Do you want to hear something sad?"
"Like how you had to join a gang before you finally decided to be a person instead of a victim? Or that you got powers that just let people beat you up better?"
Taylor barked out a laugh at that, but her grip didn't slacken in the least. "No. The sad thing is that the Teeth treat me with more respect than anyone has in the past two years. Now, I wonder why that is?"
Emma managed a passable sneer. "Because you're fucking them?"
"See, I'm not good with people anymore," Taylor continued, voice eerily level. "Until last weekend, I didn't have friends. I barely even had family, because my mother died and my dad still hasn't recovered."
Thankfully, Taylor's sob story was interrupted by a sudden noise: against the far wall, Sophia tried to struggle to her feet. Emma bit her tongue before she could say 'about damn time,' because as relieved as Emma was to finally have leverage and opportunity with Taylor, she didn't appreciate —
Taylor's eyes flicked to Sophia, and the other Ward let out an aborted scream before collapsing on the ground, twitching and hissing.
The sirens in Emma's mind blared all the louder for the display, and for the first time since entering the bathroom, Emma was afraid. Taylor clearly had more than one power — being some sort of shitty grab-bag fit her, actually — and Emma needed to figure out if her own powers were needed. Fighting a cape with unknown powers, in a school, out of costume… even if it was Taylor, it would be better just to get the PRT to come after her.
Emma definitely didn't pick that option because she didn't want to fight Taylor, a Brute with some other… power…
Her mind blanked. Part of her knew, in that moment, what had happened, but she refused to believe it.
Meanwhile, Sophia tried to reach for her phone with her good arm. She managed to get it out of her pocket, only for insects to stream out of the gaps under the sinks and from cracks in the baseboards to swarm the device. Those insects then carried the device next to Taylor's foot, and the taller cape crushed it with a stomp.
Oh god.
No.
No no no no nonononono…
For an instant, she was back in the alley and there was a hand on her throat and a lighter held up to—
Emma would have worried about activating her power, had the rest of her brain not gone completely numb. Taylor — no, Weaver, Butcher XV — how? There was no way that Taylor, of all people, had conquered the Butchers. She was weak, useless! They would have broken her within minutes, forcing her to dance to their murderous tune while laughing at how stupid she was for killing Quarrel.
Then Emma remembered that Taylor killed Lung, too, and started to hyperventilate.
If Taylor was aware of Emma's internal panic, she didn't show it. "Here's the thing, Emma," she said, voice echoed by her horrifying chorus of bugs. She opened her palm, revealing a crushed blade that began to reshape itself into a flower; a single butterfly landed on the flower and fluttered its wings. "I'm not the Teeth's new whore. I'm their boss."
"No," Emma whispered, which was about as loud as she could be with Taylor holding her. "No, no no no. You can't be, that doesn't make any sense."
"You know what doesn't make sense, Emma?" Taylor roared, and Emma was only vaguely aware that this was the first time she had heard Taylor raise her voice in years. "Throwing away ten years of —"
Taylor's shout cut off like a knife, and she released her hold on Emma's neck before taking two steps backwards. Emma, stunned as she was, wasn't able to get her feet underneath herself in time, so she just joined her compatriot on the ground. She tilted her sore neck upwards to see Taylor mumbling to herself — right, she was Butcher XV, and had fourteen supervillains in her head.
Despite herself, despite this being Taylor… Emma whimpered. The entire Wards roster had been briefed on Weaver the night she killed Lung and Quarrel, and they had explained her power to them. Taylor had triggered with bug control months ago and hadn't once hurt them with it until she had become the Butcher, and even then…
Even then, she hadn't killed them. She'd seen the video of how quickly Menja's leg was stripped to the bone, she'd seen the pictures of what Weaver did to Oni Lee… All this time, that had been Taylor. She could have done that to Emma with ease.
"You know, I've fantasized about this ever since I triggered," Taylor said softly. "Using my powers to finally fight back, to take down the bitches that ruined my life… but now that I'm here? It feels hollow. You're both pathetic."
Taylor took a measured breath. "I never gave in, even after I inherited, even after you used my mom's death as a weapon against me. Even as I had thirteen voices in my head screaming at me to end you, I held my ground. I stayed strong in the face of every temptation I had to just be done with it, and let me tell you, my predecessors can be creative and vindictive little fuckers."
Emma had to say something, anything. "The PRT will…" Will what? Taylor was the goddamn Butcher!
Taylor ignored her, walking over to where she'd left her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. Emma had long stopped letting herself care about Taylor's mopey and pathetic expressions, but the look of profound exhaustion on her face almost made Emma want to reach out.
"I'm done playing this game. Winslow is mine now. If you try to bring the PRT down on me, I'll make sure you receive a personal visit at home. Hell, the PRT might not even listen to you, since a Butcher spending eight hours a day in school isn't using that time to wreck the city."
Taylor paused, then chuckled at something — right, the voices. "There's this funny gentlemen's agreement among capes to avoid searching out or acting on secret identities, which is really important to me because I happen to be enjoying my civilian life for the first time in years. And while the Unwritten Rules are just that and really only apply to capes, I would be more than happy to make an exception if you so much as think about telling anyone about me.
"Tell the authorities you slipped and fell or something, I don't really care. Just do us all a favor and fade into obscurity where you belong. I have actual problems to deal with, like an Empire that is long overdue its fall."
Taylor stepped past Emma and gave Sophia a pointed glance. The other Ward made some noise that Taylor evidently didn't like, because she leaned down and grabbed Sophia's face, forcing her to look Taylor in the eyes. "Did you get all of that?"
To Sophia's credit, she managed a stilted nod even if it was accompanied by a groan.
It looked like Taylor wanted to say something else, or do something else, but had resisted the impulse as she let go. It was with a final deep breath that Taylor stood and exited the bathroom, and as she did so, the veritable plague of bugs vanished in seconds, back into the shadows and crevices they had come from.
Emma felt a thousand miles away when Julia finally came to check on them, and she ignored both the girl's stupid babbling into her phone while calling 911 as well as her screams when a cluster of bees attacked her hands and face. A lot of stuff happened in the immediate aftermath, but Emma was barely paying attention to any of it.
All she could think of was Taylor.
Emma sat slumped in the chair beside Sophia's bed in the PRT hospital, waiting for the Protectorate to arrive. Moments after she instructed her friends to place that call to emergency services, Emma had been called by the PRT and asked for a sitrep. She had told them that Sophia had an accident in the bathroom and would likely need either extended recovery time, or Panacea's touch.
Given how bitchy the New Wave golden goose could be, Emma wasn't going to hold her breath. Amy fucking Dallon had bothered to defend Weaver at the debriefing… to defend Taylor…
Fuck.
Taylor.
Emma squeezed an unconscious Sophia's hand, ignoring the tears that were leaking from the corners of her eyes. When they had first arrived at the hospital and it was clear that Sophia was going to survive, Emma had nearly lost control of her own power and burned the place down in an apocalyptic rage.
How could Taylor have been so stupid?
If she had just punched Sophia's lights out when they had first met, none of this would have been a problem! Emma's former best friend was, apparently, a badass of the highest caliber — Taylor beat the Butcher, holy shit — but had not wanted to let Emma in on the secret until now. How? Why? Emma had been enraged at the thought that the person who killed Lung wasn't just another villain, they were the goddamn Butcher, and now she learned that it was Taylor!?
Although Emma disliked interacting with the rest of the Protectorate and PRT, she had been paying close attention at all of those meetings about the Teeth. Endless meetings, especially in the aftermath of trying to send Taylor to the Birdcage, holy shit, and Emma could read between the lines. Weaver scared the ever living fuck out of the adults (and the Wards too, but their opinions were ignored) and now Emma knew why.
Taylor was Weaver the whole time.
Taylor, who had almost certainly triggered in the locker and then did nothing with her power. She sat there, every single day, listening to their insults and weathering their abuse. Emma had not been able to break the other girl, not with her deepest secrets or fears, nor was she able to elicit a response more than angry glares.
Until today.
Strictly speaking, Taylor had begun her revenge on Tuesday. In retrospect, even Emma could admire the combination of subtle plausible deniability and brazen audacity that painfully reminded her of Taylor when they were growing up. Of course, that just angered Emma further, because there was no way that Quarrel would ever have been able to conceive of such a plan.
And in the end, that was the horrifying realization that had extinguished Emma's bonfire of anger: she had created Weaver. Emma put all of the Butcher's powers into the hands of a girl who was more than clever enough to use them. For Scion's sake, Taylor had been smart enough to make her badass armor before going out her first time. What sort of cape did that?
Now, Emma's brain was too busy imagining the various horrors that Taylor was going to unleash on the Bay in her war on the Empire. A whisper-quiet part of mind wanted to cheer Taylor on, but the rest of Emma was trying and failing to be angry at Taylor for not joining the heroes. She was not thinking about the horrible look of defeat that would have graced Taylor's face when the Wards unmasked.
Emma was also not thinking about how every other crime that would happen under Butcher XV's tenure was directly her fault.
A knock at the door startled Emma out of her thoughts as three people entered the room. One was the nurse that had been attending to Sophia, while the other two were Colin and Carly — Armsmaster and Battery — disguised as suit-clad PRT agents. Colin held up a finger at Emma's immediate questioning expression, waiting for the nurse to check Sophia's vitals and make a few notes on her chart.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Emma blurted out, "What are you guys doing here?"
Colin distracted himself by looking at Sophia's chart, while Carly gave Emma a worried smile. "Checking up on two kids who got into some trouble at school, obviously. It was the Teeth, right? I knew their behavior was too good to be true. If you are this unsafe, we clearly need to look into transfers."
Emma hated how good that idea sounded. She refused to run away from Taylor and despised the idea of running from the Teeth, but the Butcher…
"What caused these injuries?" Colin asked, not glancing up from the chart.
"Officially or unofficially?" Emma asked slowly. "Officially, we were in the bathroom when Sophia slipped on a puddle and fell."
Colin nodded once. "As you reported to the police, yes."
Carly did a double take, eyes latching onto Sophia's unconscious form. "A puddle?"
"Yes," Emma repeated, swallowing heavily.
"Sophia has three broken ribs, a broken leg, and a shattered wrist," Colin said with a hint of dryness as he clipped the chart onto the end of the bed. "While I commend you for coming up with a simple and effective cover story, you need to tell us what really happened."
Emma hesitated, despite the fact that this was exactly the outcome she had been hoping for when first planning to corner Taylor. She knew where Taylor lived and that she was a cape, so all she had to do now was —
Except Taylor was the Butcher, and Emma's plans were meaningless now.
"Emma, this is serious," Carly said in a much more compassionate tone. "Two Wards attacked out of costume is beyond unacceptable, and we can't bring the perpetrators to justice without your help."
While Emma was deliberating about what to say, the door opened and admitted about the worst possible person. Amy Dallon was an unpleasant, unrepentant bitch who was more than happy to take her issues out on everyone around her. They had never gotten along in the years since they had met, and Amy had only become more disagreeable since Emma had joined the Wards.
Amy herself seemed to be just as displeased about being here, barely sparing a frown for Emma before striding over to Sophia's bedside. "Let's get this over with," the healer muttered as she poked Sophia's arm. A surprised look flashed over Amy's face as she used her power. "Huh, I wouldn't have thought that Hess was dumb enough to pick a fight with Weaver, but the bank thing kinda proved that wrong, I suppose."
"I knew it," Carly cursed. "Really, the Butcher?"
"Yeah, the pain blasting power leaves your nerves a bit raw. Fades after a few hours, but I guess that explains the destroyed fist and ribs… and how she didn't bleed out?" Amy blinked a few times. "Unless there's another hemokinetic running around, Weaver stopped her internal bleeding, too. How nice of her."
Emma kept her gaze fixed on the ground, but she could feel both of the heroes' eyes burning into the top of her skull.
"We would appreciate it if you kept all of those details quiet, Panacea," Colin said.
"No shit," Amy said, turning to face the group. "So, how did Stalker manage to piss off Weaver during school hours?"
"A very good question," Colin said, more serious than Emma had ever seen him. "Is she going to wake up soon? I'd like to hear some of this from her own mouth."
Panacea shrugged. "I purged her system as best I could, but she'll still be loopy for an hour or two, don't expect much."
As if on cue, Sophia began to stir. "Did anyone get the number of that bitch?"
"Fifteen," Panacea snarked.
"Thank… you…" And Sophia was now snoring.
Emma wanted nothing more than to curse and spit at Taylor for sticking her in this obviously soon-to-be interrogation, and she was kind of jealous of Sophia for sleeping it off.
"Well, if that's all," Amy tried, but Colin stuck out a hand.
"Miss Dallon, given that you have had interactions with Weaver recently, your insight might be useful once Miss Barnes informs us of the sequence of events to land Sophia in that bed." The Protectorate leader turned to Emma, leveling an implacable stare at her that made his willingness to wait for the truth perfectly clear.
Emma sighed heavily, sparing a last glance for Sophia. "We unknowingly confronted the Butcher, out of costume. We… have a history."
"Explain," Colin commanded.
Emma licked her lips, trying to get her thoughts into something resembling order. She wished that Sophia was awake, or that Madison had been there with her, because there was no way this could be said without it being a disaster. "She goes to school with us," Emma began.
"Yes, it's painfully obvious that the Butcher attends Winslow," Carly said, gesturing at the unconscious Sophia. "Her injuries only drive the point home. How did the situation escalate from bee stings to this?"
"We caused her trigger event," a familiar voice said from the door. Madison slipped into the room, followed by a furious Ethan in the same PRT agent uniform as the others. The door clicked shut behind them, and Madison took the furthest seat from Emma. "Me, Emma, Sophia. They had been bullying her since the start of high school, and I joined when I met them in the Wards. We locked her in her own locker filled with used tampons and other rotten hygiene products back in January. I assume that was her trigger event."
Carly gasped, looking from the Wards to Ethan and back with wide eyes. "What… what? How? Why? Is that why you fainted?"
Ethan shook his head, some of his anger bleeding into disappointment. "Not important right now, but yes — Madison also had a run-in with our friendly neighborhood biblical swarm. Obviously she made it out better than you two."
"You knew," Carly said slowly, pointing at her partner. "You knew, this whole time, who she was. The black-haired girl, that's her, right? She just walked up to us and —"
"I wasn't going to start a fight at a school," Ethan retorted. "And I wanted to see if she was as sane as she appeared. It was more important than —
"You let her walk away?" Emma hissed.
Carly gestured at her. "Even the Wards —"
"Don't be ridiculous —"
"Stop," Colin said quietly, cutting off the argument. "Miss Clements, when did you meet Weaver out of costume? And how did you know it was her?"
Wait, what? Madison had confronted Taylor already and kept quiet about it? Was that why she had been avoiding them all week? Emma could admit that it was obvious in retrospect that Taylor was a cape, but the idea had been laughable… which meant Madison had figured it out and tried to save her own ass.
Madison shivered, curling in on herself. "She just fucking told me." The lack of rebuke about language from the heroes was deafening. "I… figured out she was a cape, at school. Her gait was wrong, she wasn't looking around enough, and a few more things. I tried to, fuck… apologize, I guess, and then she just… threw it in my face."
"And you fainted," Carly breathed.
"Why was I not informed?" Colin demanded.
"January… rotting blood… septic shock," Amy said, surprising everyone that she was still in the room. "Fuck, I healed that girl." She giggled, slightly unhinged. "I healed Weaver. She was dying and I happened to be at the hospital when she went into shock… You cunts almost killed that girl! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"
The last words were yelled at such a volume that half the floor probably heard them. Amy was trembling with barely repressed rage, flexing her hands like she wanted to throttle the lot of them.
"You're aware of Weaver's civilian ID then?" Ethan asked, oddly calm.
Amy growled. "Obviously. Hell, I shared a fucking blunt with her Thursday afternoon after she delivered the mayor's missing niece to the hospital. We talked for a bit, she seemed normal enough… I didn't even suspect she was a cape until she teleported away."
Colin made a displeased noise. "Am I the only one here who has not had an unreported interaction with the Butcher —"
"Weaver," Amy and Assault corrected in unison. They shared an unreadable look.
"With Weaver," he finished.
Ethan made a conciliatory gesture. "Look, I was trying to dig into just what the hell our Wards have been doing. In fact, I have all of the AARs filled out and sitting on my desk with the rest of the paperwork for this disaster, but the last thing I wanted was Piggot or anyone else to just charge ahead and alienate Weaver further. She is willing to talk to me, for the obvious reason."
Colin ran a hand through his beard. "I see. In that case, please finish your investigation and then file everything. If you need help, I am happy to assist."
"Sure," Ethan replied, turning his attention back to Emma and Madison. "Now that the secret is out, I suppose I should ask the obvious question: why? Why bully a girl to the point she triggers? All three of you know what a trigger event is like. Why would you want someone else to go through something so horrific?"
"She was weak, worthless," Sophia grumbled, barely stirring. "Kept reminding Emma of her past… tried to get rid of her."
"… I'm going to side-step that landmine for the moment because, holy fuck I am not equipped to dig into that." Turning a pointed glare on Emma instead, Ethan said, "Your past?"
Emma ignored how those words made her heart clench. "We knew each other growing up." She considered saying more, but that seemed to satisfy Ethan, based on his slow nod.
"Bullshit," Madison snapped. "I asked around a few days ago and found some people who knew… her in middle school. You two were best friends. I don't know why you did… this, but I don't think I've ever regretted being your friend more than I did when I heard that. I know that I'm far from blameless, but I still agree with Amy — what the fuck is wrong with you?"
Emma bristled at the comment. "You don't get to tell me —"
"Tell you what? If you wanted her gone, why didn't you just say so?"
"I tried! And she kept coming back!"
"Girls," Carly interjected, looking faintly ill. "This is not the time. We can talk about how and why later, but there's a much more important question — does Weaver know that you three are Wards?"
Emma's face lit up in sadistic glee for an instant before she remembered that Taylor was the goddamn Butcher and that the PRT couldn't do anything if the villain tried to unmask her. Then a fragment of their confrontation floated back into Emma's mind, and she swallowed heavily. "I… I don't think so."
"Why else would Weaver spare their lives?" Amy scoffed. "I sure as hell wouldn't if I were in her place."
"She referenced the Unwritten Rules like we had never heard of them," Emma said slowly. "Not to mention she threatened to come to our homes, right before she brought up the Rules. I don't think Taylor —"
Ethan groaned loudly and rubbed his face with his hand.
"— would do that," Emma finished lamely.
It wasn't like they wouldn't be able to figure it out anyway after all this.
Madison nodded once. "She told me about how she views the Rules too, and despite everything Emma has said, she's far from stupid. I don't think she would threaten another cape like that, not when she cares so much about it herself."
"Well, I guess you'll find out when your house collapses due to termites or whatever," Amy said acidly. When the other three conscious heroes stared at her, the healer just shrugged. "What? Vicky loves talking about the Butcher, and she thinks Weaver has the scariest power of the whole bunch."
An uncomfortable silence settled on the room, only to be broken by Ethan. "With how cavalier Weaver seems to be about her civilian identity, it's only a matter of time until this hits the media, or worse, the streets. If the connection is made that the three of you are Wards… a bloodbath would be a good day. Worse, we can't let Piggot hear of this, not even a hint."
"Why not?" Panacea snapped. "Afraid of how bad it will look to your boss?"
Colin turned to the obstinate and pissed-off healer. "Piggot would either transfer them for their own safety or send them to disciplinary postings, and use this attack as pretense to call in external support to eliminate the Teeth."
"That's fine," Emma spat. "I'll take the fall if —"
"No," Colin said firmly. "The Butcher is bad enough when they have a team, but if they are both sane and forced into a corner, who knows how much damage they could cause? No, this situation is still salvageable. The last thing I want is for Weaver to see the PRT as a valid target for letting three Wards torment her until she triggered."
"Yeah, some heroes you are," Amy said dismissively. "Maybe if you were friends once, you should just go hang out with Weaver, because what you did to that poor girl was some Teeth-level disgusting shit."
Emma couldn't help but wilt under the healer's furious glare. Her mind went back to Monday, where Taylor —
Breathe.
"That's what I thought, you raging bitch. If I'd known all of this, I would have let Stalker recover the hard way." Amy then turned to Colin, walked right up to him and stuck a finger to his nose, her words coming out in a snarl. "Never call me over these three again, is that understood?"
"Panacea —" Carly tried, but Amy just stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her. Sophia jumped at the suddenness of the noise, not that Emma had really noticed, doubled over in nausea as she was.
Madison wasn't much better, but at least she could use her power to keep her lunch down. As much as she hated to admit it, Chrissie's comment on Monday had come closer to breaking Emma than anything the Teeth had done since —
Breathe.
Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe —
Emma slid off of her chair and onto the floor. Mocking words swirled through her mind as darkness and flame crept in from the edges of her vision. She was only vaguely aware of the heroes attempting to reach her before she passed out and her consciousness filled with stars.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]