Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High.

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Title: Grains of sand

Word count: 1,184 words

Read on, oh faithful ones...

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Hourglass was smart. Much smarter than most people seemed to realise, and even those that did notice simply attributed her intelligence to her future-seeing ability. They were wrong by far, yet it wouldn't be until Sky High when she was forced to do her exams in the Detention Room and still passed with flying colours that anyone would realise that she was actually smart on her own merits. By then, of course, she had been shunned and bullied to the point where she no longer cared that people thought she was cheating.

Despite her ability, Hourglass had been placed on the Sidekick track. It wasn't that it was her power was unworthy of the Hero status, but rather that she was blind. According to Coach Sylvester, her inability to see was supposedly limiting and therefore, she couldn't be a Hero.

Over time, it became apparent that her lack of sight wasn't limiting in any way whatsoever, and she was quickly transferred to the Hero track. Hourglass didn't mind, but other Hero-classed students saw it as an offence to their own powers that a Sidekick had been transferred across. She saw everything that the bullies at school planned to do to her, and was able to avoid the numerous chairs, stuck out feet, suddenly-opened locker doors while she was walking in the hallway. Most of the students became bored quickly, but some saw it as a challenge and attempted to break her in more creative ways in order to win what they saw as a new game.

Most of the teachers ignored the fact that she was being bullied in this way, and if any did ask about it, she simply said that nothing had happened. Hourglass knew exactly what would happen if she admitted anything, and knew that this was far easier to deal with.

After one particularly bad day involving ray guns that were accidentally misfired during Mad Science, Hourglass cornered her bully, telling her in great detail exactly what her life would be like if she continued this way. An unplanned and unwanted teen pregnancy that resulted in her being kicked out of her parents' house; it would be the catalyst of their divorce only a year later; she would have to live in a trailer home because her boyfriend would deny that the child was his, and she would be branded a slut; the looks that she was so vain about would fade within a few years due to alcohol abuse; her child would grow up being resented, and in turn, be resentful until she ran away from home at fifteen years old. She would die alone, old, and ugly.

The girl had run away from her sobbing, broke up with her boyfriend that afternoon and left the school entirely by the week's end. Rumours abounded in the cafeteria, some claiming that Hourglass had manipulated the girl's future until she was too scared to leave the house, others saying that Hourglass had lied; all of them concluded that Hourglass was to blame, and she was branded as a villain for her actions.

After passing her exams with flying colours at the end of the year, receiving a higher mark than most seniors, Hourglass had been moved up to the senior class. She was only fifteen years old when she graduated from Sky High, but she had refused to pick a Sidekick or even use her power to fight. No matter that she wasn't fighting against heroes or villains, her refusal to fight resulted in more talk about her being a villain.

Instead, she went to work at a relatively new company in Maxville, making them soar until she had control over the business in a matter of years. From there, she did the same for three more local businesses, each within different sectors of the community: medicine, finance, food, and construction. They were all under her control by the time she was twenty-five years old, and she was rich enough to retire before she'd reached her thirtieth birthday. Instead, she bought a few smaller businesses in real estate. By thirty-two, she was a main benefactor to Sky High, and one of her larger donations allowed them to purchase the anti-gravitational device.

Three years later, Chaos would rise, and with her support, they would control every part of Maxville in a matter of months. But first, Royal Pain would return, be defeated by the Commander's son and his friends. Then, not even a year later, the Commander's son would break Layla's heart, the guinea pig girl (a whisper of Airborne and Shifter flew through her mind, but she focused her attention on this instead) would increase the heartbreak through betrayal, and Layla would lean more heavily on Warren. They would become closer friends than Layla had ever been with the Commander's son, and eventually their friendship would become love. They would keep each other sane, heroic, vanilla until the right time. It was only then that the time would be right for Hourglass to introduce herself to her future lieges.

Hourglass was smart, smart enough to know that her time would come to finally become exactly what everyone had expected of her in the first place. She was smart enough to know that she could never be a hero, not when her talents were disregarded and mistrusted by the other heroes anyway. She would flourish as a villain, she would be respected, and for all of her smarts, Hourglass was still human enough to want that opportunity to be her own person and be respected for it.

She took a few deep breaths as a vision left her mind, her head swimming with scenes of the future, of possible futures, of fixed points, and every grain of sand that was, could be, and might have been. Her eyes scrunched up tightly, Hourglass gave a low whistle. Her phone beeped in response, and she picked the device up so she could call her assistant.

"Good morning, Sarah... I want to buy Labyrinth. Yes, the tabloid magazine. Go as cheap as you can; I need to fix it so it can actually be useful."

With that done, she hung up from the call and sank down onto her armchair, images still swimming behind her eyes. She just had to be patient, and Hourglass knew that everything would fall into place.

She focused on Chaos' future for a moment, saw the heated arguments, the passion between her two lieges, the night-long discussions, and the recruitment process that they would go through. Their future spanned anywhere from an hour to their future generations, and Hourglass would be there for all of it, from their beginning to their end, if they so chose to end their reign. Beside her stood a boy who would become a man she could depend on. His superpower was underestimated due to his large build, and despite the bully he had been once, he would find the same acceptance under Chaos' reign as she would. Hourglass couldn't wait for it all to begin.

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The end.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!