AN: Just a fair warning, right now I'm uploading at a higher rate than I'm writing. This may change, as something that stopped me from writing has been resolved, but no promises.
By the time Emma had somewhat recovered, the hour-long lunch break was almost over. And though she wasn't actively crying anymore, she was in absolutely no state to attend class, either.
So I took her to the administrative office, holding her hand all the way there. It was probably a good thing the hallways were still empty, because Emma wouldn't have been able to handle the shocked reactions from the rest of the student body.
I pulled Emma into the secretary's office room, ignoring her attempt to remain out of sight.
"What's wrong?" the secretary asked, clearly worried about Emma's harried state. Tear tracks, red eyes, ruined make-up, jostled hair; she made quite a sight. While not visible on my dark clothes, there was actually a spot that was wet just from Emma's tears.
"Emma was confronted with some incredibly difficult personal stuff," I said. "I'd like to ask if we can get the rest of the day off so she can deal with them. I… don't think it'd be good for her to go to class right now, where she'd have to deal with everyone and their questions."
"We can make an exception for your friend," the secretary responded. "But I'm afraid I can't do the same for you, Miss…"
"Hebert. Taylor Hebert. And this is Emma Barnes." I didn't leave, however. Instead, I turned to Emma. "Can you give us a moment, Ems?"
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak but stepping out in the corridor nonetheless. I closed the door behind her.
"Ma'am…" I said, turning back to the secretary. "I don't trust her to be alone right now. I'm worried she might hurt herself."
It wasn't even a lie. I was genuinely worried about that, and I had no intention to let her out of my sight for the rest of the day.
The secretary hesitated for a moment. "That bad?"
I nodded. "That bad. She… I don't even know how to say anything without revealing things she wouldn't want others to know, but… well, I lost my mom a few years ago, a traffic accident. I think, if I compare how I felt when I heard the news to how Emma's feeling right now… I was probably doing better than she is."
She nodded. "You can go with her. I'll make sure you're marked as absent with proper reason."
"Thank you, ma'am."
I stepped back into the corridor and grabbed Emma into a hug, which she desperately returned.
"We'll go home," I said, soothing her. "My home. It'll be just the two of us until Dad gets home from work in the evening. More than enough time to talk."
"You got permission?" she asked, hopeful.
"I did, but I'd have come with you even if I hadn't," I said, releasing the hug, but keeping my arm around her waist. Emma needed the support, the physical contact, and if any of the Nazi wannabes at the school saw it and took issue with it, I could deal with them when the time came. Not that there was anything like that between us, of course. Nothing wrong with girls, in fact I wasn't sure whether I preferred them or boys, but just not Emma. She was supposed to be a sister, nothing more and nothing less.
"Why are you doing this for me?" Emma whispered.
"Because you're my sister and you need help," I said, vocalizing my thought from just before.
"Even after everything I did to you?"
"I know we aren't sisters by blood," I said, "but there's a reason I'm calling you that, as opposed to best friend. You can't just stop being sisters, Emma. Friends may grow apart, but if something happens with your sister, it's your duty to help her, to pull her back from the brink. I'm just glad I wasn't too late. For a few seconds… I truly believed I was."
I pulled her closer for a moment, thankful that the other path hadn't come to pass.
We walked out of the school and started to make our way to the bus stop.
"There's one thing I don't understand," Emma said. "Why now? Why not earlier? And how? I mean, I know you know me pretty well, but…"
"But it was like every single thing I said pierced you through the heart and forced you to confront all the doubts and regrets you'd hidden away," I finished her sentence.
"Yeah," Emma agreed. "Exactly that. I—I didn't even know those things myself. I didn't realize how much I wanted to be friends with you again until you pretty much told me."
I stopped walking and pulled her into another hug.
"And for all that I know you well, you don't get how I knew you that well," I summarized.
"Yeah."
I took a look around. We weren't at the bus stop yet, and it seemed no one was nearby enough to overhear, which was good. I did separate from the hug, however.
"Do you remember, right when I was about to leave the classroom, that you lost consciousness for a moment? I don't know whether you were sitting there already, so it might've not been super obvious."
Emma nodded. "Yeah, I remember. That was weird."
She hesitated, and I suspected she had an idea of what had happened, but wasn't sure yet, so I confirmed it for her.
"That was what's called a 'trigger event'," I explained. "It's the moment that gives capes their powers, and according to PHO, it's usually 'the worst day of their lives'."
"So… I really have powers?" Emma asked. "I wasn't sure whether I was just imagining things, but it just felt right."
"You do," I responded. In fact, I suspected that right now, I had a better understanding of her powers than she did, but that could wait until later.
"Wait," Emma said, picking up the thread from before. "Weren't you going to tell me how you knew what to say? What does me having powers to do with that?"
"I was going to tell you that, yes. Yesterday… well, you know what happened. During that, I went through a trigger event myself, and—"
Emma practically crashed into me. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Tay!" she exclaimed between renewed sobs. "I can't believe I made you go through that!"
I shushed her. "It's okay, Emma. Everything's going to be okay. I promise." I chuckled. "And hey, depending on how you look at it, didn't I make you go through the same thing?"
"That's not the same at all," Emma objected. "I did that to myself, you were just trying to help me."
"Either way, it doesn't matter," I said. "And to go back to your question, one power I got was the ability to understand just how to convince people to join or follow me – it's kind of like it helps me be a leader, you know. In your case, that meant, well, this."
"And you did that for me even after you triggered? Also, one power? Do you have more?"
I hesitated and instinctively looked at the sky. Could I? Should I? There was no way no one would see me and post about it on PHO. I didn't even have a cape account yet to clarify things with.
On the other hand, Emma might appreciate avoiding the busy bus, and perhaps being exposed to my aura of hope might do her some good, just like it had done Dad.
Eh, I could simply be a mystery for a while. I'd announce myself when I was ready for it.
I grabbed Emma's hand and pulled her along, then into a side street.
"Taylor? What are you doing?"
After making sure no one saw us, I transformed, spreading my wings lengthwise.
Emma gasped and stumbled a step back before taking a good look at me.
"That's awesome!"
"How about I fly you home instead?"
She seemed shocked for a moment before nodding enthusiastically and stepping forward. I put my arms around her, spending a moment to find a comfortable way to hold her – with my enhanced strength, it wasn't too difficult.
"Are you comfortable as well?" I asked. Emma had one hand around my neck and the other around my waist.
"Yeah, I am," Emma said. "Don't drop me though."
"Wasn't planning on it," I said with a grin, before jumping up and beating my wings to gain height.
"This is amazing!" Emma exclaimed as we started to rise.
"I know!" I agreed, a big grin on my face. "It's my first time too!" I looked down across the city as I gained some more height, then I started flying towards our neighborhood.
The city looked different from above. I realized that some streets didn't curve quite the way I thought they did, and some distances were just a little different than I'd have guessed they were. Buildings remained surprisingly tall even when I'd hit a comfortable cruising height – they didn't become nearly flat squares, like I had half expected. In fact, the Medhall building in the distance still reached my height, if not a bit higher. Cars, meanwhile, seemed to have slowed to a crawl.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Emma said, sounding slightly more apprehensive now.
"Don't worry!" I responded. "I don't actually need my wings to fly, even if it feels better to use them. I just need to think, and I'll go in the right direction."
Not only did we not have to deal with other people, but flight turned out to also be significantly faster, and it was only a few minutes later that we touched down on an empty street, where I transformed back.
"Isn't your place two blocks over?" Emma asked.
"If I land in my backyard, I doubt I'll be able to maintain a secret identity for long. This is already cutting it close enough."
Emma nodded in understanding, and we started walking.
"That felt absolutely amazing," she said. "I don't think I've felt that good in... you know, I don't think I've felt that good since we were friends." She saddened at that. "I'm sorry."
"You did have a bit of help," I said. "When I transform, it inspires hope and resolve in my friends and allies. When I revealed it to Dad yesterday, he showed a genuine smile for the first time I can remember since mom died."
Emma reached out and grabbed my hand. "I should've never made fun of you for that. You were right, by the way. I miss her too."
I smiled. "I still miss her, but it's hard to be sad when today, I feel like my friend came back from the dead."
Emma didn't respond to that, instead turning her eyes downward, and we actually walked in silence for a little while. No doubt, it had reminded her once more of everything she'd done, but there was no way for her to mistake my genuine joy at having her back, even without her power.
"Skip the first step."
"You still didn't fix that?" Emma asked incredulously, though she did skip over it.
"Neither Dad nor I have had a very good time of things," I pointed out.
"Oh, right..."
"Hey, there's a limit to how much moodiness I'm willing to accept, Emma. Keep your spirits up. We're friends again, and we've still got a lot to talk about. And catch up on, for that matter."
I unlocked the door, and once we were inside we made our way to the living room, where I pulled Emma next to me on the couch.
"First things first, you should probably call your mom and tell her you're here and, if I have my way, that you're staying for the night."
Emma looked confused at that. "You want me to stay for the night? Why?"
"Because I'm glad to have you back, and I want to spend as much time with you as possible." And because I was still worried she might harm herself if she was alone, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I did think it was a temporary thing though – but she was going to need a day or two to internalize that I really was giving her another chance.
Emma got her phone out – one of those fancy new smartphones with touchscreen – and dialed a number. With the less-focused sound output that these phones had compared to older mobile phones or landlines, I could follow both sides of the conversation.
"Emma, Is everything okay?"
Emma hesitated for a second before answering. "It will be. I think. Look, um, I'm at Taylor's place right now, and she thought it was a good idea if I called you so you knew that."
"Taylor? Really? I'm surprised. Didn't you have a falling-out? I thought you said she broke off contact."
I saw Emma freeze and lock up, so I scooted closer and put my arm around her, letting her relax slowly.
"Emma?"
Emma took a deep breath. "I... I was the one who broke off the contact, mom," she confessed. "Today—well, a lot happened today. I've been..." She sighed, holding the phone away from her mouth. "I can't do this."
I reached out, and she gave the phone to me.
"Hi Aunt Zoe. It's me, Taylor."
"Taylor! I haven't heard your voice in far too long. So what's going on?"
"We made up," I said. "Anything beyond that isn't a conversation to have over the phone. But Emma is feeling really shit right now, which is why we're home in the first place, and not at school, and we kind of need some time together to work through things. Is it okay if she stays here for the night? Then I can come along to your place tomorrow after school and we'll tell you about everything."
She audibly hesitated. "Alright then. I know you, and you've had plenty of sleepovers in the past. But when you're here tomorrow, I want the full story. Nothing left out."
I... wasn't actually sure I wanted to promise that. There had been a lot of bullying. But perhaps we could skim over any specific incidents.
"Of course," I replied. "I'll see you tomorrow, Aunt Zoe. It's been far too long anyway."
"Bye."
I ended the call and handed the phone back.
"Do we really need to tell them?" Emma asked timidly.
"There's no way we can get away with not telling them," I replied, grabbing Emma in an embrace. "I'll do what I can to convince them to not punish you too hard. You're already punishing yourself enough."
"Nothing is enough."
"Shut up with that nonsense. Next topic. Your powers."
"I'm not sure what they do," Emma admitted. "They keep insisting you're honest about helping me and taking care of me, though."
She sounded like she still doubted that was actually true.
"You're in luck, because I seem to be able to instinctively read and understand powers – both those of others, and my own. I might not catch everything, but I think your power helps you understand what people think of other people nearby, both on an individual level and in a group level. Or, rather, their attitudes towards them. So you'll always know exactly who likes each other, and who doesn't, and whether anyone might be plotting something."
"That sounds useless. What am I supposed to do with that?"
"It's not useless," I disagreed. "It'd be great to smooth over issues in a group or point people towards a common goal, in particular considering your social skills are pretty good already."
Emma frowned. "So basically, I spent a year and a half manipulating people into being assholes, then I finally realize how much of a bitch I've been, and I get a power that makes me better at manipulating people? That's messed up."
"Or you can use it to push people to get better," I pointed out. "If there's one thing I've almost immediately found about my power, it's that it makes me want to get people on my side. But after that? I don't get any help anymore, all I get, or at least that's what my intuition is telling me, and I've come to trust my power on that, is that I'll be able to make better decisions more quickly when it comes to the people following me.
"But let's say I just keep doing that, and I've got ten capes on my side. Capes are known for having a hard time working together, so it would be a real challenge to keep the peace? But you could do that."
"Ten capes? Are you serious?"
I smiled. "We've already got two – you and me. I talked to Panacea in the hospital yesterday, and we agreed to meet again. She doesn't seem happy right now, so I'm hoping I can give her a better place."
"Panacea?" Emma asked, shocked. "You needed her? Tay, I'm sorry!"
"Shh, it's fine," I responded.
"What did you need her for?" she asked hesitantly.
"I'll tell you some other time," I responded. I didn't think it was a good idea to confront Emma with the details right now. "But anyway, there's her, and I want to at least give getting Sophia on my side a try, so that'd be four already."
"You know that she's a cape?" Emma asked, surprised.
"I can recognize parahumans on sight," I explained. "Once I knew Sophia was one, it was a simple process of elimination. Wasn't too difficult to figure out that she's Shadow Stalker."
"Oh."
"Which does make me wonder what the hell the PRT is doing, if they can't even control their own Wards," I remarked.
Emma looked somewhat guilty at that.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I kinda pushed her. To bully you. Well, I mean, she'd probably have done it to others anyway, but I made her focus on you. Also, Dad was a character witness for her when she joined the Wards, and he didn't know anything about what we did at Winslow."
I hugged her close once more. "It's okay, Emma. No focusing on the past, it's about our path forward. I already have ideas on how to deal with Sophia."
Emma relaxed minutely at that. "Good, because I'm not sure I'd be able to convince her to stop. I can probably get Madison to do so, though."
I laughed softly. "That won't be needed. Madison is too much of a cape geek to ever bully someone she knows to be a cape. All I need to be worried about is that she might talk my ears off my head with questions."
"You told her?" Emma exclaimed.
"Remember what my power does," I pointed out. "I knew that the only thing I had to do was show her my transformation and she'd effectively be 'on my side'."
"You're placing a lot of trust in your power."
"Hey, it paid off so far. Twice, already." I grabbed Emma into another full-on hug to emphasize that.
We sat in silence for a while, relishing in each other's physical presence. It really happened, I thought to myself. I had Emma back. It was hard to believe, even while she was there, in my arms.
Finally, I let go of her.
"We do have a harder topic we really need to talk about," I said. "Namely, what the hell happened while I was at summer camp, and how was Sophia – or Shadow Stalker – involved?"
Emma turned her head down.
"If we don't talk about it," I pressed, "I can't help you deal with it either. And I'm quite sure you haven't been dealing with it so far."
"Yeah," Emma said hesitantly. "Yeah, you probably have a point there."
Slowly, haltingly, she started telling the story. Before she was halfway through, she'd started crying while hanging on to me like her life depended on it. But piece by piece, everything about that harrowing encounter with the ABB in an alley came out, as well as Shadow Stalker's late rescue and how Emma had met her once more, and had gotten infected with that poisonous, stupid philosophy.
By the time she was done, though still clinging to me, I was half considering to go to the PRT and detail every single fucking thing Sophia had ever done to me to get her thrown into juvie, more for what she'd done to Emma and our friendship than what she'd done to me, and recruitment potential be damned.
Which kind of showed how much my mindset had changed, if I thought about it. Two days ago, I'd simply have done that immediately, even without knowing any of what happened to Emma. Was that my power pushing me to use it, perhaps?
Perhaps I could wean Sophia away from that philosophy, though, and having more parahumans on your side during fights – which I was probably going to get into, capes were infamous for that according to last night's research – was always a good thing.
Right, yeah, definitely affecting me.
Well, to be fair, I didn't particularly care. It wasn't as if I was harming anyone by recruiting people. At worst, people might not receive punishment for crimes – assuming I wasn't joining the PRT, which I wasn't planning on considering I wanted to give orders, not take them – but I could live with that. Under my leadership they'd be doing good rather than evil anyway, which would do more to make up for what they'd done than being locked up.
After that tough conversation, things started to get easier. There was a lot to talk about, catching up after a year and a half without a friendly word.
Once evening approached, Dad arrived, which created a tense situation the moment he walked into the living room and saw Emma sitting next to me.
"I'm sorry!" Emma blurted out almost immediately.
I put a hand on her leg in an attempt to calm her down.
"We made up, Dad." I couldn't help but smile. "I have Emma back. And I'm never letting her go again." I turned to her as I said those last words.
"And I'm never abandoning you again, Taylor. That was the worst decision I ever made."
"I can't say I'm too happy about this," Dad said, finding his voice again, "but Taylor did say she was going to try, so I'm going to respect that. I'll be watching you, Emma."
The redhead only nodded contritely.
"Don't be too hostile to her, Dad. She's already beating herself up enough over everything she did, and I can't imagine Alan and Zoe will be much more pleased when they hear the entire story."
"They don't know yet?"
"Emma needs a bit of time before we can have that conversation, which is why she's here right now," I explained. "I want her to stay the night, too. She can sleep in my bed."
"And where would you sleep then?" Emma asked, confused.
"I don't need to sleep anymore, part of my power. I'll probably be researching the local capes more. Plus I'll be there for you if you wake up or something."
Emma nodded. "I'd like that."
AN: Join my discord server here: /xKJKNjY
