"We have found an important role for you."

If Taylor hadn't ended up a Noctis Cape after Inheriting she would have been groggily looking up at Bastion.

Instead she was barely feeling her lack of sleep while sitting over her (once again eclectic) breakfast.

"Sorry?"

"We cannot announce you as our latest Ward until the new Butcher situation is resolved," Bastion confirmed, "but there are other avenues to focus your attention. We have the paperwork for all missing persons cases since the death of Quarrel. It is your task to go through them to identify Aztec."

Taylor felt her heartrate skyrocket.

"What do we know about Aztec?"

"They are the new Butcher and tore out Quarrels heart."

Taylor waited for more information.

"Is that all?"

"Yes. The sooner you identify Aztec the sooner we can field you as a Ward, Phase."

Taylor instinctively checked her mask was in place.

"One question. How the hell am I supposed to identify Aztec from that little? Do we have a gender? Height? Ethnicity? Anything that actually helps narrow things down?"

This, entirely reasonable as the peanut gallery confirmed in her head, line of questioning earned a glare from the Protectorate member.

"If you can't go on patrol and won't help deal with the main issue preventing you from being announced why the hell are you even here?"

"Because I signed up for the Wards before learning that the bullies responsible for my Trigger were already in the Wards!"

People were staring towards the table, as a shouting match between an (undeclared) Ward and a Protectorate member deserved.

"But let's see how I can narrow down our new Butcher shall we? What do we know - they are a Cape. Oh look, the buildings full of Capes, it could be one of us!"

There was a pause.

"Damnit, Quarrel! No trying to get the new Butcher killed in their first week! We have rules about this sort of #&!"

"Did you just suggest that I could be the new Butcher?"

Bastions voice had gone calm.

Dangerously so.

Taylor, realising that her predecessor had been manipulating her into getting so angry, forced herself to calm down as well.

"We know nothing useful about the new Butcher," she responded. "I mean, we don't even know if they've had time to go mad yet. What do you expect me to find?"

"I expect you to find a way to be useful if you're going to live in the PRT building."

"Then maybe somebody should have asked me before deciding I should be stuck here," she told him, rising to her feet. "Now if you'll excuse me, regulations require me to attend school."

She almost took the tray with her breakfast to clean it up, but decided against it.

If they were going yo keep sending Bastion to interact with her they could sort it out themselves.

"Nooo, not my blood again…"

Shut up about your damn black pudding!

{}

Fortunately there was no sign of the other Wards as she headed off to prepare for school.

The other students, including Ana who was possibly her only friend, took note of her mood and kept clear, which helped her try to stay calm.

This was helped by the Butchers staying quiet, aside from occasional legitimate advice about schoolwork or trip hazards and the like.

And things had turned out well enough last night.

The drug dealer (and mugger) had been carrying enough money for her to (hopefully) be able to afford some decent enough kevlar-adjacent fabric to use for a costume (with Shapers assurances that she could use his powers to mold them), and she couldn't remember any rules to state she couldn't take the money.

She'd even got the recommended two hours of sleep, without so much as one of Detonators fantasies about Annette.

And then Bastion had to ruin it with the worst thought out plan to use her time in the PRT building she could imagine.

Ironically she did know the most about 'Aztec', seeing as she was indeed the Butcher, but they needed more than the whole 'tore Quarrels heart out' thing to be able to identify her.

Wait…

There was nothing about last night, she realised.

"They might not have found them-"

"We called the police! Unless they completely failed to follow procedure for a Cape calling in a crime they must have heard about it."

"Then what? They were trying to set a trap for Taylor? If they thought she was XV there's no way they'd let her be in contact with the other Wards! She'd have been moved out of the Ward rooms."

This argument quietened the chorus down, and Taylor felt herself relaxing somewhat.

Yeah, they wouldn't put the Wards at risk like that, would they?

{}

"I told you there was no way she was Butcher," Bastion snapped at the Watchdog member on the other end of his phone. "More importantly, I want to know what she meant by Wards causing her Trigger event?"

"That is not what Watchdog is for," the Directors voice stated from behind him. "And I do believe you came around to their conclusion after only the most token of arguments. Assuming that is what the 'red' response meant."

Bastion stiffened. "Disregard my query." He ended the call and turned to face Director Armstrong. "Sir, when I confronted her as Watchdog suggested-"

"I know what she revealed. I only narrowly avoided the video going on PHO!"

"I contacted Director Piggott about the situation. It seems Phase was not lying about her Trigger event, it really was caused by a couple of Wards in their civilian identities."

"Why haven't I-"

"Publicising anything of the event would result in the Wards secret identities being at risk, which is of course against PRT rules. Even in Brockton Bay. You should know this."

"They aren't heroes! They should be kicked out and prosecuted!"

"Legally speaking they have done nothing worse than many of the rebranded villains in the Wards and Protectorate. As such they are now merely probationary Wards. Piggott assured me their punishment will ensure they never consider a repeat."

"And what about her comment about not being asked before being stuck here?"

Armstrong sighed. "It seems people decided she should be transferred without telling her. I understood that she agreed to tge transfer, but apparently that didn't happen."

"So transfer her back."

"To her bullies? And that's if Piggott even agrees."

"So you aren't even giving her the choice?"

"With how badly the PRT let her down? I'm giving her time to recover. If she asks to go back, fine. But that will be her decision, her that sets it in motion."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Bastion decided as he walked away.

{}

It was surprisingly easy for Taylor to track down a shop for the materials she needed to make her new hero costume.

Even considering how helpful some of her predecessors were being.

The money was indeed enough for the fabric, if only just.

It didn't leave her much fabric spare for mistakes or repairs, but with any luck she wouldn't need more until she had more money from her crime-fighting.

And hopefully the PRT wasn't keeping watch for people buying the materials like Forge claimed.

Getting her shopping back to her room in the PRT building wasn't too bad either, the other Wards she passed used to her enough to merely wave as she passed by.

"Right," she began once she was safely in her room, "how do we do this?"

"You should have an awareness of raw materials you are making contact with."

Taylor frowned. She would have noticed something like that, surely.

"What awareness of materials? You just tell it to change shape," Amazon supplied, with agreement from most of Shapers successors.

"Inherited powers do tend to weaken," Dodger noted. "Might that be the problem?"

"Indeed, but while sensing the shape of what you are working with is useful," Fester pointed out, "it isn't actually a requirement for using the power productively."

"But it is the best way to get the feel for it," Shaper argued back. "Plus complex materials do not respond well to blind shaping. If you mess up the layers-"

"You mean this fabric is useless for our purposes."

"I think you simply need to be careful," Dodger cautiously suggested. "For the rest of us, yes it would be useless, but with your ability to suppress us…"

Taylor frowned. "I'm not doing anything."

"Your doing or not, we seem to be acting a little saner than I remember since our Inheritances."

There was a pause.

"Yeah, I think I agree actually. Could be the blackout immediately after you Inherited. Guess we needed q timeout."

Taylors frown intensified.

"That wasn't me. At least not deliberately."

"Bad power interaction? Or rather good power interaction, I doubt any of us want to be raving lunatics. Except VII of course."

There was general agreement, until VII realised what had just been said about him.

"Okay, but that doesn't help with the whole 'making a costume' thing," Taylor said, interrupting the growing disagreement.

"First we need to practise on something less valuable," Shaper directed, and Taylor found herself following her predecessors directions on how to figure out his power.

This really wasn't what she'd expected from Inheriting.

{}

Her costume was mostly finished by the time she needed to sleep, leaving her hopefully capable of going out under her new identity tonight.

Better news was that she managed to get through breakfast (she was late enough that they were out of black pudding) without running into anyone about to ruin her mood (her predecessors didn't count).

She even managed to not encounter any Wards but Roulette!

If it wasn't for her experiences with her former best friend, she would definitely be counting Roulette as a friend.

Assuming she still joined the Wards.

And was transferred to Boston.

Okay, so without Emma she wouldn't have even met Roulette.

That didn't mean she was the second closest thing she had to a friend.

In any case, when she got to school she was in a sufficiently good mood for Ana to come over to talk.

"You seemed in a bad mood yesterday…"

Taylor sighed. "I had a bit of an argument."

"With your guardian? I mean, I can't see having that bad a disagreement with anyone else that early."

Taylor hesitated. It wasn't entirely incorrect…

"Did you get a job like you wanted?"

"No, the whole 'Butcher is dead, we don't know who inherited' situation has them on edge."

"I can understand being so worried I guess, but it seems a bit overprotective."

Wait, she thought the argument was about getting a part-time job?

"Run with it. People are mist likely to believe an excuse they came up with themselves."

"I mean, usually the new Butcher is an established Cape, so you can predict what they're likely to do. And keep track of their decline," Ana continued. "All we know about the new guy is they were able to kill Butcher and have more powers now."

That… made her out as some kind of psychopath.

"Still, the only way to be safe from an unknown Butcher is to spend all your time somewhere they can't go. Like tye PRT building."

Taylor winced.

That struck a bit close to home in multiple ways.

"Still, I don't think bringing that up so soon would be a good idea. Best to let your guardian cool off a bit first. Anything else been happening?"

Taylor did her best to relax and gossip with her friend. It was almost as though everything was back to how it was before Emma betrayed her.

Aside the sarcastic comments from the voices in her head of course.

{}

Emma sat in her room.

After Taylor fled the Wards and everything she did for her friend came out she had been taken off her team and placed in therapy.

And then when she explained why she was doing everything she did for Taylor she was grounded.

She was still, technically, a (probationary) Ward, sure, but the therapist had raised concerns about how she could consider everything she'd done as 'being for Taylor', and until they understood she wasn't trusted to be in costume.

"If only she'd just stayed on the team with me," she muttered to herself, holding the last thing she had to feel a connection with her friend.

An old flute.

She'd been supposed to destroy it, to help Taylor, but hadn't been able to bring herself to destroy something so precious to 'aunty Annette', so had substituted a replica.

Except she had to destroy it.

But it meant too much to her.

And it meant so much to her.

For the first time the lecture on warning signs for Master influences crossed her mind while she was holding the flute.

The first sign of a Master could be thoughts arguing against each other.

But that was ridiculous.

You were supposed to hurt your friends, weren't you? Like… like…

Realisation came to her like a blow from a hammer, her actions lade bare.

Emma was barely able to throw the flute to safety on her bed before doubling over, emptying the contents of her stomach over the floor.

What had she done?

How could she have thought she was doing the right thing?

Driving Taylor away, in such a manner her team - the other Wards wouldn't be able to trust her?

Leaving her even more alone than in the alley.

At least there she had her father, and Taylor to support her after.

But now her father was retreating into denial and Taylor, who had once been as close as her sister, had fled the city rather than be near her.

She was completely alone.

And unlike the alley it was all her fault.

The door to her room flew open, but she didn't notice.

Different thoughts were flying through her head.

[Destination]

[Agreement]

AN: So I'm not 100% on the proper second trigger lines, but it should still be pretty clear whats happening with Emma. The Master responsible will be referenced next chapter. In any case, I think it makes sense for Emma to blame herself to some degree for the run-in with the gang, as they were there as a shortcut to (or from, I can't exactly remember) something for her.