Despite the fact no one was actually hurt, it was still protocol to have everyone go to the hospital to get checked over. I had figured there would be more emotional damage after everything that had happened but I wasn't exactly worried about that. I wanted to stay and get some headway into fixing all the destruction, but Wraith convinced me to go with everyone to the hospital. When we got there and sat down, all of us ushered to a room by one of the nurses, I realized just how tired I was.

Nihilus, because we were still in costume, passed out the second she hit the bed, Gorgon following very closely after. Grue and Purity just sat in a couple of chairs the closest I had seen them together since Purity had joined. Both seemed to exhausted to really bother keeping up their general dislike of the other, which had mostly been from Grue's side recently. He still didn't trust her, which I understood, so I wasn't going to make him try to get along with her.

"That fucking sucked. Except for Gorgon. That was the hypest shit I've ever seen in my life. But that other stuff was shit," Rhapsody said as he flopped into one of the beds.

"It was the fucking worst," Samael agreed, sitting in a chair and leaning back with a groan.

"I'm not even physically tired, but fuck if my emotions aren't shot to hell," Wraith sighed, taking the last bed. "Speaking of, now would probably be the best time to tell me what the hell happened with Leviathan before the end. I know something is up, but I don't remember anything happening."

I almost instinctively reached for a pack of cigarettes before realizing I didn't have them on me. "Maybe it's a worse habit than I thougth," I said lowly before looking to Wraith. "This doesn't leave us. If you thought old Levi getting stronger was a hit to morale, this will make people give up entirely," I said seriously.

"It can't be that bad," Purity said.

"Sacrosanct can tell time itself to suck a dick. I'm inclined to think that whatever she calls bad would qualify as suicide inducing for the rest of us," Grue said.

"After Gorgon's masterful pile driver—,"

"Izuna Drop," Rhapsody supplied.

"Does it matter?" I asked.

"There are several technical differences between a pile driver and an Izuna Drop that I won't get into right now, but yes, it does."

"Fine," I rolled my eyes, "After Gorgon "Izuna Dropped" Leviathan he stood up even more pissed. I was ready to keep fighting but then he just… He killed everyone."

"What?" Samael asked, disbelief in his voice. "I'm pretty sure I would remember him killing everyone."

"You all died too," I said, making them freeze. "Only Alexandria and I survived, and I have no idea how she did it. He… He ripped the blood out of everyone in a several block range. I heard all your names. Not even Eidolon or Legend survived. I managed to reverse it, make everyone forget but…" I trailed off, not really sure what more to say.

"Oh fuck…" Wraith said, actual fear in her voice. "Oh… Okay, I… Fuck, this is bad. This is worse than bad. I had always wondered if their powers were restricted by the Manton Effect but this… Knowing it's not changes things. He… Even if he isn't he shouldn't have the control to do something like that! He specifically has Macrohydrokinesis. Pulling the water out of someone requires finer control than he should be capable of!"

"Would it matter if he just starts pulling on any water in his range as hard as he can?" Rhapsody asked.

"I… Well apparently not!" Wraith shouted. "This is… We can't let anyone else know about this," She said, shooting a quick "Thanks" over to Rhapsody who apparently hit her with his power to stop her freak out.

"Yeah, you're telling me," I sighed. "It was the first time I'd felt actual fear since I got my power. Today has been a roller coaster of emotions and I was completely unprepared for that."

"Least you're feeling emotions," Rhapsody said casually.

I had nothing to say to that.

"I should be more freaked out about this but… Honestly, I think I'm too tired to care at this point," Grue said. "Give me some food and a nap and I'll scream my lungs off when I don't feel like a dying battery."

"Same," Samael said.

"Ditto," Purity nodded, slumping down in her chair.

I'd already freaked out about it but agreed with their assessment of food and a nap before anymore emotional turmoil for the day. It was only around noon, too, which was just… Perfect.

"Who's the least tired of us right now?" I asked.

"I could stay up for a bit," Rhapsody said, raising his hand.

"Right, well that means you get watch. You handle anyone who tries to come in. Wake me up in like, an hour."

"God dammit," He sighed.

—

Mercifully, I ended up getting two hours of sleep, Wraith decided to let me get more than I asked for. I stood up and stretched and yawned. Purity was awake, keeping watch over everything when I got up. She'd turned her power off at some point and was wearing a domino mask

"So, how are you feeling?" Purity asked.

"Me?" I asked incredulously. "You're the one who had her life destroyed. How have you been?"

She shrugged. "I've been trying to put the pieces back together. It'll be… Difficult, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it."

"For the kids?" I asked.

"Yeah," She nods. "I haven't… I was never much of a mother to Theo, not the way he needed, but he needs one, now more than ever. Especially with everything that happened with his father. And Aster, well, she's my baby. I only want what's best for her. It's only now that I'm realizing that the best thing for her is to turn out more like her brother than her parents. Theo was never the most ambitious or outgoing or anything like that, but he's kind, intelligent, and he never fell into Max's trap." She looks fondly at Samael who's slumped in his chair, then her face twists into a slight frown. "Meanwhile I… I got away from Max because I wanted to raise Aster away from him and I nearly fell back in. If not for you and Theo I'd have been taken down with the Empire. I'd have gotten myself killed for my own emotional failings. Worse, it took me nearly getting Lynched to see exactly how bad I was before."

"Kayden," I sighed lowly. She hadn't spoken about exactly what had happened, but I got shortened version from Theo. It made me feel bad for her more than anything.

She let out a rueful chuckle and shook her head. "What kind of example am I?" She asked. "What the hell was I thinking, trying to raise a daughter when I couldn't even get my own shit together? I'd have fucked her up worse than Max was fucking up Theo. Than I was fucking up Theo. I just… Sometimes it feels like they'd be better off without me."

I was silent for a moment. I didn't want to deal with this. I shouldn't have had to deal with this. But it came with the territory of team leader in some fucked up way. I wasn't really sure what to tell her. The cliche "You can change, stay the course" wouldn't really work and I wasn't sure what else to say. So I had to wing it.

"I've never talked about what led me to this point did I?" I asked.

"Your trigger?" She asked, somewhere between curious and horrified. "You don't— That's deeply personal, I'd never ask you to—,"

"Not that. Never that. Not for a while. But you know my general disposition? Why I'm so jaded? Apathetic? It's not just from the powers."

"So you're just…" She trailed off, trying not to offend.

"Like this, yes," I nodded. "It comes from bullying. I started high school and was immediately set upon by my former best friend, her new best friend, and her," I pointed over to Nihilus, who was still sleeping. Kayden's eyes widened, surprised by that tidbit.

"You're… Working with someone who bullied you?" She asked slowly, trying to wrap her mind around the idea.

"Yeah. And it was bad." My hands shook a bit as I thought about some of the worse things they had put me through. Kayden seemed to have caught on to my unease with ease.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, Taylor," She said gently, motherly. It tore through me, pulling at old wounds deep within me I thought had scarred over by now. But it was probably something that would never go away. The pain of her death. It had never gotten easier, I just got used to living with the pain. That in itself was probably a problem but not one to be dealt with at some point.

"No, I should. Wraith sort of knows and Nihilus was there, but I never told anyone else. It started… Surprisingly tame. Name calling mostly. Maybe some shoves here and there in the hallway. I could deal with that to an extent. The name calling hurt coming from my former best friend but I could deal with it. Getting pushed into lockers or down the last few stairs wasn't too bad either. I could handle that. Then it escalated. Tearing at my reputation and then my grades. Emotional abuse. Being the vicious bitches high school girls can be sometimes. I was never trying to be popular so a reputation wasn't anything. But what did hurt was tearing down my grades. Shattering one of the few things I was proud of. Breaking down the teachers trust in me. Getting accused of making it all up for attention. Juice in my hair, my bag, chair, destroyed art projects, glue in my chair, the other students unwillingness to do anything to help, the fact the teachers knew but didn't care… Using my mothers death against me."

"Taylor…" Kayden said, her tone broke my heart, because it reminded me too much of when my mother was alive. I'd never get close enough to Kayden to consider her a motherly figure, Lacey was more of that than anything, but she had that way of speaking that mothers do that just…

"I lost a lot of faith in humanity over 9th and 10th grade," I continued. "Nearly all of it, really. The apathy really set in by… By the time of… What would have been my trigger event. A few months before at least. It only got worse with the powers. Honestly, the stress was pushing me towards either suicide or a killing spree. The former was more likely. But, I say all that to say, if I can forgive her, you can get your shit together," I said firmly.

"You forgive her?" Kayden sounded perplexed at the idea. "After all of that? I couldn't even… That's…" She stared at me, searching for something in my deadpan look. I was actually as surprised by my words as she was, but I wasn't going to let her know that. "Okay, I see what you mean," She sighed after a moment.

"Good," I nodded, standing up. "Now, I'll be right back because I really need a smoke."

—

I was only gone for a few minutes but Nihilus was awake when I got back and there was food in the room. Not much, mostly snack foods, but food nonetheless. I grabbed a packet of Animal Crackers and a bottle of water and tapped Nihilus, motioning for her to come with me. She nodded, shakily getting to her feet and grabbing her own snacks and following me.

It was a little past two now and the hospital was still pretty busy. Nurses were bouncing around and trying to check over everyone they hadn't gotten to yet. I knew it was pointless but it was probably still better to be safe than sorry.

The looks we got as we walked through the hospital halls was… different. Some people, well, most people, looked at us with awe and admiration. There were other emotions mixed in, fear, derision, glee, it really depended on what side they were on and what they'd heard of us. I didn't pay it much mind but it seemed to be getting to Nihilus. She probably wasn't used to people staring at her so hard unless it was for her body or something.

We finished the walk up to the roof in silence and I phased us through the locked door. Our feet crunched across the roof as we walked over to a place to sit, on the top of some vents in the middle of the roof. I pulled my smokes out, an off color pink box that read "Sakura" across the front, and took my mask off. Normally I wouldn't do something so reckless but everyone was inside the hospital anyway so it wasn't a big deal. And I could brink it back just as fast if anyone came out.

I pulled one out with my fingers instead of my mouth like usual and offered the box to Madison. She looked at me, wide eyed for a moment, before gingerly taking one. I flipped the box close and snapped, lighting my own then offering to light hers, which she gratefully accepted. It was a few moments of sorting my thoughts before I realized I had no idea how to have the conversation we were about to, let alone how to start it, so I just said what came to mind.

"When this all started, I didn't think I'd ever forgive you for what you helped put me through," I started, making her snap her head to look at me. Her eyes were wide and it almost looked like she wanted to cry. "But…" I shrugged, not really sure how to word it. "I did. You've grown on me and… Well… Even if I hadn't forgiven you before today, taking a hit from an Endbringer for me has to count for something."

Her mouth was open, just wide enough that she didn't drop her cigarette but still wide enough to show how shocked she was.

"Taylor…" She said.

"I realized when you got hit that I actually care about you. There was actual worry in me when I realized you'd taken that hit for me. I was relieved to see you were okay. It was… The first time in a while I was actually scared for another person in a while. So… Yeah," I shrugged. "I forgive you and… I think I can call us—," I didn't get to finish my sentence as Madison hugged me, shaking with silent tears. I rolled my eyes and wrapped my left arm around her shoulders, returning the hug.

"I… I'm so happy," She smiled. I knew she did even if I could see her face. "You have no idea how long… How much it means… To have…" She can't even string together a coherent sentence through her crying, but I don't bother moving her. When she's finally done she's pointing a beaming smile at me. One that feels genuine. "I don't… I don't want to make it seem like I was only out to get you to forgive me so I don't know how to word this, but… I'm glad we're friends now, Taylor."

"Yeah, yeah," I stood with a small smile, popping my back as I stretched. "We can tell our kids about it when we get older."

"You… Wanna have kids with me?" She asked, her voice now showing more intrigue at the idea than anything else.

"Huh?" I asked dumbly. "No," I said when I realized what she thought I said. "That's not what I meant. I'm not… No. I meant when we each have families of our own. If you want a wife, I hope you find a good one, but it won't be me."

"Aw, but I'd love to be able to doll you up!" She chirped. I couldn't tell how much of that was a joke, but I rolled my eyes and sat back down.

"Shut up, nerd. What'd you get in your animal crackers?" I asked, tearing my bag open.

She didn't answer as she pulled her bag open and we mostly sat in silence as we ate, trading cookies every so often. As I looked out over the city, a small bit of nostalgia washed over me.

"This reminds me of when I was a little girl," I said lowly.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"When I was a kid my mom used to take me and Emma to this park by Captain's Hill. The one with the really big hill on it."

"I know that one!" She snapped. "People go there to work out."

"That's the one," I nodded as I bit the head off an elephant cookie. "Mom would take us up there and make us lunch and we'd play until it was time to eat and just… Do this," I said, gesturing in front of us. "Sit and look out over the city while we ate. Seeing only the good in the world." I took a sip of water and sighed a the memory. It was tainted now. Too much grief and anger involved at this point despite the fact it was only four years ago. "I remember I used to want to be grown up so mom would always make me the same drink as hers. Earl Grey, two sugars, no cream. I still drink it that way. It's one of the ways I take after my mom instead of my dad. He prefers coffee."

"Do you… Want to go? To the park I mean? When we're done cleaning and all that?"

"Yeah," I nodded after a moment. "You done?" I ask, downing the last of my water along with a sheep cookie.

"Yup," She nodded as she shoved the last third of her bag in her mouth and washed it down with water.

"Let's get back to the others," I said, putting my mask back on.

AN: I had this conversation between Taylor and Madison in my head for a long time. Almost as long as I've been writing this story. Especially the kids line. I almost saved it for next chapter but decided it was better to just leave it here.