My father's mangled, twitching body was hoisted into the house by Cole and Kai, my mother following closely behind, fiddling with her shoulder as she walked.

"We need to get his power core under control before it fries his whole system, and we have a heck of a lot more to fix."

I pushed my way past the bodies filling the room, trying to get a better look at what had happened to my dad.

"Pix, are you okay?" Cryptor asked.

"I'm fine. Right now we need to fix Zane. Then we can worry about me."

"Mom?"

She looked over at me, her expression fading as our eyes met. "Don't worry. It'll be okay."

"Pixal, what are we doing here?" Nya called to her from the dining room, where the table had been hastily cleared to make space for my dad's body. "Outright cutting off his power seems dangerous."

"No, cut the power." My mom instructed them.

"I'm no tech expert, but I'd have to agree with Nya." Cole chimed in. "What effect would that have on his memory?"

"Maybe we could reroute it-" Jay started.

"Just cut it!" She screamed at them. "I think I have a better grasp of my husband's blueprints than you do!" She turned, shoving her way into the dinning room.

I felt my uncle's hand on my shoulder. He could sense the tension I was holding. "Your mom knows what she's doing," he reassured me.

"That's not what I have an issue with." I brushed his hand away as I walked towards the commotion.

"His heart is on the verge of overloading! Do we remember what happened to him the last time that happened?!"

"Would someone just cut it already!" Lloyd screamed over the commotion.

I arrived at the front of the bunch just in time to see Kai cut the central power wire, and my father's body go limp. It was the first time I got to get a good look at him. His torso was stretched and broken, a tangle of wires being the only thing connecting the two pieces together. His exterior was covered in horrific, deep, twisted dents disfiguring his whole appearance. The room went silent as everyone stood- staring at his disjointed, unnatural, unflinching corpse.

"'Everything should be fine', huh?" I sighed. "'Back before midnight- you know how these things are' did you mean to lie to me, or is this just supposed to be fine?" I looked over at my mom.

"Circuit, this isn't-"

"We thought this was a low level threat." Lloyd cut her off, looking at me. "We were wrong."

I looked back at him. Was he the only one who was going to be straight with me on this? "You know, if you need help, maybe you should tell me,"

"Circuit-"

"Maybe you should let me train! Maybe we could use another ice master on the field! Maybe I could reach my true potential if you'd just-!"

"Circuit, we are not having this discussion right now!" My mom stopped me. "You know how your father feels about your training."

"What? That I'm not ready! And what? Am I going to be more ready if I just sit around for a few more years?!"

"You just need to get through this stage in your life before you can understand-"

"Understand? You think I don't understand when you come home with my dad beaten to shreds, barely even functional?! You think I don't understand? I see it every other week!"

"You think I don't know that?!" My mom screamed back, starting to shake. "Do you know how he got that way? Do you know what they did to him to get him like this?!"

"Pixal," Cole placed a hand on her arm as she hung her head, taking a few deep breaths. She placed her hand on top of his, closing her eyes.

"We need to get working on him," she sighed. "I'll need Jay and Nya working with me and Kai on standby."

Everyone else began shuffling out of the room as I stood there, waiting for a response.

…But I didn't get one.

I finally turned around, following the rest of the group out as I headed for my room. I closed the door, and curled up under a blanket on the corner of my bed, trying to stifle back tears. This was the third time my dad had come back home that broken. At least that I knew of. He has a bad habit of getting himself damaged. And I could help them! I know I could! If they'd just let me!

There was a knock on the door as I looked up. The door cracked open, revealing Jenna on the other side.

"Hey… you need a friend?"

I looked at her for a moment before nodding. She snuck in, closing the door to the chaos still lingering outside, and curling up on the bed next to me.

"You know, powers aren't all they're worked up to be. I mean, they rarely even let me go on missions, and I've had mine for years now."

She waited a moment for me to respond.

I couldn't.

She formed a little ball of energy between her hands, the glow illuminating the room in a soft glow as I smiled. Something about the way the lightning twitched around and snapped in and out of existence was just so captivating.

"You know, I'm upset about the training and all, but… there's part of me that wishes I could get rid of it all together."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean drop this half of my life and be Sierra full time. Just go to school. Be a normal person. Talk with my friends. But I can't! I'll never be able to! I can't just be a normal high schooler because I have to put on a hologram to even walk down the halls! No matter what I do I can't win!"

Jenna's ball of energy faded, leaving the room in relative darkness. "So… you want to be like Daniel?"

I pulled my blanket tighter around myself. "…maybe."

"Aren't you the one telling me all the time about how what his parents are doing to him is wrong?"

"It is! Long term, it's terrible! It's terrible for him, and it's painful for me." His parents had convinced my parents to have me go to school with him. Just to keep tabs on him and be there if he ever discovered his powers. It was a job, but it was also my social life. It was this strange situation built on a lie but surrounded in this genuine relationship. There was always this distance I had to keep, and it was a nightmare. "I have to lie to him every day. And I know that someday we'll have to tell him and… and when we do, what is he going to think of me? Is he going to think that I was a lie too? That our friendship was a lie? Just look at me! Things are just going to get so weird between us and-" I sighed.

"What?"

"I just don't want to think about it."

Jenna thought for a moment. "I can't tell you things aren't going to get weird between you guys when the day finally comes, but… they aren't weird yet." She stood up, looking at me. "And I'm sure he'd be willing to not think about it with you," Jenna winked, and left, leaving me to an empty room.

I pulled out my phone, scrolling through my contacts before landing on his number. I cleared a few stray tears before dialing, trying to get some sense of composure.

The phone rang.

And rang.

My heart sunk a bit, waiting for him.

I was just at his house.

He probably doesn't want to talk to me…

But then he picked up.

"Hey! What's up?" his voice came from the other end of the line.

I smiled. "Before I talk, are you finished with your review?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I'm done with it. And also, I've been giving some thought to the whole deck crew thing and… I think I'm gonna apply."

"Really?"

"Now, they might not choose me, so there's no guarantee, but I figured it's worth a shot."

"I'm so proud of you, that's awesome!"

"Thanks," I could hear his nervous smile through the phone. "Sorry, I got you off topic. What did you call about?"

"It's kind of hard to explain." I sighed. "Just… talk to me."