A Side F

The future is a lot like one of those Scooby-Doo hallways. The long ones with all the doors.

As you go down it, you can go left, right, or forward. What you can't do is go back. The monster's back there. It would ruin the comedy anyway.

The door closes behind you. There are more doors ahead of course, but once you've closed one it's closed forever. As are all the long, door-filled halls the other doors behind you might have led to.

It was the best metaphor Dinah could come up with for how inevitable it all seemed. The war was coming and nothing could stop it now. No matter how she searched, there was no possibility that let them stop it. Where the bodies didn't pile up and the blood didn't run.

People were going to die.

Taylor tended to say they'd arrived too late to stop it from happening. The gears were already turning, the levers in motion. The world was just too big. Even if one could comprehend how it worked, they couldn't alter its course. The 'machine' didn't have a fail safe.

Dinah didn't really like that. It didn't feel right. The world was big but it wasn't that big. People could make it change, if they wanted to.

But maybe people were like the world too.

They closed doors behind them, blinding them to all the other doors they could have taken. They only saw what was in front of them, guided by every choice they'd already made. They saw no way back so they never stopped to think.

Taylor said the world was too big.

Dinah thought people were too small.

Against her wishes, she couldn't help but think of her mother in that way.

"You're not going," Mom declared. She kept her back to Dinah, hands steadily chopping away at the vegetables on the cutting board. "You're staying in bed and resting!"

"I'm not tired anymore." She really wasn't. "I need to talk to Taylor and Veda."

"You can talk to them later."

"I can," Dinah agreed. "And it'll be behind your back when I sneak out with Doormaker. I don't want to do it that way."

Claire must have taken notice of Doormaker's name, because a moment later one of his hexagonal doors opened behind Dinah.

"Like that." The door closed. "I can do it on my own, or you can drive me over."

Her mother looked on the verge of tears.

Veda: I don't think this is working

That was an understatement.

Dinah wished she didn't feel so stoic about it. She had to be stoic. Getting emotional would tear her apart. She couldn't keep looking at what was going to happen, searching for ways to end it or spare as many lives as possible, if she got teary-eyed every time.

The death of innocence. Most kids in those kinds of books lost it because the world screwed them over. Maybe that was true of Dinah too, but she didn't feel like denying her own role. She'd killed her own innocence in its sleep. Capes didn't get to be normal children. On the flip side, that meant the parents of capes didn't get to be normal parents.

No one ever put much thought into that part.

"I'm sorry," Dinah admitted in a small voice. The sound of chopping stopped. "It's not fair."

Her mother's shoulders tensed. "I just want you to be safe."

"No one's safe anymore." Dinah's lip quivered slightly. "I can't change it anymore. That door is closed behind us now."

Her mother turned slowly, trying and failing to look more stern than she really was.

"I mean it," Dinah insisted. "I have to talk to Taylor and Veda. Doing it over the phone isn't enough."

Dinah was reminded of the tension between Taylor and her dad. That had gotten better the past few weeks, but Dinah didn't want to experience the gaping ravine they'd occupied herself. It's a shame she couldn't just ask her power if this would work.

Well, she could.

But she wouldn't.

If she'd been more careful before, maybe something could have changed for the better. It was time to get serious. Her power couldn't be used frivolously now. Basic things would have to be figured out the old-fashioned way.

Dinah didn't look forward to it.

"Let me get my coat," her mother finally relented. "You should get yours too. It's starting to get cold outside."

White held up the hanger holding Dinah's coat, one hand affixed to the couch for balance.

Dinah considered trying to press but for now she'd take this as progress. Getting her parents to stop being angry at Taylor would have to wait. Maybe a dinner or something. That might work.

The drive wasn't long and they reached Taylor's house quickly. There were reporters around. Taylor must be loving that.

"Dinah," her mother pleaded.

"My identity is paper-thin as it is," Dinah confessed, while holding White down in her lap. And honestly, "That's my mistake." It was foolish. Her power had been tricked multiple times now. Acting like her identity didn't matter because she'd see trouble coming was stupid. "I can't take it back now. I'm sorry for that too."

Her mom turned and they went up the back alley between Taylor's street and the next one over.

Unfortunately, reporters were aware of that too now, and they saw the car pull up to the back gate.

"You should—"

Her mother interrupted her with a sigh, hands white at the wheel. "No. No, I'll come in. I haven't said hi to Danny lately anyway and maybe… Maybe I owe Taylor an apology."

Dinah tilted her head, surprised.

Her mother sighed. "I know it's not her fault. It's just easier. Easier to blame her than me, or you."

Huh. Sometimes it's nice not to know what's coming. "Taylor blames herself."

"I know. I know she didn't want that to happen. I haven't meant to be so difficult. It's just…" Her mother turned her head and looked down at Dinah. "I wish it were different."

Dinah averted her gaze. She felt a bit like a kid. Butterflies fluttered in her chest. "Me too." Pretty soon, everyone would.

The smell of rosemary filled the house. Pink was cooking something porky. Maybe they could grab some dinner before heading home.

White leaped from Dinah's arms and bounced over the floor while Danny stepped around the kitchen corner.

"Hello, Dinah," he greeted. His eyes moved up. "Oh. Chelsea. I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you."

Dinah went on her way while her mother apologized.

Taylor and Lafter were sitting on the couch with Green, Orange, and Red. The news was on.

"This is so weird," Lafter mumbled. "Hey sprout. Come join the weirdness."

"We do this with her all the time," Taylor pointed out, in spite of the look of awkward confusion on her face. "Veda's always everywhere. She's here right now."

"I am," Veda said from Green. "How is it weird?"

"Well"—Lafter pointed her hands at the screen while Dinah took a seat on the floor—"Veda just talked in here, and now she's talking over there."

On the screen, the reporter sat at the news desk with a tablet facing the room. Celestial Being's logo was visible on the surface, and the letters V-E-D-A under it. Guess she hadn't decided on a face yet.

"What does the world look like in there?" the reporter asked. "From there? Sorry, I'm not sure how to phrase that question."

"It's quite fine," the tablet answered with Veda's voice.

The response echoed behind Dinah as Orange played the words in perfect sync.

Hm. Lafter had a point. This was weird.

"I suppose I don't know," Veda continued. "I see you. I see the room around you. I'm not really sure if I see it the way you do though. I've often wondered this. My eyes are not like yours and maybe I can't know if the world I can see is the same world you see. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure how to phrase that answer."

The reporter managed a nervous but honest smile. "I've been told English is an imprecise language."

"It is," Veda agreed. "I think though, that helps in a way. No one has to quibble over vagueness when all English speakers understand the same vagueness inherent to their speech. It reminds me of the Turing test"

"That's the test invented by Alan Turing for how to determine the emergence of artificial intelligence."

"Yes. Turing proposed that we cannot define intelligence, but we can describe behavior we consider intelligent. He proposed that any machine capable of fooling someone into thinking it was behaving intelligently, such that they couldn't tell it apart from a person, was for all intents and purposes intelligent. A way I tend to think of it is that anything capable of asking to be recognized as 'alive,' can no longer be rationally dismissed."

The reporter laughed. "I'm afraid that goes a little over my head."

"I'm sorry. I suppose I have a great deal of time to ponder these things, but have had little experience discussing them with anyone else."

"See?" Lafter asked. "It's just weird."

"It seems normal to me," Veda noted from Green. "Maybe I really cannot see the world as you do."

"People will get used to it," Taylor insisted. She wasn't entirely wrong. "Time will pass and they'll adjust." Taylor rose from her seat, and Green rolled off the back of the couch to take it. "I heard your mom."

Dinah turned her head and nodded.

Taylor frowned, cheeks red. "I should talk to her—about what happened."

"She'll listen," Dinah responded.

Taylor walked around the coffee table and into the kitchen. Pink and Navy were on the kitchen counter, attending to several pots, pans, and the oven. Guess Pink was making a rosemary pork roast with some kind of thick sauce and vegetables.

Taylor found her mother and started talking. Danny went to the stove and asked what Pink needed before going to the fridge to retrieve something.

"Sooo," Lafter drawled. "Good day."

"It's okay," Dinah acknowledged. "You can ask if you want to."

Dinah saw the older girl's partial reflection on the screen ahead. She looked better than she had days ago, when she nearly died. Fortunately that didn't happen. The possibilities where Lafter died were a lot less amusing. Which was kind of sad when Dinah thought about it because Lafter's life was more than how exciting she made living for others.

Still though.

Taylor needed someone around who enjoyed pushing her buttons.

Lafter grimaced behind her. "I don't know that—"

"I can tell you the answer then, 'cause it's pretty obvious."

Lafter blinked. "It is?"

"Ask him out, go on a date, and see if you want to have a second. I'm twelve and I've figured that out. It's not rocket science."

"I'm feeling kind of attacked right now," Lafter mumbled.

"You're the one with the crush. I don't know if it'll end well and it would be a lie to say I could tell you. There will be possibilities where it does and possibilities where it doesn't." Dinah turned and looked at her. "Won't know which you get unless you try."

Lafter laid back into the couch, worrying her lip between her teeth. "What if he doesn't—"

Dinah rolled her eyes and noted, "Look in a mirror and seriously ask that question. You're hot and you know it."

"Objectively speaking," Veda interjected, "this is true."

Lafter pouted. "And now I'm feeling objectified."

"Just ask Akihiro out on a date."

"But…" Lafter trailed off, thinking. "How does one do that, exactly?"

"I guess the first two words could be 'hey you.'"

With that, Lafter craned her torso around to peer through the window behind the couch.

Dinah sighed. "Of course he's right outside, five feet away where you could ask him right now."

Lafter turned back around.

Green leaned forward and flapped his ears. "Bwak bwak."

Lafter pointed her finger sharply only for Orange to flap his ears behind her. "Bwak bwak."

"They're not wrong," Dinah remarked dryly.

"Hush all of you!" Lafter crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. She pouted, blushed redder than a cherry, and complained, "A woman's heart is her own business."

"Bwak bwak."

"I wonder what Taylor's doing."

With that, Lafter rose quickly to her feet. She thwacked the remote with her knee as she moved and sent the item flying. It hit Green, bounced off his face into Orange, and then spun through the air to land in front of Dinah.

"No fair, no fair!" Orange whined.

"That's what you get for mocking her, apparently." Dinah took the remote in hand and changed the channel away from the news. She did not need extra misery. "No offense Veda."

"None taken," she replied. "I wonder if I should inquire with Lafter why she likes Akihiro."

"You could."

"I'm unsure if it would be rude."

"Only way to know is to ask."

Dinah kind of got it.

Lafter and Taylor had a lot in common, namely a tendency not to trust others until they'd proven themselves. Dinah couldn't see either of them ever going for a boy just because he was cute or hunky. They'd only be comfortable with someone they trusted from the get-go and who could commit from the start. It was a tall order, but Akihiro fit the bill.

Plus he was pretty hunky so bonus points were earned.

A shame being capes didn't remotely simplify romance. Dinah didn't have a clue how she'd ever deal with it. In a lot of ways, being in love seemed like it was supposed to be an adventure of sorts. Her power kind of sucked the romance from things.

Danny settled onto the couch, apparently having left Taylor and Dinah's mom to talk in the back hall.

"You have to make up your own mind," Dinah answered.

Danny tensed slightly. "You know."

"I saw it a while ago."

The man nodded. "And you haven't told Taylor."

"No." Before he could ask why, Dinah explained, "If you tell her, it has to be for her. Not for you and not because you want to spite Emma for what she did."

"I don't want to spite her," Danny affirmed.

"We are discussing Weaver," Veda realized. Figured. Veda was only in the PRT's network for a few days, but she was bound to notice that when she had access to everything. "I've also been struggling with whether or not to say something."

"Same answer," Dinah told her. "If you tell Taylor, and maybe you should, do it for Taylor and only Taylor. Don't do it because you're afraid of keeping secrets."

"Maybe she deserves to know," Danny murmured.

"Newtype and Weaver are barely acquaintances," Dinah clarified.

Danny shook his head. "But Taylor should know, especially if Emma tries to butt in again."

Green turned to look at Danny and Veda said, "Explain."

Danny flinched and looked nervous suddenly. "I lied before, about hiding out with Kurt. Emma came to the house—"

"From Boston?" Veda interrupted curiously.

"She used some kind of portal power," Danny explained. "Not hers. She does bugs, I think. But she took me to her parents' house. Figured no one would look for me there."

"Describe this portal power," Veda requested.

"It's Doormaker and Claire." Cut out the middle explanation and just get to the point. "Count told Emma how to use their power."

"Count arranged for this to happen," Veda stated aloud. "She still hasn't reappeared in Sanc. Tattletale is convinced she isn't coming back."

She would, but not before the end. Contessa made her choice and she wouldn't change her path now. She closed all the doors behind her long ago. That might be something only another precog could really know.

When you threw your entire life into stopping the inevitable, you stopped really living. You became nothing more than a device to see a dream to its fruition. Dinah thought she'd come close to that, to being so obsessed with the future she lost sight of the present.

She forgot her own lesson. No one really sees the future. They only ever see its possibilities. Funny how knowing something still necessitated the occasional reminder.

"You're not telling Taylor," Veda noted while Green and White turned to face Dinah. "I'd like to ask why."

Dinah wasn't sure anyone would like the real answer. She gave it anyway.

"Taylor and Emma can only close the door between them themselves. No one else can do it. If you want to tell Taylor anything, tell her what Weaver did. She's smart. She'll realize who Weaver is on her own eventually and then she'll have to decide on her own how to feel about it."

"And we'll have kept it to ourselves the entire time," Danny lamented. "I don't want to lie to her."

"That's fair." Dinah turned her head, looking at the man. "But is that for Taylor, or for you?"

He averted his eyes in a way that said he didn't know.

There was no good answer. Telling Taylor might be better than not telling her, but Dinah didn't know how it ended and she didn't have the right to decide how it should end. Taylor might never know. And Emma...

The girl Dinah saw was like Contessa.

She wasn't really alive anymore, just a walking mission.

Taylor might be the only one who could save Emma Barnes now. That might be a betrayal, but Dinah would apologize for it when the time came. Taylor didn't need to know the truth about Weaver, but Weaver might need Taylor.

Dinah didn't really know and she had bigger worries.

It was time to grow up and get serious. The world was about to end. Teenage drama wasn't the most important thing now.

"You have to make up your own mind, Mr. Hebert. I can't tell you what's right."

He smiled and nodded. "I'm sorry. It was selfish to ask. You have more important things to worry about."

"Clairvoyant and Doormaker know," Veda mused. "I must wonder why Count would involve Weaver."

Maybe because Taylor was part of her path, and so was Emma.

She told Taylor twice now what she wanted.

Peace for all time.

Talk about a dream.

"Dinner, dinner!" Pink jumped on the countertop. "Come and get it, come and get it!"

"Guess dinner's ready." Danny rose from the couch. "Thank you, Dinah."

Dinah got up herself, glancing to the side as Lafter went to the front door and told Mikazuki and Akihiro they could come inside. They were so polite—or so oblivious—it didn't occur to either of them they could enter. That might be a bit goofy on their end, but Taylor and Lafter only saw that the boys respected boundaries. Which made it easier to trust them.

At least they came by it honestly.

Dinner did get a little cramped. Akihiro was a big guy. Fortunately, Pink made two roasts.

"Your robot made this?" Dinah's mom asked as the meal wound down.

"Pretty much," Taylor answered. "Pink likes to cook."

"This isn't even the most complicated thing I've seen her make," Danny added.

Dinah's mother covered her mouth. She glanced at Dinah and then to her empty plate. "...I'd like the recipe."

Pink peered over the lip of the table between Taylor and Mikazuki. "Love, love."

After dinner, Lafter convinced Akihiro and Mikazuki they could stay inside and watch TV. Naturally, she sat on the couch with them because it let her be near Akihiro without having to admit to anything. Dinah rolled her eyes and continued upstairs.

Her mom was talking to Danny and Dinah planned to stay the night to talk to Taylor and Veda.

"We haven't talked much," Taylor said to the monitor in her room. "Sorry."

She nodded when Dinah entered and Chariot offered a wave from the other side.

"It's been busy," he told her. "And I'm not sure I was in much of a mood to talk."

Taylor sighed. "I wasn't sure if saying anything would help."

"It's okay, I just needed to process things. I wasn't ready for all of that. I told myself I was, but I wasn't."

"You're not like me, Trevor, and that's not a bad thing. It's good that you don't like to fight. It's why I wanted you around, because you'd call me out for going too far."

"I thought so too, but I'm not doing that now." Trevor sighed and relaxed into his seat. Dinah noted the lance on the table behind him. Long and ivory in color. There was a gun of some kind built into it and the tip was an empty barrel instead of a point. "It's really going to happen, isn't it? We can't stop it."

"No." Taylor pulled her hair back, explaining, "I think the Simurgh wanted Dragon and Veda dead, one at least if not both. Anything else was a consolation prize and the most obvious one is that the PRT is over. There's no coming back from what's happened."

"Teacher will swoop in," Chariot agreed. "Maybe on Blue Cosmos' side, maybe on the PRT's. Either way, he ends up a hero to someone and starts calling the shots."

More or less. "He'll have control over both sides," Dinah pointed out. "He wins either way. The only question is why."

Taylor nodded again. "Count said he wanted to evolve humanity through conflict, but something just doesn't feel right. Eidolon was a hero. He risked his own life to defeat Scion."

Which begged questions about his motives now.

Time to get down to it.

"I need to use my power smarter."

Taylor and Trevor both looked at her. Dinah hadn't meant to say that part aloud.

"I've been dumb." Might as well admit all of it. "I keep using my power to try and see what might come next, but the answer is that almost anything can come next. Now that the Simurgh is involving herself, there will always be shadows in what I see. Things I can't see."

"That's not your fault," Taylor responded. "We've always known your power had limits. We shouldn't have relied on it so much."

"No. The answer is to use my power smarter." Dinah looked Taylor in the eye. "The future isn't the only thing I can see."

"The past and the present," Trevor deduced. "You can see those too."

Dinah nodded. "Maybe the answer to some of our questions is behind us instead of in front of us." A door might be closed, but that didn't mean you couldn't look through the window. "We've never made much use of that part of my power, but looking backwards I don't think I'll have blanks in the way I do looking forward."

"Because the past is already set." Taylor frowned. "We have looked at the past before though. You still saw multiple possibilities."

That was a question, but maybe not.

"Crazy that it's falling on us to figure this out," Trevor groaned.

"But it has," Taylor affirmed. "We can't bury our heads in the sand and ignore it now."

"I know." He took a deep breath and spun his chair around. He rose briskly, hands grabbing at tools that he held to the lance. "Those who don't choose will have their choices made for them. I guess not choosing is a choice too. Everyone will have to make it soon."

Taylor frowned but nodded.

"I just wish," Trevor whispered, "we knew when it ends."

"Me too," Taylor agreed.

Dinah said nothing and found the spare sleeping bags in the closet.

Taylor and Trevor talked, and then Taylor talked to Kati. She had to go out and do interviews, start answering questions. The PRT was rumbling about suing her to get the Birdcage back and she had to fight back. No more hiding from cameras.

The time to hide was gone.

Dinah took her time settling in for the night.

"You said something to your mom," Taylor noted.

Dinah shrugged and replied, "You haven't told your dad that you saw your mom." Taylor flinched and pulled into herself. "Sorry."

"No. I—I don't…"

"If you tell him, tell him for him. Not for you." The best part about being an advice-giving twelve-year-old was that no one questioned how you kept giving everyone the same lines. They were so impressed by the lines they never wondered. "Tell him because it'll be good for him."

Taylor stared as Green rolled into the room and admitted, "I don't know if it would do him any good. It's not… That reflection isn't Mom."

"But it might as well be," Dinah proposed. "It's close enough that you can't tell the difference. Kind of like that test Veda mentioned."

Taylor smiled weakly. "I'm not sure that's what Turing had in mind."

"Danny might take solace in it," Veda suggested. "You have. Even if the reflection isn't really her, being able to speak with her gave you closure."

"I don't think Dad could speak with her. I think that might be something only a parahuman can do."

"Then don't tell him." Dinah rolled the sleeping bag out and sat on it. "The door will never close if he doesn't close it himself."

Taylor stared off into space, thinking. "I think he deserves to know. That reflection is watching me, which means she's watching him. We're not really religious, but I think it would make him happy."

"Then tell him." Dinah settled into the sleeping bag. "Don't need a precog for that."

"Yeah. Guess not. Sorry."

"I'm not bothered." She didn't want it to seem that way. "I just mean… People have figured out their own problems for forever. Stuff like this, they figure it out sooner or later. No need for super powers, but talking helps."

Taylor grinned. "You're too wise for a twelve-year-old."

"I'm used to it."

Taylor got up and left the room to talk to her dad. Dinah figured Danny would reciprocate and tell her about Emma.

The slamming of a door about fifteen minutes later confirmed that.

"He told her," Dinah stated.

"Yes," Veda answered. "She's standing outside."

"She'll be okay."

"I know. I don't think she's angry. Just confused."

"It's been that kind of week. You seem to be doing okay."

"I am coping. I think. I may lack the faculties to fully appreciate stress like you do."

"You don't lack the faculties to enjoy telling the PRT where to stick it."

"I did not enjoy it."

Dinah waited.

"...I did not enjoy it that much. Director Seneca means well. I respect Director Armstrong and Director Ral. They're not bad people."

"They're just in a toxic work environment."

"Director Banks will be a problem. I worry that if we simply return Jillian Monroe to Milwaukee, he will hound her until he finds an excuse to arrest her again."

Dinah had seen that. It became one of the spark points, an event that finally set things in motion. "Someone should probably do something about that."

Maybe it was cold, but Dinah had seen dozens of things that might finally set it all off. If it wasn't one thing, it would be another. Teacher would have his war. Nothing would stop him now.

They couldn't save everyone. "Canary still needs a bodyguard," Dinah thought. They couldn't save everyone, but maybe they could stick two people together and save them. "Wormwood's power is strong. Too strong for cape fights, but she could scare off assholes pretty easily."

"Gator did say he couldn't watch Paige forever. That is a good suggestion. I'll see if they are amenable."

"Jill isn't a bad person," Dinah asserted. "She just has an ugly power."

"Many capes do, I suspect."

True enough.

Dinah laid back on the bag and closed her eyes. Maybe it was going behind her mother's back doing it this way, but she really was going to be more careful. She couldn't knock herself out like that again. She needed to keep some questions in reserve.

Her power needed to be used smarter.

"I'm going to use my power, Veda."

The answer was a bit slow. A second or so. "If you're certain."

"I feel fine. Couple days of rest and my head doesn't even hurt anymore."

She wasn't lying.

It was time to get back to work.

The way Taylor explained it, and Claire explained it the same way when Dinah asked, powers used their hosts to gather data. They wanted to work better. Solve problems faster. Find new problems to solve.

They really didn't see the future.

They calculated. After countless attempts and hosts, her power had figured out how to calculate probabilities and predict possibility. It was trying to do that better. You have to look back to see forward. It made sense. Her power functioned the same way either way because looking back was necessary to look forward.

Normally they only looked at the forward parts, but her power could show her the backwards too.

It was time to start using that.

Now, all she needed to do was ask.

"You have a question you want to ask," Veda presumed. "I can help."

"Just be ready. I might need some stuff hunted down."

"Of course."

Dinah took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Where did Jack Slash go after the fight with Newtype?"

Her power took hold over her, and the possibilities flashed by.

She grabbed onto the first one, forcing it out and letting the image expand in her sight.

Jack was looking up at the sky. The Siberian was behind him, holding Shatterbird and Bonesaw. Burnscar was visible in the fires flowing out of the building and Crawler was in the woods. In the woods.

A good place to ambush someone.

Seemed as good a place to start as any.

Dinah focused and let the image start moving. It strained her, but after days of rest it barely registered. Setting her eyes on Jack's lips, she didn't have to wait long to see exactly what she'd hoped not to see. It was fine if she missed a few things elsewhere. Once she saw something with her power, she remembered it perfectly. She could review the full vision anytime it suited her.

At the moment, she only needed to confirm one thing and really hope it wasn't too late.

"We were just starting to have fun," the psychopath mused to the sky.

"I didn't get her autograph, Uncle Jack." Bonesaw turned to the house. "And look at the mess she made! That's so rude!"

A flick of remaining light fluttered by and Bonesaw's eyes snapped to it and widened.

"Did she kill Alan?" Shatterbird asked. "Huh."

"Yes." Jack grinned. "Can't let that go unanswered, can we?"

The Siberian's malicious smile answered that question just fine.

Dinah moved onto the next possibility, and then the rest. They mostly went the same way, though Dinah scowled at the two where Taylor stayed to fight and died. She didn't linger in those. In a third, Taylor managed to limp away and that was ugly enough without sticking around to see Bonesaw's work.

At least this was all the past. These doors were closed. Though, they might still be useful looking ahead.

Dinah opened her eyes. "Jack's going to come for Taylor."

White whirled around and Veda said, "I see."

"We can't let that happen. I mean it. I've seen possibilities where Jack Slash and Taylor talk. It always ends badly."

He was very good at saying things in the worst way, and Taylor was too good a listener. It was one of her best qualities, one that made her a better person. Jack Slash broke better people for sport. Maybe that was the entire point of the Slaughterhouse Nine.

"We need to deal with them ourselves," Dinah realized. "Before they ever crosses paths with Taylor again."

"Dinah," Veda warned.

"Jack knows about me and by now he knows about you. If he were dumb he'd be dead by now."

It was more than that though.

Dinah had seen the Nine a fair bit the past few weeks while hunting for Saint. There was something off with Jack. How did someone with such a lame power end up in charge of capes like Bonesaw and Crawler? Siberian could snap him like a twig. Shatterbird had the creepiest psycho crush, but Mannequin... Watching Jack talk to Mannequin was always strange.

Like a puppet and their puppeteer.

Everyone was missing something.

Narrowing her eyes, Dinah asked, "When did Jack Slash become Jack Slash?"

That wasn't the right question.

The possibilities varied. Some showed him with another boy, standing over a man's corpse with blood all over them. Another had him laughing in a house while a family died. A third showed him in a bunker as a very small child.

Huh.

Maybe not the entirely wrong question.

"Where did Jack Slash become Jack Slash?"

The possibilities focused. In an instant, it was like her entire power focused on a singular moment. A possibility at the root of all the others. The 'core' of Jack Slash and the singular instant that created him.

And Dinah almost felt sorry for him.

He cowered in the corner of a dark room. Metal shelves lined the concrete walls, filled with food and water. There was a radio clutched tight to his hands. The light flashed as someone spoke but Dinah couldn't hear the radio.

It was strange.

The place looked like a bunker. Maybe an old Endbringer shelter. It looked like he'd been inside for days. His clothes were filthy and his hair a greasy mop. He looked at the radio in his hands like it was his whole life, like he hung on every word.

Dinah stared at the scene.

She expected something else.

In the end, Jack Slash—the infamous madman—was just a crying child.

If Taylor saw this, she'd feel bad for him… He'd use it against her. Dinah felt it in her power, almost like she could see the ways this possibility played into other possibilities. The endless halls and doors almost stretched out before her, like she could reach them if she just asked.

That was different than before.

What happened next?

The scene shifted and Dinah's perception turned. The boy stood at the top of a concrete stair, looking at a town stretched out across rolling hills around him. She knew it. Pittsburgh. She'd seen pictures of the city in one of her classes. Could be pretty picturesque from the right angle.

So why did little Jack look like his world was falling—

She stopped herself.

She let the possibility roll by and didn't ask about the possibilities that followed. This was enough for now. Figuring out what was going on with Jack's origin story would require more thoughtful questions. Maybe his parents. She didn't see them in the visions, which was weird. He was definitely alone in the bunker but someone was talking to him over the radio.

Dinah opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.

The Nine would proceed carefully from here. Jack wanted to avoid her sight and Veda's. He'd go hunting for something to block a precog, or find some way to try and fool her. Mannequin was dead. What could Bonesaw do? Either way, it gave them time. Time to come up with a permanent solution before Jack got his shot at Taylor.

Thinking of Trevor, Dinah decided it was good to ask when it would end. Everything needed to, eventually. If no one stopped then it all just kept going, getting sadder and harder. Hope died when nothing came to an end. Maybe people should ask 'when does it end' more before setting themselves on some dangerous path.

She'd seen the war and at times she wondered why no one else saw it coming long ago. It felt so obvious to her. Taylor noticed it well before Dinah even began to see it.

The doors closed behind them.

And that meant the doors before them could be stepped through and shut.

Dinah hated giving Blue Cosmos any credit. She gave it to New Wave instead. They were saying the same things ages ago, they just weren't willing to pander to anyone about it. Good for them.

Capes were unaccountable. Teacher wasn't driving this war alone, he was just pointing a certain way. People created this mess for themselves. It probably wasn't on purpose exactly, but this is where all the doors closed put everyone. Now, everyone had to walk down one long and cruel hallway together, whether they liked it or not.

Since the Golden Age, capes had become larger than life. Heroes and villains could operate with near impunity and as long as no one complained, or only the 'right' people suffered, no one cared. Even when they did complain, no one could lock up people like Hero or Alexandria. That was part of the mess. The difficulty of getting capes under control, making them accountable, came directly from how powerful they were.

That was the Nine's essence, Dinah decided. They were the epitome of the darkest reality parahumans presented to the world. Unchecked power in the hands of madmen who didn't care who they hurt.

Dinah pondered that and wondered if the Nine knew it too. A statement. A little band of fucked up children pointing fingers at everyone and everything saying 'we're no worse than you, we're just honest about it.'

Psychos.

The door needed to be closed. The whole world needed to do it to move on. The age of capes doing as they pleased needed to end. And it was the end that would matter because people couldn't see things like Dinah saw them. She needed to close that door in a way everyone could understand.

Trevor's question had a pretty easy answer, at least in Dinah's mind. Realistically, the war had preceded them. It started ages ago, when the first villain broke their first law. When the laws empowered the first hero. The doors kept closing one by one, until blood became the only possibility.

Fighting was the only way now and all fights end the same way.

It ends when someone wins.