A Waken 17.3

I batted my alarm when it woke me up.

My alarm batted back.

"Stop," I groaned.

"Wake up, wake up!"

I tried to pull my hand away but Green had already grabbed it. When I rolled onto my back he crashed into the wall. With a repeating 'ow' on loop, he dropped right onto my face.

I shot up, sending Green sailing into the wall across from me. "I'm up."

"Good job," Green chirped in a faux-labored tone. "Good job."

I shook my head, still feeling the throb from having Green land on it. Administrator stirred slowly, which was weird. I'd always assumed when I slept she just... I don't know. Waited. She didn't. She kind of went into sleep mode too, at least from my perspective.

When I woke she stirred, jerking into thought as if an on switch were pressed. Maybe that was just my perspective. What did she do when I wasn't awake? I still controlled my body. Mostly. Maybe hours of waiting for me to wake up just left her to zone out entirely.

As she woke my awareness of other nearby capes returned, including one that was very close.

Riley slumbered at my side, drooling on my pillow.

I tried not to hold that against her.

She'd wrapped her arms around herself and pulled her knees up. She looked vulnerable, like someone desperate to protect themselves. Was that how she'd lived with the Nine? On the one hand, it was hard for me to believe Riley was really what Bonesaw appeared to be. How could any child be that monstrous? At the same time, I'd seen Bonesaw myself and experienced her.

She hadn't felt like an act.

Green pulled himself up from the foot of the bed and plopped down. "Babysitter's club, babysitter's club."

I nodded and carefully moved myself over Riley to reach the floor. "Veda?"

"Here," she answered.

I looked back at Riley. Confirmation. Still asleep. Thanks power. Appreciation. "What's the plan for Riley today?"

"She's almost finished removing what modifications I think she can without resorting to extremes," Veda explained. "After that, I'm not sure. I do not want to hand her a chemistry set."

"She's a tinker," I pointed out. "She has to tinker or she'll snap. Trust me."

"I know. I'm simply expressing my discomfort with the situation."

I understood. Riley could cure cancer permanently just as easily as she could inflict it on everyone. Not exactly the kind of person you left unsupervised, especially with her history. All the same, if we tried to keep her from tinkering we'd just create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"We might need to ask for that help I suggested," Veda insisted. "While I understand that she will not stand a chance anywhere else but here, we cannot be reckless."

She was right and I knew it.

"Do it then." Right was right, and if it didn't work out we'd deal with it. "Let come what may. For now, maybe we can find something innocuous for her to do. Something we can double-check reliably." I thought for a moment. "Let her have a Helper. You can keep complete tabs on that and anything she does with it."

"I can," Veda agreed. "I'll see what I can do."

"And try to spend some time with her with your avatar. I think she's weirded out by the idea of a disembodied voice."

With that I shed my underwear from the previous day and got dressed in fresh running clothes.

"I'm guessing our mob is still outside?" I doubted Orga's plan could work in a day.

"Yes, though it has shrunk by a meaningful margin."

I paused, shirt half pulled down my torso. "How meaningful?"

"Three percent," she revealed. I glared at the nearest camera. "It is a statistically significant change."

"Yeah. At that rate, the crowd will be gone in a month."

I dressed in running clothes and then packed a set of regular clothes aside in a bag. Riley remained asleep as I left. Armsmaster had gone to sleep thirty minutes ago. Nix and Nyx were in command now and had been sending fifteen-minute updates that were reassuring. There was nothing big planned until tomorrow. I wanted the thinkers to have time to work. Dean left me a message at an oddly early hour, saying he was going to be busy today and Talia would be coordinating for us while he worked.

The Thrones and Stargazer were back undergoing repairs. I did a quick walk around the workshop. Did some repairs, took a few notes, worked on the new buster sword for a couple minutes.

Eventually though, it was time to go to school.

I hated doing this to them but I really just couldn't walk the city casually anymore. I sure as hell couldn't get through the mob surrounding the factory.

"Claire, Doormaker. Sorry to ask but can you guys get me to school?"

The message was already there when I pulled my new glasses on.

C&D: No problem
C&D: still weird seeing Bonesaw in your room by the way

I sighed. "I'm aware. Thank you."

The portal opened and I took one last look at Riley before stepping through. I came out into the girl's locker room on the other side. School didn't start for another hour but as much as I couldn't walk through the city anymore I couldn't very well run either.

My bag of clothes went into a locker and I set out for the track.

A few groups were not so discreetly waiting for me because they'd noticed what I was doing but I ignored them.

Strange how much quieter it was around the school, especially with how loud it was around my home.

This was my time and for this solitary thirty minutes my head barely hurt at all. There were no capes nearby. No explosions. No gunshots. Just me, a track, and the feeling of a good workout. I took a quick pace and ran, enjoying the chill air as I worked up a sweat.

Query.

"Exercise," I said between breaths.

...Query.

I heaved a sigh and kept running.

Self-improvement, I explained.

I projected the image of myself when I first entered high school. I wasn't actually sure if it was accurate but it was sufficient to get the idea across. I'd been even thinner save for the pouch on my belly. Months of running had worn that down and toned out my arms and legs. Life might have decided all fat would go to my gut rather than more useful places, but the muscle actually gave me some definition.

Administrator picked the idea up quickly.

Destination.

Yes.

If only explaining everything were so easy. It's not even like she didn't know exercise built muscle. It's more like she didn't know I'd explicitly wanted to build muscle.

Coach Zabi came out about fifteen minutes before classes started. He stood at the side of the track, watching me run and shaking his head.

"What?" I asked as I came around.

"Just a shame I can't get you on the track team," he said. "You'd be good at it."

"I just don't have the time."

He shook his head. "Shame."

I did another two laps before stopping to take a break. Coach Zabi was still there watching me, but I didn't think it was about my availability for afterschool activities.

"Something wrong, sir?"

"Never had a student appear daily on TV before." The coach shrugged. "Just a strange thing knowing you, Hebert."

"You've known me for months."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But now it's weird."

I thought about it for a moment. "Yeah. Guess it is."

My classmates arrived eventually. Mostly. I did the usual run with them and as usual I was among the first in the class to finish. Lafter had been getting into better and better shape over the past few months. Not that she'd been out of shape before but she definitely wasn't my level of fitness when the school year started.

Now she could almost keep up with me.

"Guess they really did it, huh?" she asked as we slowed to a stop.

I glanced around the track, counting. "Looks like they did."

Nine of my classmates were absent. All nine were part of the Blue Cosmos clique.

"Isn't that weird?" Lafter mumbled. "We're teenagers. Aren't we supposed to rebel against authority?"

"Bridget is here," I pointed out. "So is Trent."

"Still though."

"Still though."

After the run we went inside, but we didn't have enough people for a typical basketball game. We ended up doing three-on-three instead with half the court. Bridget notably avoided the game.

Lafter stood on the sidelines, a bouncing ball in hand. "The bench, to light, to the rope hook, and through the hoop."

Max and Miriallia stood with Stacy and me, watching as Lafter aimed. She wound her arm back, making to throw. It was still oddly fascinating watching the subtle ways her power directed her body, guiding her in the subtlest way to do things exactly so to make sure things played out right.

Also funny how it really didn't care what she wanted necessarily. Not that it didn't care. Navigator just thought its ideas were better.

She flicked her wrist and sent the ball flying in a long arc. The ball bounced, striking the bench and shooting across the room between Stacy's legs to strike the floor. It bounced up in front of Max, going right toward his face. He tried to shield himself and the motion sent the ball sailing away and into the hoop.

"Five bucks," Lafter said.

"We didn't bet anything," Max replied. "And you missed."

Lafter shrugged. "Tips?"

"Jokes?" Rick grumbled. "Really?"

"Girl's gotta live," Lafter replied, clearly not having looked at Rick's face first.

Rick had the decency to try and let it slide. Good on him.

Unfortunately, Max's mouth is faster than his social awareness.

"Come on man," he pleaded. "Can we not?"

Query? Yes, that is irony as most people would recognize it.

"Not what?" Rick asked angrily.

Now he held his arms out at the gym. "Look at this?!"

Miriallia tried to step in. "Hey, now isn't the—"

"Time?" Stacy asked, one arm over her chest and holding her shoulder. "When would be the time?"

"I'm not trying to be an asshole," Rick pleaded. "But is this okay?" He turned towards me, a mix of emotions on his face that amounted to confusion. "All this crap about people dividing in stuff, and you split the school in half!"

"The school was already split in half," Max pointed out.

Miri turned on him, hissing "stop" under her breath.

"It's not okay," Stacy mumbled. "But what are we supposed to do about it?"

"I don't know!" Rick snarled.

He kept looking at me like he expected me to have the answer.

I could make some comment about how noble it was that Rick tried to be friends with everyone. That he tried to stay above all the sniping and the bad blood. Maybe point out that nobility is great, but anyone who runs from making a choice inevitably has the choice made for them.

I had to keep being hard as Newtype. For a while longer, at least. Hard was what was needed out there.

"Well?" Rick asked.

I was about to give him my real answer, fully prepared to be looked at like a crazy person.

Lafter beat me to the punch.

"Takes two to tango you know," she said in a cool tone. She tossed the bouncing ball up and caught it in her hand. "We're not the ones hiring hitmen to kill Wards, or kidnapped kids to blackmail their moms to shoot Relena Peacecraft."

Rick deflated a bit.

I glanced at Lafter in surprise.

Someone had been spending time around Kati.

"Sorry," Rick grumbled. "I'm just..." He trailed off, shook his head and turned to walk away.

"It is my fault," I admitted. "Nothing wrong with saying the truth. If more people stood up for it, we'd all be better off."

Lafter stared at me, brow cocked.

"That got heavy fast," Max said.

"You didn't have to antagonize him," Miri chided.

"I wasn't trying to but come on." Max started dribbling the basketball and looked away. "It's not like Taylor told anyone they can't come to school. It's not her fault it's all such a mess."

"It takes two to tango," I repeated. "Just because one person starts it, doesn't mean I'm not responsible for responding."

I don't think anyone really felt like playing. The game was less basketball and more shooting hoops and dribbling back and forth. The energy to enjoy ourselves just wasn't there. Coach Zabi seemed able to read the room and didn't press anyone. He went over to Rick and talked with him. I think that was good.

Coach Zabi seemed the kind of down-to-earth guy Rick would like to become. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, people just aren't built for the world they find themselves in.

When class ended I went back to the locker room, took a quick shower, and dressed into my school clothes.

On my way out, Rick was waiting. He said, "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay. I understand." I smiled solemnly and kept ongoing.

I was about ready to keep going to my next class when the coach stopped me.

"Front office," he whispered. "Vice-principal wants to see you."

That was fast.

I made my way to the front office, enjoying how much quieter the school was. Only about a dozen parahumans attended the whole school. A surprising number, especially because at least three of them were kids I'd seen here and there but who never seemed to use their powers. At least, not as active capes. I had no idea what they did in their free time.

Though, one caught my attention as I went.

I was still learning to tell specific parahumans apart. Lafter was easy because I knew her and Navigator was so cheerful. Vicky's Shard—Administrator said its name was unimportant—was attentive and loving in an odd way. They had unique feelings to them. Amy's was quiet and a mix of contemplative and frustrated. Fitting.

This wasn't any of them.

This shard was divided somehow, split up. Not in a way that drew Administrator's ire though, like the Case-53s. It was confused and lonely, missing pieces of itself and aware of other pieces being absent.

Lily.

I again found myself pondering the line between host and Shard. Lily also felt confused and alone. I couldn't tell if that was shared, or enforced by one of them.

She was right a few weeks back when she told me no one understood. I didn't appreciate what it was like to be used as filler, having no place to call your own and knowing any friends you made would be left behind. She was committed to wanting to help. She liked being a hero. It gave her life meaning.

Yet, the Wards put her out so much and left her feeling disjointed.

She felt it all so strongly I started feeling it.

Which meant telepathy was real.

Rejection. Communication.

Semantics.

Part of me wanted to walk right into her class and hug her because she needed it.

I didn't think that I should.

I turned away from Lily and continued down the hall.

Administrator started. Rejection.

Distinction, I countered.

Communication.

I didn't know how to make her understand privacy.

The Shards had no such concept. Even now I felt sure that any sense of individuality I saw in Administrator was a lot of confirmation bias. I saw and recognized her specifically and assigned traits to her. Yet, she was comprised of nine Shards, including herself.

I tried to explain that Lily never gave me permission to go poking through her private thoughts. Violation. Just because I could didn't mean I should.

Negation.

Administrator conjured her memory of my talk with Lily, where she gave voice to her frustration and loneliness. Then my breakdown with Orga, where I'd finally accepted and let out my pain.

Distinction, I repeated. Lily and I chose those moments. We weren't forced into them. Permission.

Rejection. She didn't see the difference. Irrelevance.

For a Shard, it was all about becoming stronger, faster, and smarter. Advancing themselves and doing their job better. From Administrator's perspective, her restrictions were now an annoying obstacle in that pursuit. Something to be obliterated, not reinforced as basic decorum.

I sighed. The fact I understood that made me wonder where I ended and Administrator began all over again. I'd ignored that question for a long time but it wasn't possible anymore. We were two, but we blended. Some thoughts were mine, some were hers, and there were a few that I felt pretty damn sure were both of us.

Which was which wasn't always clear.

For Lily, as much as I wanted to tell her to just leave the Wards because it's what she really wanted to do, I couldn't. I had ulterior motives. Pressing her wasn't right.

Code, I thought. Self-restriction.

Administrator tackled that concept oddly. She understood restrictions, but not as something imposed on one's self. Restrictions were imposed by others to maintain order. At least it got her to think though, especially because she'd chosen to violate her restrictions and fought to get around them.

When I finally arrived at the front of the school I didn't need to be told to turn at the door and go down the secret hallway to the secret room. I took note of the unfamiliar presences, which I had noticed well before I arrived.

Hannah was on the other side of the door in full Miss Militia regalia, along with company.

I took a seat and I had to admit, "This is a surprise."

"I doubt that," Director Seneca said in her dead 'I will skin you' tone. "You sent the most provocative invitation you could."

She sat on the other side of the table, flanked by Seahawk and Luminate. Both were from the Seattle Protectorate. Hannah took a place at my side, which I think was meant to be a move of solidarity. Conveniently, it could be interpreted as a move of solidarity for either side of the table. On my other side, Bright Noa sat down in the other chair. His disposition was clearly more defensive than Hannah's.

"I expected an angry phone call," I replied. "Or a teleconference. Your showing up in person is a bit different. We're a long way from Seattle."

Seneca scoffed. "Given your machine's abilities, talking to you in person is likely the most secure thing anyone can do."

"If we wanted to hack into the PRT and take whatever we wanted, I'd have done it already. I don't think you're here because you're worried I'll see something you'd rather I not."

"I'm not," she admitted, "and I'm fine with skipping the part where we coyly talk around one another."

"Fine by me," I agreed. "I'm going to have to do coy a lot in the near future and it's exhausting. So, where do we start?"

At my side, Director Noa—playing the role of understanding cop—said, "Flipping the table is amusing when it's someone else's table. Less so when it's ours."

"You've gone too far," Seneca charged. "You've danced around being our problem before but now you're the biggest problem on the PRT's plate."

"Because I'm doing your job," I declared. "If we're being frank, then let's be frank. You can't do it anymore."

Seneca and Seahawk kept their expressions neutral. Luminate and Hannah were more uneasy, the latter in a disappointed sort of way. My reservations aside, Administrator was already being helpful in a way only she could be helpful.

Hannah was uncomfortable. She didn't like this situation, and aware as she was now of the Protectorate's shortcomings, she was loyal at heart. She didn't like being put at cross loyalties between the Protectorate and me, least of all because if push came to shove she had no idea what she'd do. She was actively keeping her power in check even as it tried to shift form to support her.

Seahawk was angrier on the inside than he showed. Luminate showed it, which was the point. Her visceral reactions were a distraction from the thinker in the room.

Yey telepathy.

"Let's skip the idle threats too," I suggested. "If you wanted to arrest me you wouldn't do it in Brockton Bay. You'd get me alone somewhere less guarded with a master or a stranger." I thought for a moment. "Pretender I'll bet. He'd be perfect for capturing me."

"The PRT actually suggests directly employing Anasazi against you," Seahawk informed.

That revelation got a minute reaction from Seneca and Noa. Hannah's was more viscerally disgusted.

"Brutal," I mused. "But the PRT isn't going to sacrifice an entire school just to shred me into dust. Not unless I go nuclear and if I did that Veda would stop me before you had the chance."

"Your AI only complicates the problem," Seneca accused.

"I prefer MI," Veda announced from a phone on one of the desks. "Machine is less impersonal than 'artificial.'"

Heads snapped around and Hannah sighed. "Must you do this this way?"

"Must you?" I asked Seneca, despite that question being directed at both of us. "We're both capable of playing the strongman stereotype and the honest truth is that if we tried we'd ravage one another. We're too big now for the PRT to quietly or quickly contain and I have better things to do than piss into the wind against the PRT and the Protectorate."

"Just because you're difficult to deal with doesn't mean your associates aren't," Seneca warned.

"You wouldn't be threatening me with it if you were prepared to go that far." Absentmindedly, I wondered if maybe she was trying to tell me something? Agitation. Administrator didn't like mind games, which was funny. "I doubt going after the Case-53s for being minors is something you want either."

"What I want is irrelevant to the necessity of ending this before it escalates further," Seneca implored.

"Bit late for that," I pointed out.

"Is it so problematic?" Veda asked. "What we are doing is little different than what heroes have always done."

"There's a matter of scale and intensity," Noa said, which I already knew. "It's one thing for capes to help deal with crime in their local area, or even to expand their efforts. You've jumped from being a city cape with opinions to being an international non-state actor."

"You're accustomed to talking over people," Seneca retorted. "You've finally crossed that very clear line you've been toying at for most of the past year."

"Clarity is the virtue of complacency," I retorted.

Seneca didn't act surprised.

Administrator focused her attention on Seahawk. His shard was quite loud. Angry. At her I think, not me. The barrage of agitated messages rattled my bones but I'd encountered that a few times now. Administrator was the one weathering the real storm there and she weathered it by repeating a series of words over and over.

Cooperation. Communication. Destination.

"I'm not sure this is productive," Hannah warned.

"It's not," Veda agreed.

I added, "But we're doing it anyway." Agreement. She liked a challenge and the old 'conflict makes things better' instinct was still there.

"You can't play world police on your say-so," Seneca charged.

"Current events beg to differ," I countered.

She didn't like that. "You're playing games with international politics."

"We're fighting international terrorists who are financially backed by a nominally legitimate political party," Veda noted. "We do not care about the politics."

"That's patently untrue," Seahawk said.

Seneca agreed, saying, "You won't stand aside and do nothing if the EU legalizes parahuman registration."

"As much as I admire Harriet Tubman, we're not there yet. If we're lucky, the same sense of self-preservation that made the delegates back the measure will rear its head and turn them against it."

"Naïve," Noa warned.

"A battle for another day," Veda countered.

"My focus is on stopping Operation British"—I shifted my attention to Seneca—"which I can't do, realistically speaking."

"You've got a funny way of showing it," Luminate said.

I ignored Luminate and remained focused on Seneca. "How many people do you think are going to die when they do it?"

No one offered an answer, so I did.

"Too many."

"So you're goading them?" Seahawk asked in a calculated tone.

"Why change what works?" I asked back. "This operation is too big for me to preempt. The members are too committed. Blasting our way though compounds, bases, and groups in France didn't bring about any reconsideration."

"You're tracking them?" Hannah asked with a start.

"I couldn't possibly track all of Phantom Pain, and their fluid connection to Blue Cosmos makes it even murkier. That's what about forty thinkers and strangers are for. Even then, the simple truth is I don't have the forces to completely contain Phantom Pain."

"You want us to help?" Luminate scoffed.

"I'm telling you what I told Chevalier." I focused on Seneca. "When Phantom Pain has its not-so-little temper tantrum, you're the ones who will be targets. I can gut the blow before it arrives and influence the narrative around it, but I can't stop it."

"You're making it worse," Seneca charged. "You exposed Azrael. If you let the justice system do its work—"

"The justice system will take months to deal with Azrael and politicians will balk at head-to-head confrontation with Blue Cosmos."

"Don't talk like you have the slightest clue of the political ramifications of what you're doing."

"I don't," I replied. "But people are going to die and I'm going to keep that number as low as I can. If that makes some popularity contest winner's life difficult, welcome to the club."

"You can't just fly around doing as you please," Seneca reiterated. "You're not the government. You can't make your own foreign policy or decide which laws you do or don't care about."

"This is about the money I confiscated isn't it?"

Technically it was stolen but my lawyers told me to never admit that. Blue Cosmos was already trying to get the money back through the courts, for all the good it would do them. Can't return what I don't have.

"What do you think it's about?" Seneca asked.

"I think that right now, I'm getting equal parts praise and condemnation based on where one happens to be standing and what one fears comes next." I leaned back in my seat, listening as Administrator focused on Seahawk. "And I know that before this is over, an awful lot of people are going to be tired of the whole thing. All they'll want is for it to end because nothing gets the masses off their butts like a threat to their comfort."

Luminate blinked and asked the oblivious question. "Then why—"

"Because someone has to fight this fight, and their reputation might not survive intact," I interrupted, eyes on Seneca. "Chevalier was prepared to take that punch, but that would drag the entire Protectorate down with him and kill a lot more people because he can't take this kind of action."

Seneca, for the first time, reacted with something other than condemnation or frustration. Her eyes widened. Lips parted.

"Celestial Being is only four capes," she realized.

"Seven." I smiled. "If we stretch it. You've never been able to confront Blue Cosmos. Not a lick of the reasons why apply to me, unless you insist on it to try and turn the public more against me."

Seneca pulled her hands apart.

"Taylor," Hannah warned.

"People can not want a fight all they want," I affirmed. "They'll get one anyway. No one can run forever and some fights are inevitable." I looked Seneca in the eye and ignored Luminate's reaction. "You know it's only a matter of time. If not today, then some other day. I prefer today."

At Seneca's side, Seahawk was tense. Administrator nodded in our void, assuring me. Corruption.

"The PRT and the Protectorate are already doomed," I answered. "But they're just logos and budgets. Logos and budgets can be replaced." Seneca composed herself, realizing fast where I was going. "People can't be replaced."

Noa turned, looking at me with surprise. "What are you proposing?"

"I'm not proposing anything." I reached into my pocket and fished out my phone. "I'm going to cut the head off the snake, and the more extreme that action becomes the more polarizing I'll become. The government will need to reestablish its legitimacy and authority. It will need something like the PRT and the Protectorate to do that."

I tapped at my phone's screen a few times and then set it on the table. I flipped it around and pushed it to Seneca.

"The day the first cape appeared the world order buckled. It'll keep spiraling downward until a new order can assert itself. To do that, there must be an answer to capes. We'll never reach that day intact if we don't deal with the problems of today."

Seneca lifted the phone, lips parting again at the image of a half-assembled Tieren being fitted with a cockpit and controls.

"People like me can't rule the world," I told her. "We have too much power and too much conviction that we're right."

Seneca lifted her eyes from the screen and looked at me. "You'll always see some injustice that needs to be righted."

I smiled. "Until the last battle is fought, and the last wrong righted."

Her brow rose. I couldn't see into her head, but I saw her reassessing me. This had been a fishing expedition after all. I wasn't telling her much she didn't already know about the situation. I was revealing something of myself.

Tapping the table's surface, I said, "Rebecca Costa-Brown might have doomed the PRT, but I'm betting someone like you would be immediately tapped to lead or plan a successor. If not you then Director Armstrong or Director Ral. Banks and Karn are too volatile. Noa is too fresh in his role."

"Bribery followed with flattery?" Seahawk asked.

I smiled. "Foresight." I rose from my chair because I was done and the truth was still the truth. "I don't give a damn if my reputation sinks because of what I'm doing. I never put on the mask to be liked."

"You're going to throw Celestial Being away?" Seneca asked. "Sully your reputation to lay the groundwork for the PRT's replacement?"

"Let's not be overly dramatic." I waved over my shoulder while approaching the door. "Brockton Bay is my home. I'll always have a place here." I grinned. "It's where I belong."

"It is true," Noa offered, "her popularity in the city has barely budged since her pronouncement."

"Isn't there a mob at your front door?" Luminate asked derisively.

"There's basically two kinds of people in Brockton Bay at this point," Hannah explained. "Those who credit Newtype with liberating the city from the gangs, and everyone else. The former are very much the majority."

I reached the door. "My PR lady says PR can be a lot like credit. I'm sure we'll bicker plenty in the future. Someone will have to point out all the shit the new order is getting wrong."

Seneca scoffed. "You may find things murkier than that."

"Then I'll build a better flashlight and light up that bridge when we get to it."

Her face said she was unhappy but satisfied.

Of course she was.

She knew the situation as well as I did, and now she knew what she needed to know to plan. There was a point where I intended to stop. When that point came, I was willing to take a back seat and support whatever came after the PRT. That body could restore the stability the world had lost and we'd start rebuilding what the battle to come would destroy.

I might be lying, but that's what contingencies were for and the PRT never lacked for contingencies.

I pushed open the door and made my way to the front office.

On my way down the hall something came over me. A sense of reaching out. One that drew me along with it and—NO.

In our void, my other self grabbed Administrator's hand. No, I thought at her. You don't know what'll happen!

I made it out to the hall and lifted my phone before stopping.

I concentrated, very aware of Seahawk's presence a few walls over. Of the three capes in that direction, he stood out. Hannah and Armamentarium were so close they barely seemed separate, not that I knew what that meant. Luminate and Brightness were almost the opposite, though I had no idea what made Shards hate their hosts. It didn't matter at the moment.

Seahawk was angry. Very angry, but there was something off about it. Something foreign.

…Like looking at an extra finger sewn onto a hand.

Administrator's reaction brought the taste of bile to my mouth. She knew the finger.

VIOLATION!

I protested. Administrator pointed out Riley and Dissection. We'd changed something in them. We could do it again. Stave off the corruption and—

We can't just go bumbling in, I snapped. We might make it worse. Whatever 'it' was.

Her reaction told me a lot without explanation.

Whatever Teacher was doing to influence people, it wasn't something that was supposed to happen. Or at least, it did so in a way that Administrator found offensive. Was that intentional on his part or something he was unaware of? I hardly had a working knowledge of the network's inner workings.

Administrator tried to reach out again but I warned her. We'll warn him that we are watching. No one outside our circle knows we're together now. This is an advantage. We can't surrender it by mucking about. Not yet.

I started walking, trying to gain some distance. Administrator of course wasn't in my location, but her ability to see and communicate with other shards through me was tied to proximity.

I tried to press her to be patient. She'd been patient for years. A few months more wouldn't change anything. Time.

Correction!

Correct what? Do you even know what's wrong? She didn't, which only frustrated her more. Time. If that's David's master power, we know what it looks like now.

That thought stopped me in my tracks.

Ever since this connection solidified it had only grown stronger. The more I used 00, the more clearly I could see and hear Administrator. The more frequently my eyes glowed. They were glowing now. I'd started getting used to it.

No one in the meeting commented on it, so I trusted that the glasses had done their job and blocked any sign of excess light coming from my eyes. At least that worked. I did not need to be answering questions about that right now.

Administrator huffed as I worked my way to math class. Seahawk's presence faded and I used the class to wrap my head around what just happened. Fortunately, Sutherland had decided to take a sabbatical and class had been much more pleasant with Gladly subbing. He gave me a nod as I entered and then looked over the half empty room.

Even more of my classmates were absent. Of the few who remained, two gave me incredulous looks while the rest were wary. I took my seat and Gladly returned to reading out the lesson from the book in front of him.

A message flashed on my glasses.

Veda: That went better than expected

I opened a notebook and wrote on it to reply.

Taylor: Seneca is a smart woman. She already knew she couldn't talk me out of anything.

Veda: I see.
Veda: She hoped you'd give her a picture so she could know where to stand when the blasts come.

Basically.

Reality was reality. The PRT was hiding it but the Protectorate and Wards were hemorrhaging. Hartford. Dragon. The Nine. Now my declaration. They outnumbered us, sure, but the collateral of picking a fight with a force numbering hundreds of capes? The last time that happened the PRT was forced into a Cold War with the Elite, and Seneca knew her thinkers were no longer reliable.

Taylor: I think Seahawk is a Pet

His official power was flight, but he had a thinker power too. Seneca probably brought him because she thought she could trust him. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

Veda: I can have Dinah confirm.

I nodded.

If nothing else, it would confirm Administrator and I could see Pets.

Which brought things to the next issue.

Taylor: What is BC up to? PP?

Veda started listing things off. We had strangers and thinkers with the right powers spying on targets of interest. Others, Veda was explicitly tracking discreetly using planted devices or worms. Honestly, once we found our first way in, the entire code started unraveling. Lisa and the others were pulling apart Blue Cosmos' code. Cells were being identified and located. We knew who was and wasn't involved in the plans and who was an unwitting pawn without even realizing it.

Veda: I did find your choice of words odd
Veda: We've never gone after the head of the snake

I grinned.

Taylor: Of course not. The head bites. Only an idiot goes after the head first

And Teacher was a very direct kind of idiot.

I pondered through most of math class and on my way to English. The halls were oddly vacant. Still full of students of course. Arcadia was a big school, but with Blue Cosmos protesting my presence in classes and parents holding their kids back, it felt empty.

"Taylor!"

I paused and turned. My brow rose. I knew Vicky's shard even before I looked, but I was surprised to see Dean walking alongside her as she floated toward me.

"We have a problem," Vicky declared.

"She has a problem," Dean corrected in a tired voice.

I took note that Vicky did not insult him immediately.

"You have a problem," she retorted.

These two needed to get together and date already. Probably would have if Vicky weren't so stubborn and Dean so damn patient. Query? Yeah. Even the alien space worm noticed and Administrator's understanding of human romance came down to a plain understanding of the reproductive act. Simplification.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"She doesn't want to do PR," Dean answered.

"I didn't say that!" Vicky glared at him. "I said I didn't want to do galas and stuff."

"She didn't even let me tell her what I had in mind," he complained.

"What did you have in mind?" I inquired.

"Let it be a surprise," he said.

Vicky and I both stared, but honestly, I didn't have time or energy for this.

"We're all doing PR, Vicky. I'm doing PR."

"You're doing air shows and anti-bullying campaigns," she pointed out.

"I blew up a tank yesterday and broke dozens of bones. Some of them in front of cameras. If we don't present ourselves as something other than violent psychopaths, Blue Cosmos will happily take the chance."

"Why can't I do an airshow?"

"The secret of airshows is that they're hardware porn," I explained. "I don't think you want anyone ogling your hardware that way."

Vicky rolled her eyes. "But they can ogle yours?"

"Mine has particle carbines, swords, and can bend the sound barrier over its knee and make it beg for mercy."

"Now you're just bragging."

"Maybe you should let Dean do his thing?" He was handling Londo Bell's PR in Brockton Bay for a reason. He was actually good at it. "He might surprise you."

I hoped to leave it at that and continue to class in peace.

Unfortunately, today just wasn't Administrator's day.

"Even Hunch is doing PR." Weld came up behind me. "And Hunch hates cameras."

I forced the grimace down my throat where it turned into a sour flavor.

Rejection. Corruption.

"Taylor?" Weld took his seat beside me in English. "You okay?"

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth.

I'd worry that the sense of wanting to throw up was what racists felt like, but I knew racists were generally proud of hating people. It occurred to me that if we could somehow mess with Shards somehow, we might be able to fix the Case-53s. Then maybe Administrator wouldn't be so angry every time she saw one and they might actually get to live normal lives.

Violation!

"Taylor?" Weld asked again.

"Tired," I lied.

I tried to distract myself.

Taylor: Defiant is in command?

Veda: Yes

Taylor: I want to review everything the strangers and thinkers have.

Veda: Are you alright?

Taylor: Administrator is being very loud

It's not their fault, I implored.

Correction.

What? How is it their fault?

Transgression!

Moments like this I couldn't tell exactly what Administrator meant. I'd been through Doctor Mother's notes many times. I had no idea how she did what she did. Given that the labs where the work was done were probably ruined, I'd likely never know.

But the Case-53s had no memories and Cauldron had been behind that…

Had they been willing? No. There's no way they agreed to it. If they agreed to anything it was something else. Something Cauldron probably didn't tell the full truth about. Count probably knew but she'd vanished without a trace in France somehow.

I tried to soldier through the class as best I could, but Weld knew something was wrong.

I'd probably need to tell him. Rejection. Two-way street. Administrator couldn't slap me with her hangups that I couldn't control anything about and be angry when I cleaned up the mess. The 53s trusted me because I was honest with them and I wasn't about to start lying.

The fact we might be able to fix them wasn't something we could leave in the backroom forever.

I was pretty eager to be out of school by the end of English.

"I need to talk to you later," I told Weld.

"Okay." He gave me a worried look. "You're not okay."

I shook my head. "It's complicated. Later."

"Alright."

I wanted to go home and tinker for a bit. Tinkering made Administrator happy. It gave her things to do and think about that she knew and was familiar with.

I needed to make it through anatomy first.

We were knuckle-deep in frog guts. It wasn't hard stuff really. Mostly it was nasty. It didn't surprise me to see Trevor and Chris were quick to swap notes and thoughts on some scribbles.

"Hey," Chris greeted as I sat.

"Hey."

Trevor was deep in thought, arms crossed with classwork and tinkering notes in front of him.

Chris leaned around him. "Can I get your opinion on something?

He spoke in a voice that was still low but louder than normal. Half the class was empty. Everyone had used the chance to spread out more and get more room to work. It did make it easier to talk cape business, though we still had to be careful since Chris wasn't an outed cape.

Chris started to take a piece of paper from a notebook but stopped. "Are you okay?"

I blinked. I still felt a bit ill, but did I look that bad? "I'm fine."

"You look like you were up all night."

"Just a long day. I had to talk to some bureaucrats earlier. It went fine but it's still annoying."

Chris nodded in a way that said he knew what I meant.

The two Shards beside me were making me feel less uneasy. Momentum was pure energy, which seemed fitting, but it was oddly happy with Trevor at the moment. Chris' Shard was a bit eclectic and all over the place. I actually wondered if it was possible for a Shard and a host to have a personality conflict because Chris' wasn't unhappy but it didn't feel like it was very in-sync with him.

Possibility.

At least Administrator was distracted.

"What is it?" I asked, taking note of the paper he was trying to pull from the notebook.

"It can wait," he said. "You look like you need a break."

I frowned but honestly…he was right. I'd been told to go to school to maintain my life balance but honestly I think I'd have preferred staying in the workshop. Agreement. Then again, maybe this was a good thing. Query? What you want and what you need aren't always the same thing.

It's not like school would be any easier later than it was now. I certainly didn't want to look like I was hiding.

I did take it easy through the class, focusing on the lab while Trevor and Chris consulted notes. Looked like a new teleporter design. I'd only just managed to get a grasp on the one we'd mounted on Stargazer, so I could tell what the math was for. I didn't know what made it different from the teleporter we already had though.

When the bell finally rang, I was up and on my way to the cafeteria. I didn't plan to stick around. My appetite was a bit gone. I wanted to check on Charlotte though. I hadn't seen her much and after the courthouse and everything that happened, I didn't know how she was doing.

Mrs. Knott was dead and that wasn't a subject I wanted to broach on the phone.

Only problem was, I couldn't find her.

I spotted Chris and Weld talking off in a secluded corner before I found her.

She wasn't in our usual spot outside. The school being more empty than normal left the cafeteria oddly sparse. Groups were spread across the room in patterns I was unfamiliar with. The irony of all the Blue Cosmos kids being gone. Without them, the divide in the school was basically gone, or at least replaced by those who ignored the absences and those who kept looking around for faces that weren't there.

"Have you seen Charlotte?"

Stacy turned in her seat, blinked at me, and then glanced around. "Um. No. Not really. She was in class before lunch."

I frowned. "Thanks."

Was she avoiding me? Did she blame me for what happened to Mrs. Knott?

I doored back to the workshop and went straight toward the factory.

Stu and Kurt greeted me.

"Boss."

"Taylor."

The workers were still churning out Helpers. We'd been getting orders faster than we could meet them, which was good honestly. A lot of hospitals in the region and a few nursing and care facilities had asked for samples. We were building test packs of ten to send out at cost. I hoped that everyone was suitably impressed they had put in orders.

With all the violence in the future, it was comforting to see one thing go exactly the way I wanted.

"Have you seen Charlotte?" I asked.

"Kati's girl?" Stu shook his head. "Sorry boss. Haven't seen her today."

I hurried up to the office anyway. The whole area was busy. Lacy was working as office manager for me, keeping everyone from bumping into one another. We had HR and accounting. Many were connected to the Dockworkers, so I knew I could trust them. My dad picked good people.

Kati's office had expanded too. She had professionals now and Talia Gladys—I winced at the name—was regularly around to coordinate with Londo Bell's PR and legal teams. They were huddled together when I entered to look for Charlotte.

"Taylor." Kati waved to Talia and came toward me. "Anything I need to worry about?"

"Have you seen Charlotte?"

She wasn't in the room.

"She asked for the day off," Kati said. "She works so much, I think she's earned any time off she wants."

I sank a bit. "I think she's avoiding me."

"Why?"

"Mrs. Knott."

Kati motioned for me to follow. We went over to the side of the room, near the windows.

"I don't think so," she told me. "She was sad. Poured herself into working after it happened. She wouldn't do that if she blamed you."

That would be nice.

I couldn't help but look out the window, my eyes tracing the massive crowd beyond the fence. Shino was running Tekkadan's perimeter at the moment which reminded me.

"Did Orga start his plan?"

Kati nodded. "He detained seven people this morning. They'd gone into one of the shops and harassed the owners. The police came in, let them go. Then he detained five more who came back to throw rocks at the windows."

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"I think one of the boys got punched, but they restrained themselves. It's not a bad plan, but I'm hoping it won't be necessary to do it too much."

I hated the murkiness of it. Saying I was doing it to save the idiots from themselves wasn't much consolation. Disrupting protests was dark. I didn't enjoy it. Part of me even resented that I'd seen Blue Cosmos staking me out for months but I'd rarely seen much support from all the people who apparently approved of me in polls.

I supposed it was easier to express anger than anything else. Admittedly, I related.

"People suck sometimes," I mumbled.

Kati came over to the window. Our reflections stood side-by-side. She still looked a bit like my mother and I saw it in our reflections.

"People?" Kati asked.

"They're lazy and petty," I sneered. "They don't care who gets hurt or how as long as it doesn't affect them. They'll tolerate any degree of evil if the suffering isn't theirs. Until it is theirs. Then they blame everyone else when it's their own fault for not acting when they could."

"Not a high opinion for an idealist," Kati noted.

I shrugged. "Pragmatic idealist…"

I fixed my eyes on the protesters and thought about Seahawk. His shard had been angry, sneering. That had felt foreign, like someone else was shouting through the Shard.

"I know you're not that easily pushed into cynicism, Taylor." Kati offered me a reassuring smile. "Charlotte will turn up, and as hard as it is to see now, that"—she nodded to the mob—"is not the sum of the world."

"Isn't it?" I asked. "They're not that different, deep down. They'll fight when they think they have to, even if it's in a stupid way for stupid reasons." Despite my mood, there was a warmth in my chest. It was new, and unfamiliar. Kati wasn't wrong. I wasn't that easily pushed into cynicism. "They'll believe if they want to believe."

"It can be hard to make people believe," Kati said. She looked past the crowd, her smile growing. "When they do, believing in people is rewarded."

My brow cocked and I followed her eyes.

I'd barely noticed them. A cape had appeared in the direction of the crowd but at the far end of the street a block or so away. Sabah, though I couldn't pick her out of the crowd. They emerged suddenly, spilling from around the street corners. People. A few at first, and then dozens. The dozens became a crowd. The crowd became a mob.

My eyes widened as Dean and Charlotte led the mass down the street and closed on the back of Blue Cosmos' protest.

Police near the rear rushed in but neither of them stopped. Eventually, the protesters noticed. The rear ranks started to turn. I think some of them had a fight response but when the marching teddy bears appeared and moved ahead they decided discretion was the better form of valor.

I still worried there'd be a fight, but the police came forward and started moving their barricades. There was some pushback from Blue Cosmos. Then Vicky flew overhead, followed by a half dozen others. Her cousins were among the capes, both flanking her as she came about and hovered over the crowd with a smile on her face.

That stopped the mob in its tracks.

The officers forced Blue Cosmos to one side. Dean and Charlotte led a mass of people to stand opposite them. There were no picket signs. No chanting. Just a mass of stern, silent people standing where they stood and glaring.

"Better?" Kati asked.

"Yeah."

My reflection smiled.

My heart was clenching, and not just because watching Charlotte stand there at the front with Dean reminded me of Mrs. Knott. Imperfect, but braver than anyone gave her credit for. So she didn't get everything right. Who did?

The protest drew attention fast. Others in the office came to the window to watch. Outside, I saw Shino and some of the boys cheering. Mikazuki was standing on top of Barbatos, looking over the fence with his hands in his pockets. The crowd kept growing. More closed in from other streets, surrounding and to my… I didn't know the emotion, honestly.

They dwarfed Blue Cosmos. There were thousands of them.

It was reaffirming in a way. I doubted Dean or Charlotte realized I needed it. I hadn't realized I needed it. Outside of PHO and the news, I'd never seen so much support in person. It was so easy to wonder where everyone was sometimes. Wonder why they wouldn't stand, and if there was any real point in trying to get them to.

"Relena's not the only one who can sway hearts and minds," Kati assured me.

People can do anything when they believe. They don't always get it right. We get it wrong, more than we get right.

I looked towards the Blue Cosmos crowd, already back to shouting their slogans.

"Don't let it bother you," Kati tried.

"It doesn't, honestly." As frustrating as it was, the noise they made annoyed me more than anything. My head really didn't have much room for the constant drone of more noise. "They believe too. They just picked a rotten way of showing it." I inhaled and closed my eyes as they started glowing again. "People can do anything when they believe, so long as they keep believing. Sooner or later they'll get it right."

"There you go," Kati assured. "Better."

"It's reaffirming in its own way. Disappointing. Frustrating. But reaffirming. We'll get there someday."

"There?" Talia asked. She'd moved to my other side and was watching me when my eyes opened.

Lafter stopped me from saying it to Rick, but I think I still wanted to say it.

It's what I believed. What I knew in my heart. When the time came—when this bloody fight was done—it's the image I wanted to give the world.

"Not today," I whispered. "Definitely not tomorrow. Probably not this century. Someday though, if people believe in it. When the last war is fought over the last wrong."

Kati and Talia looked confused, but I didn't care. I didn't give a shit if it was corny. It's what I knew to be true. My truth. My dream.

In the void, I raised my head. Administrator joined me, watching as we projected the image over the space. The stepping stones to tomorrow. The start of the long road to the future. The promise of a brighter tomorrow, and an even brighter one after that. It wouldn't solve every problem. In fact it would create whole new problems.

But people would always believe. We'd stumble and we'd fall. We'd fight because we couldn't see any other way. Those things too would pass. We'd keep trying. If the Shards could change their ways so completely as Administrator had, then so could we.

The brokenness of the present needn't last forever. We could go forward. Agreement.

"Someday," I whispered.

"Someday what?" Talia asked.

I almost said the first word that came to mind when Administrator commented. I don't think she meant anything by it; it was just a memory—something she knew from when the cycle began.

When the Warrior was asked his name for the first time, what everyone ended up hearing was 'Scion.'

Administrator knew what he'd really said, but didn't really know what he meant. The Entities had spent ages upon ages going from one world to the next in pursuit of their own eternity. They wanted to live forever. Everything they did was a means unto that end.

I wondered if maybe what the Warrior meant was what he wanted to become and he simply latched onto the first words he could find that fit.

I smiled, amused by the coincidence because in a twisted way we all sought the same thing. An unrealized dream. A promise unfulfilled but endlessly pursued. This one better than the last.

"Zion."