Edward here.

I sat by the car, watching Miranda and Jack chase each other around. Jack limped after her, and she slowed accordingly. Just out of reach, but willing to let him see he had a chance.

Ariel's head popped out of the long grass, gripping a cell phone. "Hi."

Her face froze.

"Sharon, it's you." She practically yelled this. "Oh, you want to be on speakerphone? Alright."

I got up and practically ran to Sharon.

Jack and Miranda dropped down next to her.

"Oh, hi. This is Sharon, everyone." She had a funny French accent. "Yes, lovely to hear from you all. How's your mother, Jack?"

Jack's face turned red. "If you go within ten miles of her –"

"Oh, hush. I have no intention of it. I liked your mother – her tuna sandwiches were fantastic. Besides, I'm in Korea, with Ultron."

"Why would you work for a robot that wants to destrot the human race?"

"He likes me, he'll let me live. Evolve, as he says. If you believe in that sort of thing. I personally don't. Ooh, you sound quiet. I told you all I was Christian, didn't I? I just didn't say that I was a Catholic, not a Protestant like Ivy. Anyhow, though, that's not why I called."

"Why did you call?" Ariel's voice was remarkably even.

"I wanted to let you know something about Edward – something even he doesn't know."

All eyes turned to me.

My stomach turned. What could it possibly be?

"HYDRA brainwashed him into helping me. He told me everything he could find out about Ivy, even pretended to have a crush on her. Or did he? He didn't really seem to know." She gave a hollow laugh. "It was hilarious. He betrayed every detail I asked for, didn't even hesitate. And with that cute face, why would any of you hide anything from him? A sweet puppy dog who was too shy to approach the object of his affections. Tell me, Edward, was that real or something you made up for part of your cover?"

I rolled up onto my knees. My hands shook. My lungs gasped for air, knowing that there was air, plenty of air, and yet I still gasped for it. My stomach churned and twisted.

It wasn't true. I wasn't a spy. I hadn't betrayed anyone.

"Yes, it's true, Edward. We had you hypnotized and brainwashed. You were supposed to charm her into telling us whatever we wanted to know. You were an aspiring actor. What better way to get experience? No need to thank me, you've paid me back in full, Ed."

There was a horrible moment of silence.

"Don't bother asking the idiot about anything. He was hypnotized into forgetting it all. I just thought he'd like to know. And you lovely people as well, of course. By the way, tell Ivy when you see her next that she might want to take some anger management classes. And that's about it. See you some other time. Or not. I don't care."

The line cut off.

The phrase 'deafening silence' had never made so much sense before.

Miranda stood. "We... we need to talk to Ivy. Edward, can you get into the car please?"

Jack grabbed my arm and kept a very tight grip on it until he had me in the back seat of his car.

"Stay here," ordered Miranda. Her expression was utterly blank. "Jack, keep an eye on him. No, Edward, please don't take it the wrong way. I trust you, and I doubt you're hypnotized or brainwashed right now. But in your emotional state you're likely to do something dangerous and now is really not the time."

She took Ariel's phone. "I'm going to call her back and see if I can get her to pick up or give us more information. She's clearly enjoying this, she'll be overconfident, she might give something away..." her voice trailed off.

No one believed a word.

She didn't seem to either.

Back to Ivy now.

"You are – in your world, in your timeline. But you aren't the first. There are multiple cracks in reality, so many of them. You aren't the only one to find them. I once knew a little girl with one in her bedroom wall. It drew me to her, as it did me to you." The Doctor watched my face closely.

"Who are the others? How many?" I wasn't alone. A sob escaped my mouth – pure joy. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Do you know what it's like to be alone? You said yes in your head just now, didn't you? Well, let me tell you something. There are many ways to be alone. I had suffered one so unique that I had literally been to the only person to ever suffer from it. I could spend time with people, yes, I could have relationships. But at the same time, I had to pick the right people, the ones who would be beneficial, who might understand, who could hurt me the least. Then, after picking the best people, I must try to disconnect, to not be too attached. It was like dancing on a wire over top of a high waterfall. One slip, one mistake, and I could fall and be smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Sharon had been so good as to clue me into how that could feel. For the last several years, I had worn gloves every day, every moment of the day, and covered every inch of skin possible so that no one could have any energy rub off on them. Physical contact without something in between me and the other person was too dangerous, To know that I wasn't the first or the only was almost like falling off the waterfall and knowing that I couldn't be hurt when I hit the rocks.

"They died, Ivy."

My heart dropped down, plummeting like a thousand pound weight.

"All of them are dead. They experienced all of the things you have. Two committed suicide a year after they gained their powers. Some just stopped trying to live and just faded away. The rest tried to make it work – one even tried selling information, like you have. She was murdered in the first two years of business - nasty business with some organization called Cypher."

"What happened to the little girl?"

"I never gave her the chance to find out. When she got old enough, I took her traveling and I gave her adventures. The travel seemed to keep her abilities from working – probably because of the effects the time vortex has on the energy. Also, her exposure wasn't nearly as direct as yours."

"And the others? Did you meet them?"

"Some, not all. Only the ones that needed my help."

"What happened to them, Doctor?"

"The ones who knew all went mad, eventually. From the realization, what they did, or what happened to them. Their minds broke eventually. Some betrayed their secrets because they couldn't handle it anymore, and destroyed their universes from all of the created paradoxes. Some didn't, but went mad from the weight of all the secrets they carried."

My hands gripped the arms of the chair, my fingers slippery and clammy. Were they always like this? "Is that what will happen to me, Doctor? Just pain until I can't mentally handle it any more? Am I going to go crazy? I can't do that, what about Phillip? And Natalia. Doctor, please, I can't."

"You can't go mad, Ivy."

My hands froze.

"When I first met you isn't the first time you met me. I talked to you on the playground when you were a little girl. I had a different face then, you wouldn't remember it. But I had sensed something different about you and I checked through your past. When I found out about the powers you would develop, I went back even further, to before you were born. I told your mother I was a doctor at the hospital."

"Mom met you?"

"It was the appointment where she was going to find out for sure if she was pregnant. You were still growing and in a moldable state, to a certain extent. I did a few things and rearranged your cells a little."

Nothing in life should have surprised me anymore. Somehow, though, this piece of information was not unlike a bucket of mop water to the face – hot, dirty, and awful. "You. Did. What?"

"I wanted to give you the best chance possible. So I arranged a few things – nothing major. I had to hardwire your mind so that you wouldn't be like the others. Because of that, you had a strong sense of protectiveness over everything and everyone you liked, and to do what you thought was right, no matter what. Don't tell me that you aren't grateful for that – your instincts kept you from spilling all your little secrets the moment you stepped on that helicarrier. That impulsive streak – that way, people won't think twice when you end up in strange situations. They'd never question it. I also knew you'd need to be stubborn. A good trait for the life you'd have. Then I rewired your mind completely. You will never go mad because you are unable to. I made sure of that. Your sanity is assured."

A sinking feeling formed in my stomach. Any freedom that insanity might have brought was denied me, a door closed almost as soon as it opened. Yet I almost wished that I could. I wished I could go mad, forget everything, create a different reality. Even if only for a little while.

How pathetic, that something so awful could ever be something I wanted.

"Your genetics, of course, were changed around a little as well. Your predisposition toward physical strength and agility were important – you needed to be able to defend yourself and run. Then your appearance, too, once I'd dealt with everything else. I've always had a liking for ginger hair. Of course I had to make you pretty, too. No use in messing around with everything in there if I couldn't give you something like that while I was at it."

My personality was not my own. My body was not my own. My face was not my own. My mind was not my own. It was modified, designed, different. Still human, yet not quite. Not that I had been for a very long time.

He seemed to realize the thoughts racing through my mind, but met my eyes directly. "And your life situations. I arranged for the friends you had – how else could you have found people with extraordinary skills and the personalities that would benefit you most? Miranda, a patient, caring girl with an incredible love of people and knowledge. Jack, a genius who could invent you anything and would become instant friends with Miranda. They're a perfect match. Soul mates, even, if you believe in that sort of thing. Ariel, the girl whose fame and family will ensure you will always have a place to go. And Carmen, the girl who is both the sweetest girl you will ever know and whose family is so well connected that one phone call from her could have anything arranged. You think that it was luck?"

My head seemed to shake of its own accord. "Doctor... what have you done? My whole life is a lie."

"Of course it's real. What do you mean?" He frowned.

"It's fake. I know you meant well. You wanted to do the best for me. But it's all fake."

"I just put the pieces into place. You're the one who made them come together."

I lurched onto my feet. A roar filled my ears and red flooded my vision. A scream tore from my mouth. "No! No, it's not! I'm someone's pet project, something to be pitied and helped. My life is something

you created. Was I an experiment? To see if I would turn out differently if given ideal growing conditions?"

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing to have them."

"It – it –" My mouth couldn't form the words it wanted to say. Because what can you say? What can you think or feel?

"And why is Edward there? Because he's good at psychology or something? Because he'd be a good therapist."

"No. I didn't arrange for him to meet you. He's a wild card who I never expected. He really is in love with you."

Ha. Ha. Ha.