Sophia Hess awoke, tears beading her eyelids, yet she hadn't had a single nightmare. Upon arriving home, after sharing her past with Taylor, Sophia had quickly made her way upstairs. For the first time in months, at least, she'd cried herself to sleep. But unlike so many other times, it had felt like venting, releasing a long-stored pressure. Sophia wondered, if Emma could remember, if the redhead might feel like this – the pain had lessened, the claws of some unseen beast had eased their grip around her heart.
Sophia didn't know why Taylor had listened to her. She didn't understand why Taylor had spared her, why this god of death had decided she might be deserving of redemption. But for the first time, possibly in her life, Sophia felt hopeful. She had done wrong in her past, and felt genuine guilt for her actions, but in seeing that she knew – or hoped she knew – the way forward.
She went through her katas and stretches, feeling lighter than normal. It had to be psychological, but still, she liked to think that was a good sign. Heading downstairs, her shoulders were looser and less sharply-angled than most days. "Morning, Mom. Hey squirt." She mussed Naomi's hair, making the girl squawk. Jenna Hess, of course, was whirling about the house to get ready for work. It was at about this point when Sophia's 'work phone' buzzed. She pulled it out and surreptitiously checked the message.
All Wards requested for a morning briefing, the message read. Unusual activity in former ABB territory. Well, that was vague. Still, it got her out of school for a good part of the day. Still a bit uncomfortable to be open around her mother – with very little to trust her after her mom had been so blindly trusting of Steven – Sophia waited until Jenna exited the room.
"Sis," she opened, resting a hand on the kitchen counter and stooping a bit to be closer to Naomi's level. "I...this is hard for me." Sophia took a breath. "I'm not a talker. I love you, and I hope you know that. This will sound horribly corny, but you're proof that there's still good in the world."
Naomi couldn't stop the eyebrow from rising, pausing in her consumption of a breakfast bar. "Sophia, you're creeping me out. What're you going on about?"
The older sister chuckled bitterly. "I guess that's what I get. I...I've been hard on you because I'm trying to toughen you up, so you don't get hurt. Not like I did." She almost didn't managed to squeeze those words past the lump in her throat. "You're my baby sister. I want you to be strong, strong enough to not be hurt and broken by the world. It's...it's full of awful people and the good ones are few and far between."
"So you decided bullying me was the way to do that?" Naomi's tone was incredulous at best.
Sophia's face dropped. "I...guess I was, wasn't I? I'm sorry for hurting you. I...I want to be a better sister from now on. I want to help protect you, but I was going about it in the wrong way."
"Okay," her kid sister dragged the word out. "So, what brought this on?"
Sophia let out a self-deprecating chuckle. "That's a really long, confusing story. Most of it you wouldn't believe, and a lot of it's not mine to tell. But I guess you could say I realized I wasn't doing what I meant to, and I was hurting people I care about. People I love. Like you."
"Well...if you mean it, then thanks, I guess," Naomi replied with a shrug.
Sophia leaned in to hug her sister, getting another squawk in return. Around the corner, eavesdropping behind a wall, Jenna Hess found herself wondering just what had changed within her daughter. Jenna had been content to write Sophia off as a problem child and take the meager stipend offered to her family by the Wards program, but recent events were causing her to question.
(BREAK)
Dean Stansfield's powers were annoying. Not only did they make it difficult to maintain the facade of anonymity with other capes, but it felt like constantly cheating in interactions. When you can see your conversational partner's emotional state, it's much simpler to nudge the talk in the right direction. He couldn't ever turn it off, and being around too-potent emotions could be distressing. In addition, some people (mostly capes) had a natural resting emotional state, one constant color around which other colors manifested. This didn't just make it difficult to read the colors and interpret them, but also made it difficult to influence.
Director Piggot, for example, was a ball of bitterness and even stronger determination – but a tsunami of disgust surged within her whenever she looked at a parahuman. Armsmaster reeked of ambition, ringed with a candy shell of bitterness. Miss Militia, for all her shiny hope and handholding, had a permanent osmium sphere of fatalism at her core.
And Shadow Stalker was a seething ball of anger and hostility, every other emotion always tainted by that boiling-magma core. He occasionally saw deeper, hints of fear and pain and childlike terror, but they always quickly vanished beneath the rage.
Thus, Gallant was shocked when he saw Shadow Stalker arrive. He could see every contour of the pain and terror, as Sophia Hess slowly worked to disentangle them from her heart. The anger and hostility were still there, but greatly diminished. He made a mental note to speak with her after the briefing.
—
The entire Wards team was assembled, and several Protectorate members were present – Battery, Dauntless and Velocity, specifically.
It was Director Piggot herself who entered to begin the briefing. "To say that Brockton Bay has been quiet since the event commonly known as Wolf Day would be an understatement. Other than petty crime, there's been no parahuman crime. As anyone from the so-called Bad Old Days knows, this was only ever the calm before the storm. Unusual civilian activity suggests some manner of Master presence, though WEDGDG can't pinpoint which, and it's all but guaranteed that the Teeth or Accord – or both – will attempt to make inroads regardless of Bloodmoon's presence. In the Butcher's case, it's likely because of her presence.
"All of this, however, is academic at best." Piggot leaned forward in her seat, resting her hands on the table. "Lung is still missing, but every patrol into now-former ABB territory reports the feeling of being watched. Unless and until we find a corpse, I won't believe that a cockroach like him is dead." She took a breath. "Aegis, you may remember the patrol routes and schedules you were given to review: don't bother trying to recall them. It's my decision that Wards patrols into supposedly-safe areas within former ABB territory are to be scrubbed. There are far too many questions. Lung's pride wouldn't allow him to simply hide from the wolves, and therefore something must have happened. Wards patrols are being redrawn to cover northwestern territory. The Empire has been quiet, and Kaiser isn't stupid enough to burn what goodwill he managed to claim from their assistance that day. Barring extreme circumstances, you should be entirely safe from Empire cape offensives."
A concern that Emily Piggot had shared with Renick and senior PRT members – and, reluctantly, with Armsmaster and Miss Militia – was what Bloodmoon had said regarding Coil: the incursion had only been possible with the assistance of a parahuman. What if this extradimensional force, whatever it was, had claimed Lung as a secondary foothold, a backup plan in case Coil didn't pan out?
Despite Owl's supposed hatred of the Protectorate, she had given a contact number to Assault of all people. Piggot gestured at Battery. "Have Assault get in touch with Owl, and hopefully Bloodmoon through her. We're going to comb Lung's old territory, and if it does hit the fan at mach speed, I want every resource at our disposal."
(BREAK)
"Stalker, hold up."
Sophia looked over to see Gallant trailing behind. Joy. "What do you want, Dean?"
"Look, I don't know how to say this without shoving my foot in my mouth–"
"But that's not gonna stop you," she sniped.
"–so I'll just ask," Dean continued, undeterred. "Are you feeling different today? Your emotions are majorly changed from usual."
Sophia scowled at him. "It's none of your fucking business. But to stop you being an asshole," she let that linger, as if she doubted it really would stop him, "I finally heard some things I really needed to hear. I'm working through things. And no, not a word of it is for you."
"You can understand my concern, especially with suspicion of a Master in the city," he defended.
"And you can understand how much I don't give two shits. If you need to see with your own eyes, then you can follow a bit and keep your fucking mouth shut."
Sophia slunk off in search of Vista. She found the small blonde in the common room, grabbing a snack. "Hey, short stuff."
The younger, smaller girl immediately fixed Sophia with a glare, not dignifying her with a response.
Sophia sighed and took off her mask, turning it over in her hands and looking at it. "I doubt you'll believe me. I'm sorry. I've been taking out my problems on you."
Vista's eyebrow rose into her hairline.
"I can't even tell you how mad it makes me, seeing you try to hard to be grown-up. I–" The words caught in her throat, and Dean almost reached out to her. He must have seen the flash of sheer pain. Even Missy reacted, the smaller girl gazing up at Sophia's face, studying her expression. "I wish, so bad, that I could've lived out my childhood as a kid. The fact that you want to throw that away, you have both parents and don't appreciate it…"
"Oh yeah," Missy snapped, "I have both parents. They just treat me like a pawn in their game of one-upmanship, using me as a tool to say 'Look, I'm a better parent than you!' It's fucking disgusting."
Dean reflexively went to say "Language!" but was brought up short when Sophia turned to fix him with a burning gaze.
"My mom always treated me like a burden," Sophia commiserated. "It got really bad around the time I turned twelve… Now she treats me like a tool, a source of income. She just shoves me in my room and does her best to ignore me, and she always blames me when something goes wrong."
"And how often is it your fault?" Vista challenged, looking for a fight.
"A lot," Sophia admitted, bringing the girl up short. "But not always. And not…" She heard the sharp inhale from Gallant, knew he saw that spike of pain and horror. "She did it before I got my powers."
"...I just wanted to keep them together, or keep them apart when they were fighting," Vista confessed.
"...And all I wanted to do was get away, vanish into the darkness where nobody could see me."
Sophia couldn't see the expression on her own face. She could feel the muscles contracting in odd ways, but had no idea what was showing. Whatever it was, Vista stared at her for several long seconds before doing something shocking: the little blonde closed the distance and hugged her.
"C'mon, rookie," Vista said, guiding Sophia toward her room. "Sounds like we have a lot to talk about."
"What do I call you, then? Sarge?"
"I think I'd look rugged with a cigar chomped between my teeth," Vista smirked to hide the pain. She was very good at that.
—
Dean Stansfield understood, academically, that natural-Trigger capes were deeply damaged. But that had been his first direct experience. He retreated to his own room, turned the shower to full-blast to mask the noise, and began to sob.
(BREAK)
The fear and pain came every night, and every day he was like the walking dead. With no real sleep, he couldn't focus in the least. But finally, after so long, She came to him. This had all been a test, to see if he was worth Her time. Her last tool had been an accident, a weak and hedonistic speck. He was stronger, he could endure. And with the certainty of death itself, She promised an end to the pain, an end to the nightmares. All he need do was return Her daughter.
Kenta rubbed sunken, dark-circled eyes. He needed to be free of this horror, no matter the cost. He cared little for Her and whatever family nonsense was involved, but this was his only avenue of escape from the endless Nightmare.