Wendy was hugging me.

As I slowly woke up, that was the first thing that stood out. She had rolled over and wrapped an arm around me at some point in the night. The fact that it hadn't woken me up showed how exhausting yesterday was. The lingering aches in my legs, arms, and chest further reinforced that fact.

She was still asleep, her chest rising and falling in deep rhythmic motions. Her eyes shifted with whatever dream she was having in REM sleep. Whatever she was dreaming about was beyond me, it didn't seem like a nightmare at the least. Maybe I could figure out what she was dreaming about…

That train of thought was quickly shut down. Invasion of privacy aside, it was too early in the morning for something as weird as neural diagnostics… Wait was it that early in the morning?

Looking away from Wendy's sleeping face, I glanced around. Vicky had insisted all three of us sleep in her room. There was a conversation there that was going to be painful to handle. It didn't come last night at least.

Vicky got to keep her bed, which she wasn't in, meaning she was already awake. After a little wiggling, Vicky's alarm clock entered my field of view. Nine twenty-one in the morning. Twelve hours or so of sleep.

The idea of just going back to sleep was appealing. It meant delaying the inevitable just a bit longer. Whatever conversation waited for me when Vicky could corner me in private, whatever punishment Carol would think up for Sequoia existing.

After last night though, I couldn't bring myself to do that. Wendy getting kidnapped was partly because I had waited, and put things off. My promise to Wendy was still there. Hiding from my problems wasn't going to make me a better hero.

Also, I had to use the bathroom.

As carefully as possible, I lifted Wendy's arm off of me and slid out. She frowned in her sleep, trying to chase the warmth of my body. A pillow worked as a good enough substitute to satisfy her. Her face settled back into the peaceful oblivion that was sleep. After all the trauma of last night, she deserved to sleep in.

The house seemed normal as I stepped out of the room. A faint smell of bacon drafted up from downstairs. Vicky was definitely in the bathroom, finishing up her morning routine.

It felt wrong to slip back into a routine, but it was better than jumping straight into the fire. A shower would help drive the exhaustion away, and I'd at least look presentable for what was to come.

My feet carried me into my bedroom and to my dresser. Digging through it for a change of clothes, my hand brushed against the orb. It was still exactly where I had left it. It was funny, it hadn't been the thing to give me away. That had been me.

I picked it up. My power laid its internal structures bare to me. It was easy to apply the changes I had discovered last night. It hadn't occurred to me then, but that had been odd. In the middle of fighting for my life, getting shot in the chest, I had just… figured it out. It just clicked, when I should have been panicking.

Flexing my fingers against the wood, they worked to shape the wood. It didn't take long to make the Sequoia mask, blankly staring up at me.

"Not proud, not disappointed, just… nothing." A sigh escaped me as I turned to walk over to my bed. Sequoia stared up at me, not giving away any answers. It was just a mask I had worn, and it wasn't giving me any ideas on handling what would come next.

Letting out a groan, I tossed it onto the bed beside me and put my face in my hands. As good as 'confronting my problems' sounded in my head, it didn't help. It got me out of one hiding spot and into another. How was I even going to begin handling the mess I had made?

Vicky was probably pissed at me for not telling her and chewing her out that one time as Sequoia. Carol was probably furious at me for letting slip how I thought she'd try to stop me from doing this if I told her. Who knew how Aunt Sarah would react upon hearing what I'd done? There was no way to begin fixing any of this.

"Amy." Vicky's voice brought me back to reality, and I looked up to find her staring at me. "We should… probably talk."

"Okay."

She had just gotten out of the shower, her hair wrapped up in a towel, wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Floating over to my bed, her eyes landed on the mask. I picked it up, letting her sit down beside me.

We both just stared at the mask.

"So… Were you telling the truth for… how long you've been doing that?" She reached out to tap the mask on the forehead.

"I wasn't lying, it was me saving Janice from those robbers…" I couldn't even remember the name of her boyfriend.

"So you let me gush about what happened the next day when you knew everything?" She stared at me, and I shrunk in a little while nodding.

"Yeah…"

"And then when Sequoia showed up and chewed me out about the accident, that was just you chewing me out?" She leaned towards me, and I pulled away.

"Yes…"

"And you got mad at me for breaking the rules when you already breaking the rules?" Her words made me stop and glare at her.

"I got mad at you because you made me clean up after you." I pushed back, and she flinched at the heat in my voice. "I didn't lie when we talked about how I felt. Even if I was doing something that might screw up my future, it was because it was what I wanted to do. No one else was forced to be involved."

"Because you didn't tell me." She rebounded, glaring at me in turn. "You snuck off in the middle of the night and didn't tell anyone. I trusted you to help me, why didn't you trust me to help you?"

"Vicky, please, it wasn't because I didn't trust you and you know that." I turned away to stare down at the mask in my lap. "I explained that well enough last night."

"I don't get that either though!" She pushed herself up and off the bed, turning to stare at me. "You said you were worried that Mom would think less of you for wanting to fight, go on patrols, stuff like that. Why?"

"You… you wouldn't get it." I sighed and reached a hand up to rub my forehead.

"I've had Mom disappointed in me before, try me." She put her hands on her hips and I glared up at her.

"Vicky, drop it. You wouldn't get it, and even if I told you, it'd just make things worse." There was no way she wasn't going to freak out if I told her the truth.

"I'm not letting you hide anything else Amy." She glared at me, and I had to bite back a laugh. There was one secret she would never learn. She'd have to kill me before I'd tell her that.

"I'm telling you, you don't want to know." I pushed myself up, still holding the mask as we glared at each other. "Just… drop it. It's better for everyone. I've got a bad relationship with Carol, I don't want to hurt yours."

"Why would this hurt my relationship with Mom?" She gave me a confused look. "What are you hiding? Did something happen between you two that I learned about?"

"No, nothing happened… I just… I overheard something I shouldn't have." The conversation drifted back into my head, and my fingers tightened around the mask. "It's not important, it doesn't affect you, just… leave it. You want to be mad at me for keeping secrets, fine, I deserve it, I should have told you."

"You don't get to blame yourself and move on like there isn't something else going on here." She jabbed a finger at me, frowning. "You're going tell me what you overheard. I can't help if I don't know."

"You can't help with this Vicky." I shook my head and just looked away.

"I don't know unless you tell me!"

"I'm not telling you!"

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Tell me or I'm gonna get Wendy to get it from you." She smirked a little as I whipped around to glare at her.

"Wendy's gone through too much. She doesn't need this added to her plate. It's between me and Carol. It doesn't involve you or anyone else. Do not try to get her involved in this." My fingers sunk into the wood of the mask, using it as a stress ball as I squeezed it.

"She worries about you just as much as me." She didn't relent. "Odds are she'll try to get this out of you once she's feeling better! It'd just be speeding that up. She'd probably love the distraction."

"Vicky, please." I was getting desperate. "Just leave this alone."

"No." She stepped forward and hugged me. I didn't stop her. "I'm still angry at you, but you're also my sister. I'm not going to let you deal with whatever this is alone. So please, just tell me what the problem is."

I tried to push her away for a moment, before just going limp. After all the fighting, and arguing, and the hiding… Maybe it was best to admit the truth.

"Carol didn't want me."

The words hit like a bomb. Vicky froze. I could see her muscles tense with my power. Staring straight ahead over my shoulder, she tried to decipher those words.

"What do you mean?" There was a twinge of horror in her voice.

"I overheard Carol talking to Sarah… two years ago I think. I'm the daughter of some villain they beat." I closed my eyes as that fact hurt to say out loud. "They decided I couldn't get put into the foster system, too dangerous. Carol didn't want to adopt me. Sarah had to convince her. It was just an obligation to do the right thing."

"Amy…" Vicky was at a loss for words, so she hugged me closer.

"It made a lot of things make sense." I just kept going. "She's never been as physical with me as she was with you, a lot fewer hugs and all that. She was always concerned about how I used my power, about me accidentally making a super plague or ruining the ecosystem. I'm not her daughter. I'm some time bomb she's been keeping an eye on."

"No." Vicky pulled away, shaking her head. "I don't believe that. I can't believe that you think that either."

"It fits, Vicky." I sighed as she shook her head again. "It fits perfectly."

"It… might explain some things, but that doesn't mean she doesn't think of you as her daughter." I could hear the desperation in Vicky's voice.

"Vicky, we both know she's never loved me how she loves you." I hated myself as I said those words, watching her flinch back. "The only difference is now we know that's because she doesn't love me."

"You can't know that for certain." Her voice wavered.

"The fact that it's in question at all is enough." I tossed the mask back onto my bed and grabbed my clothes.

She just stood there, staring at me with wide eyes. This was going to hurt her in the long run. It might ruin her relationship with Carol as well. I shouldn't have told her. It needed to be said though. Besides…

"You asked Vicky." I left her standing in my room as I went to take a shower.

The worst was yet to come, anyway.