Tomorrow was the day. The day Maggie had schemed about, dreamed about, and plotted for for the past three and a half years.

Parade day.

She sat alone on the stage after her gang's final Friday night meeting, trying to muster up some excitement for what was about to happen—she was going to make her debut! She was going to steal Ace Anarchy's helmet!—but the excitement wouldn't come. All she felt was anxiety and dread.

And a burning, almost desperate urge to see Max again, just one more time, before her life blew up and she lost any chance of even pretending that they could have any kind of future together.

My life isn't going to blow up. My life is going to get better. This is what I've wanted for years!

She fingered the bracelet on her wrist, the one she'd made with Max so many weeks ago. Several of the rubies had fallen off by now, but at least half of them were still stubbornly clinging on, the same way her brain was stubbornly clinging onto thoughts about Max. He'd come up with the idea of making bracelets because she'd told him that she might be into jewelry making, if she had to be into something. And despite the fact that he was a fourteen-year-old boy and one of the most prominent people in the city, despite the fact that the bracelets had looked tacky even before his had gotten sooty from the Flamethrower attack, he'd kept his on all this time, at least all the way up to last time she had seen him.

Would it really be so bad to go and see him just one more time?

Before she could change her mind, she stood up and walked purposefully toward the exit. Flamethrower was going to be at the parade. Even if his main targets were Nova and Sketch, he would still pose a danger to Max. The least she could do was warn him.

Max's communicator band buzzed with an incoming voice call. He glanced at it, momentarily distracted from his PvP DragonSlayer battle with Jade. The call was from Sampson—interesting, as their team was supposed to be off-duty this evening. Max pressed the button to answer the call just as Jade killed his on-screen character, letting out a triumphant "HA!"

"No fair, I was distracted," Max complained good-naturedly. "Hey Yearbook, what's up?"

"Hello, Bandit! Are you still at HQ?"

"No, I'm at the Tuckers' house. Why?"

"Magpie wants to see you. Should I tell her you'll catch her tomorrow?"

Maggie! Max's heart leapt. He hadn't seen her in nearly a week—not since they'd visited the Callum Treadwell museum together and had that conversation about guilt. It hurt to see how much she blamed herself for Callum's death, when she'd only been trying to help stop the battle. Her insistence that she'd only done it so she could be hailed as a hero and everyone would like her had hit even harder. Maggie, he'd wanted to say. People do like you. I like you. You're street-smart but vulnerable, feisty but not afraid of a good conversation, you care about the people you've chosen as your family, you put yourself in danger to save others… He'd told her, "People do like you," that day in the elevator, but he'd whispered it so quietly he didn't think she'd heard him.

"Um… I could come over, I think," he told Sampson. "Let me see if someone here will give me a ride."

"Yo, where you going?" Sterling asked once Max had hung up the call. "I thought the plan was to play video games till we all fall asleep."

"Yeah. And to see who stays awake the longest. We'll see if either of you is still awake by the time I get back," Max retorted, standing up.

Jade groaned. "Come on. Villains never quit, do they? But why do they need an investigative team so quickly?"

Jade and Sterling had only heard Max's side of the conversation, so it would've been easy for Max to make something up, pretending he really was heading over for official Renegades business. But he didn't want to lie to his best friends. "Well… it's not really that," he admitted. "It's… Maggie."

"You're ditching us to go hang out with your girlfriend?" Sterling protested. "Dude!"

"Hey, at least he's got a girlfriend," Jade pointed out. "I'm sure we'll understand someday."

Max could feel that his face was nearly as red as the rubies on the bracelet he'd made with Maggie one of the first times they'd hung out. "She's not my girlfriend," he mumbled.

"Yeah, and Ruby used to insist Oscar wasn't her boyfriend," said Sterling. "Now those two go around kissing every chance they get and never want to be away from each other. You'll see. That'll be you and Maggie someday."

Max had to consciously work to push the unbidden image of him kissing Maggie out of his head. "Guys… she's my friend, and I don't get to see her as much as I'd—she's kind of hard to get in touch with sometimes, so I'm going to take this opportunity to go see her. But I'll be back, as long as I can get transportation. All right?"

His friends laughed and teased him a couple more times, but he could tell that mixed in with their indignation about him leaving their video game night was a genuine happiness for him and Maggie. Even if part of that happiness was due to their false assumption that Maggie was his girlfriend.

She could be someday, though… As Mrs. Tucker drove him over to HQ, Max tried to imagine how Maggie would react if he asked her out. He'd like to think she'd be happy about it. Sometimes it seemed like she felt the same way about him as he felt about her. But other times… other times it seemed like she was scared, like she didn't want him getting too close. What if he asked her out and she said no? Would it ruin their friendship? Maybe it would be better just to keep things status quo, at least for now.

She had been waiting in the Renegades lobby for at least twenty minutes. She was just about to give up on this stupid idea of seeing Max one last time when she spotted him coming down the stairs. The sight of his grin was enough to make her realize that okay, maybe this hadn't been such a stupid idea at all.

It was also enough to break her heart into a million pieces, knowing this was the last time she would see him grinning at her like that.

Ever.

"Hey," he greeted her when he reached the bottom of the stairs. "It's good to see you."

She felt her cheeks flush. "You too."

They stood there facing each other for a moment, hands in pockets, shifting from foot to foot. Then Max asked, "So… are you here for something specific? Or did you just want to hang out, or… I don't know. What's on your mind?"

Too much. Too much was on her mind, but she wasn't about to spill any of it to him. Especially not here, in the middle of the lobby, with eager Sampson Cartwright right within earshot of every word. "I don't know. Can we go to the cafeteria or something?"

"Sure." Max led the way, and soon the two of them were sitting at a booth in the 24/7 cafeteria, each with a tray of chicken tenders and mac'n'cheese. Maggie pushed hers around on her plate, not interested in eating.

"So…" she finally said, once the silence had gone on so long it had started to feel awkward. "Tomorrow's the parade."

"Yeah." Max gulped. "Um… do you want to go together? I mean, I'm sleeping over at Sterling and Jade's tonight, so I'll be riding over with them, but you could meet us there and watch the floats with us."

She squinted at him. "You're not going to be in the parade this year?" Every previous Hero Parade—that is, ever since the parade had been to celebrate Supernova Day instead of the Day of Triumph—he'd ridden by on his own float, surrounded by buildings from his glass city. She should know. She'd noticed him every time.

He shook his head, scowling. "My dads think it'll be 'too dangerous.' You know, because of Flamethrower, and because of Frostbite's threat to the Council… the way they talk, it's like they think me riding through town on a float is equivalent to yelling, 'Hey, I'm over here! Come kill me!'"

A shudder tore through her body. "They might be right," she pointed out. "We know Flamethrower was after you in particular, and if Frostbite's crew wants to take out the Council, they might also want to take out people close to the Council. In which case you and Sketch would both be in danger." There. She'd warned him about the threat to Sketch's life without saying anything incriminating.

Max sighed. "I know. I still find it crazy that she actually wants to kill them. I mean, she's always been nasty, and she definitely didn't care too much when she almost accidentally killed me, but… I guess I never thought she'd stoop so low as to actually want to cold-blood murder anyone." He snorted. "No pun intended."

"Wait—Frostbite once almost killed you?" This was news to her. "When? What happened?"

"Oh, it was years ago, back when I was still living in the quarantine," he replied, waving his hand through the air. "Nova had snuck in to HQ to steal Ace Anarchy's helmet, and Frostbite's team found her and started fighting her. Then I got in on the action and started fighting her too—this was back before we knew Nightmare was Nova, back when she was one of the Anarchists. I could turn invisible back then, so Frostbite didn't know I was in the way when she threw Captain Chromium's pike at Nova… but when it impaled me, she didn't care about trying to help me or make sure I was okay. All she cared about was getting away from me so I wouldn't steal all her powers."

Something clicked in Maggie's mind. "The first time I got kicked out because I'd lost my powers. All thanks to that freaky Everhart Bandit and that two-faced Nightmare."

"Wait—so Agent N wasn't the reason Frostbite lost her powers? It was you?"

Max nodded. "I'd already stolen some of them, just from being in the vicinity, and when Nova saw that the ice powers were helping stop the bleeding, she dragged Frostbite over to me and forced her to give me the rest. I remember being so confused at the time, because why would Nightmare want to help me? But it all made sense when I learned that Nightmare is Nova."

Maggie was still for a moment, processing this new information. She remembered the way the story had been spun back when it happened—that Nightmare had broken in and attempted to kill Max and steal the helmet, but that the Sentinel had shown up just in time to rescue Max and bring him to the hospital. Frostbite had been hailed as a hero for attempting to stop Nova—albeit a poor, unlucky one who had tragically lost her powers and would no longer be allowed to stay a Renegade.

"So… have you forgiven Nova, then? For all the things she did as a villain? Because she was a villain. For a lot longer than she's been a Renegade." Funny how everyone conveniently forgot that fact.

"She was acting on incomplete information," Max explained. "She didn't know it was her uncle who'd arranged to have her whole family killed. She didn't know that a Renegade actually was supposed to be there protecting them that night, but got killed too. She was six!"

"Would you forgive a villain who wasn't so young when they became a villain? Someone who had more information?"

Max's eyes, which had always been so open and guileless, suddenly colored with a hint of suspicion. "Why are you asking?"

"No reason." She'd said too much. She wasn't after Max's forgiveness. She was just trying to enjoy one final time hanging out with him.

And warn him that he and everyone he cared about were in grave danger.

She thought about Nova, saving Max's life while in the middle of a heist. She could've run off and left him to die, increasing her own chances of getting away without being caught. At the time, she'd been one of the Renegades' most wanted criminals.

But she'd taken the extra time to give him the best chances of survival possible.

"Hey—for the parade, Nova's probably in pretty big danger too," she forced out. "I'm sure Frostbite hates her for giving you her powers, even though she eventually got them back. She's probably just as high on the kill list as the Council. And Sketch. And you." She paused. "Maybe you and Sketch and Nova should just stay home and, I don't know, play games together or something."

Max shook his head ruefully. "Adrian and Nova aren't going to sit around at home when they know something's about to go down. They'll want to be right there in the thick of the action."

"Well… you could still stay home." She didn't want to sound like she didn't think he could handle it—she knew he hated it when his dads coddled him like that. But she desperately wanted him to stay safe, and with the combined mayhem of Frostbite, Flamethrower, and the Gatlon City Villains, the parade was going to be anything but safe.

"I'm going," Max said resolutely. "I'll be with Sterling and Jade and their parents and grandma. And you, I hope." He peered at her expectantly, and the look on his face was almost enough to make her throw all those years of hard work away and say yes.

Almost.

"I'll be going with my—family," she told him. "Chester and Yasmin and them. But I might see you around."

Disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he nodded and said that sounded alright. He then shifted the conversation to other things, and Maggie was glad. Normal conversation for their last normal night together.

Eventually, Max received a call from Sterling and Jade's mom, letting him know that she was back to pick him up. He rose slowly, and so did Maggie, suddenly wishing they had more time. Was this really about to be their forever goodbye?

They walked together back to the lobby, not speaking, each footstep feeling like a harbinger of doom. When they reached the exit, Max turned to her and asked, "Are you going home? Do you need a ride?"

She opened her mouth to say No, but reconsidered. The walk home would be long and cold, and—well, more time with him sounded nice. "I guess if your friends' mom doesn't mind."

Mrs. Tucker was happy to give Maggie a ride home, although she seemed a bit concerned when Maggie asked to be dropped off on the sidewalk still half a block away from the theater. "I don't mind driving you straight to your house," she said.

"We're close enough, and I want the exercise," Maggie hedged. No way was she about to let some adult—some mom—know that she lived in a broken-down theater with a bunch of other misfits. She glanced at Max, beside her in the backseat. "Um…" There was so much she wanted to say. So much she shouldn't say. So much she couldn't say.

"Thank you." Her words tumbled over each other. "For everything. I'll mi—I'll see you. Again. Yeah, at the parade. Anyway, yeah. Bye." She started to scoot out of the car, but her impulses took over. I'll never get a chance to do this again. Turning back around, she leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Max's cheek. Then she scurried away, away forever from the sweetest, kindest boy she'd ever known, and towards her fate.