Maggie could feel Max's unasked questions as they walked in silence for a few minutes, winding their way through the throngs of people on the sidewalk. She knew how blatant she'd been in her dislike for Nova, and how the exchange had given Max a window into a side of her he'd never seen before. But it's not like that mattered. Why would she care if Max saw her being sassy and borderline rude to a group of goody-goody Renegades?

Goody-goody Renegades who Frostbite wanted to kill. Maggie tried not to think about that little detail as she fished around for something to say, some random topic that had nothing at all to do with Sketch and his patrol unit. Just because she didn't like Nova didn't mean she wanted her dead. And the rest of the team wasn't all that bad, just mildly annoying.

"You and Nova don't like each other." Max stated the observation as a fact. "How come?"

Maggie shrugged. "She's annoying."

"What's annoying about her?"

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Everything."

She glanced at Max to find that he was looking at her quizzically. "Is there anything specific?"

"Not really. I just don't like her. Never have."

"Why did she put her hand over her bracelet as soon as she saw you?"

Maggie grimaced. The answer to that wasn't exactly something she wanted Max to know. Then again, if she didn't tell him, he'd probably find out through Nova at some point, and Maggie would prefer to be the one in control of how the story got told.

"Remember when she got arrested? A couple years ago, when the Renegades first found out she was Nightmare?"

Max nodded. "Of course."

"That bracelet had to be confiscated, either so she couldn't somehow use it to break out of prison, or so the Renegades could do an investigation on it, or whatever, I don't really remember the details. Anyway, I was the one who was supposed to take it to HQ, but I—well, I figured she wouldn't be needing it anymore, and it's not like they could discover a whole bunch of top-secret villainous information from a bracelet, so I just decided to keep it. I was only, like, ten or eleven," she added, in an attempt to downplay her actions.

"Oh." Max's expression was strangely relieved. "Wait, so that's what she meant when she said you were a thief?"

Maggie shifted uncomfortably, not sure why it felt so difficult to respond with either a yes or a no. She didn't want him to know that her thievery extended to much more than just an artifact taken from the scene of a crime, but for some reason the idea of flat-out lying to him also bothered her. But why? She had never cared about lying to anyone before.

"Why's that bracelet so important to her anyway?" she asked, dodging the question. "I'm pretty sure I've never seen her without it. Is it, like, the only piece of jewelry she owns?"

"Her dad made it," Max replied as they turned onto the next street. The buildings were getting shabbier now, the sidewalk more cracked and run-down. "It was the last thing he made before he died."

"Oh." Maggie crinkled her nose. She should have known it would be some stupid sentimental thing like that.

She was about to change the subject, when she realized the full implications of what Max was saying. "Wait—her dad? David Artino?"

"Yeah," Max confirmed. "Nova said he used to make all sorts of things, and trade them for food and stuff at the downtown markets—this was back during the Age of Anarchy, so they didn't really have regular stores like we do now."

"Wait, but—didn't he also make Ace Anarchy's helmet?"

Max nodded. "That was his superpower. He'd reach out and pull these energy strands out of the air, and make things out of them. Nova said she used to love watching him work."

Maggie could feel her breathing start to speed up. The bracelet Nova wore had been crafted by the same prodigy who'd made Ace Anarchy's helmet. No wonder she'd always felt a pull toward it. She'd thought it had been because of the bright white stone it had once boasted—something with a signature that was completely, utterly, impossibly distinct from anything she'd ever encountered before. But the material of the bracelet itself was unusual too, much like that bird figurine she'd found in the pawn shop the first day she'd met Max.

Does that mean that the bird figurine was made by David Artino too? she wondered. Does it have powers? Does the bracelet have powers? Even back when she'd possessed the bracelet, she'd never actually slipped it onto her wrist, keeping it hidden away in her pocket the whole time she'd had it to avoid the prying eyes of nosy Renegades. But if she had put it on… would it have amplified her powers just like the helmet?

Wait—was that how Nova was able to do all the stuff she did as Nightmare and Insomnia? Was the only reason she was so good at what she did because she was always wearing that bracelet?

That would actually be a little disappointing.

The sound of Max's bemused chuckle brought her out of her racing thoughts. "You look so surprised."

"I am," she admitted. And mad at myself for not ever trying that bracelet on. For not fighting harder to keep it. She could have kept it away from Nova if she'd really tried. She was telekinetic and Nova was not. Besides, the strength of her powers was partially dependent on the value of the item she was trying to move, and that bracelet—and the beautiful, incredible, perplexing stone in it—was the most valuable thing she'd ever held. But at the time, she'd been a lot more concerned with the fact that Nova had just swiped her good-luck bullet than the bracelet. The bracelet may carry a substantial amount of intrinsic value, but the bullet that had given her her powers was the most valuable item in the world for her. "What are Nova's regular powers like?"

He cocked his head quizzically. "Putting people to sleep and staying awake all the time? What do you mean, her regular powers?"

"I mean, what can she do without the bracelet?"

Max shrugged. "Same things, I'm pretty sure. The bracelet isn't like the helmet in that sense. Well, not anymore, at least."

"Not anymore?"

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure that what happened during the Supernova was because of the star, not the bracelet itself."

She gaped at him. "The Supernova? The star?"

They'd reached the last intersection before the avenue that would lead them to the children's home, but Maggie grabbed Max's wrist as he reached up to press the button to activate the crosswalk. "Wait. I don't want to go any farther until you explain the whole story of what you're talking about."

Max's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and for a fraction of a second, she saw his eyes flicker down to the spot where her hand rested on his wrist. She quickly retracted her hand, trying to ignore the way it had tingled at the point of contact. She tucked it inside her pocket, fingering her bullet. "All I've heard about the Supernova has been rumors and hearsay. But you were there, weren't you? You were part of it."

"I kind of was it," Max murmured, his eyes taking on a look that was somehow distant, perplexed, awed, and troubled all at the same time. "Tell me what you already know. I can fill in the gaps."

"All right." Maggie sucked in a breath. "I know Ace Anarchy was there. And you were there. And you somehow took possession of his helmet, and started getting everyone's superpowers. But instead of keeping them all for yourself, you chose to give them away. Back to their original owners, and then also to the people who'd never had superpowers before. And that's how everyone became prodigies. Except you. After you put the city back together, you didn't keep any powers for yourself. You gave them all away."

"Great skies," muttered Max, looking down at the patch of brown grass peeking up from one of the cracks in the sidewalk. "You make me sound so… noble. It wasn't really like that at all." The tips of his ears were pink, and Maggie thought she could detect a hint of redness in his cheeks as well, though it was hard to tell because he had partially averted his face.

"What was it like, then?"

"It was… chaotic," he explained, still not looking at her. "Everything happened so fast, I don't even remember it all that clearly. Ace Anarchy was on the roof of the cathedral—well, alternating between standing on it and levitating above it, actually. I was just trying to get close to him so I could steal his powers, but he obviously knew what I was doing, so he was throwing things at me and just doing everything he could to make sure I wouldn't have the chance. He threw this massive slab of stones at me and I was hit pretty hard. I was able to slow it down a little with my telekinesis, but I was still barely able to walk after that. Adrian came over and started helping me—trying to get me closer to Ace. And then all the sudden, the helmet was flying toward us, and Adrian caught it and jammed it on my head." He finally looked at her, shaking his head in bewilderment. "I didn't know what was going on. I was trying to take the helmet off; I didn't want it. But then I noticed—I think Adrian might have pointed it out?—that Ace had levitated practically the whole city, and now that he wasn't holding the buildings up anymore, they were starting to crash down. So I started focusing on putting all the buildings back in place where they were supposed to go."

He said it so factually, as if he were talking about cleaning up a messy room or organizing a supply closet, that although she'd already known that detail, Maggie couldn't help letting out a disbelieving laugh. "Yeah. Sure. Just put all the buildings in the city back where they're supposed to go. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Max's lips twitched for a moment before breaking into a grin. "Okay, it was kind of epic. But I was only able to do it because I had the helmet on. And…" He squinted, as if trying to remember. "I think I was struggling to be able to do it until Adrian handed me the star."

"What's the star?" She'd heard rumors upon rumors about the star, of course, but all of the stories had conflicted with one another and she'd never quite managed to figure out what it actually was. Another powerful artifact created by Nova's dad, perhaps? She tried to envision a coppery five-pointed object, the same color and unknown composition as the helmet and Nova's bracelet.

"This is going to sound crazy, but… I think it might have been an actual, literal star." He met her skeptical expression with a half shrug. "Or part of one, at least. It was hot, and pulsing, and all the power was coming from it. It was giving me… energy, I guess, and strength, and everything I needed to prevent the city from being destroyed. I think it and the helmet were working together to amplify my powers. All of my powers." His expression grew slightly pained. "I was so focused on fixing the city that I didn't notice when the absorption started. At first I was only absorbing powers from the people around me, like usual, but with the star and the helmet working together, the powers just kept coming. All of them. I can't say for certain, but I think it might have been every superpower in the world." He shuddered. "Absorbing all those powers at once… it wasn't a good feeling. I remember wondering if I was going to explode, or spontaneously combust, or… or something. I wouldn't have been able to survive with all those powers in me." He sucked in a deep breath. "You make it sound like I chose to give all the powers away, but I really didn't. Or if I did, it was as much for my own good as for everyone else's. I wasn't trying to turn everyone into superheroes; I just wanted to survive. I didn't want to be holding that thing anymore. Dispersing the powers all over the world—I think the star did that on its own."

"The star," Maggie repeated, still hung up on that one aspect of the story. "I still don't understand. Where did it come from? How did— oh." The realization hit her when she remembered who Max had said gave him the star in the first place. "Did Sketch draw it for you? Why would he even do that? Of all the things in the world he could've given you, what would make him think of a star?"

Max looked confused for a moment, before understanding came over his features and he shook his head. "Adrian didn't draw the star. It was in Nova's bracelet."

Maggie gaped at him. "Nova's—wha—so you're telling me that that glowing white gemstone that used to be on Nova's bracelet was some sort of magic star that could think and act all on its own?"

"Something like that." Max shrugged sheepishly. "I'm not saying I fully understand it. When I asked Nova about it later, she said her dad had made the star too, and hidden it… inside her until the right time, or something like that?" The look on his face somehow simultaneously indicated that he thought what he was saying was ludicrous, but that he wholeheartedly believed it. "The prongs of the bracelet were left empty when he died, and she always assumed he just hadn't had time to fill it. But apparently the star was always what was supposed to fill it."

A star. That was what it had been, the mystical, magical, mysterious ball of energy that Maggie had never been able to figure out, but had always longed to possess. It seemed completely unbelievable that it could have been an actual star, but somehow, the description fit. It certainly explained why the object had felt so powerful and valuable.

"Where's the star now?" she asked.

"Still there. In Nova's bracelet."

Maggie shook her head. She had paid very close attention to that bracelet every time she'd seen it in the past nearly four years, which, granted, hadn't been very many times. But still, the lack of the—star, if that's what it was—hadn't exactly been inconspicuous. "She replaced it with some ugly black thing."

Max gave her a sideways glance, his lips twisting up in a grin. "Why do you think everyone calls that event the Supernova?"

She hadn't thought of it before. "Because it was really powerful, like a supernova? Because you had all the powers and kind of exploded them all over the place, like an exploding star?"

His half-smile turned full at that description, revealing his dimples. "Nope. It wasn't just metaphorical. That star supernova-ed. It helped me absorb all the powers and then it exploded them all over the world. That's why it's dead now."

Her jaw hung agape. "Wait, so… the star's still there? Nova's still walking around with a star on her wrist?" How come she hadn't felt it this time? How come she hadn't sensed its value?

"A dead star, but yeah, still a star."

The obsessive greed that had come over her the first time she'd seen the bracelet, and again the first time she'd seen it with the star, overpowered her again. It wasn't just the helmet that had made Max, for the briefest moment, the most powerful person in the world. It was the helmet and the bracelet and the star. The magical star. The star that still existed in Nova's bracelet.

Max was still speaking, more quietly now. "Nova told me that all superpowers originated from stars. She said everyone always had a small amount of stardust in them, the potential to have powers. Some people were born with their powers already accessible, while others' powers remained latent until they experienced some sort of trauma. Or, well, I guess until the Supernova happened, for a lot of people."

She wrinkled her nose. Born with stardust in them? That sounded like something from a fairytale. But the trauma part rang true, at least. She had always known that if she hadn't been shot as a baby, she wouldn't have become a prodigy.

"Do you think your powers are still latent in you?" she asked him. "If you were to experience trauma, would they come back?"

Max made a disgusted face. "I hope not! I mean, don't get me wrong, it was cool being able to do all the stuff I used to be able to do. But given the choice between all those abilities and being able to walk around and interact with whoever I want, there's no comparison."

At these words, Maggie suddenly became acutely aware that they were standing just inches away from each other, still close enough that she could reach out and grab his arm again.

Or hold his hand.

Or touch his face.

She broke eye contact and stared down the road, toward the small copse of trees behind which was the grounds of the children's home. "Speaking of walking around and interacting with people, we should probably be heading over there." She hadn't had time to come up with a plan about how she was going to protect Yasmin's identity, but she could make it up as she went along.

Max seemed to startle a little. "Right," he agreed. "You lead the way."