Sometimes Nova wished she could sleep. Not most of the time. Most nights she was happy to have an extra eight hours in her day, time to work on her newest project or take a walk under the stars or have long conversations with Leroy or Adrian, if either of them were up. Most nights she saw it as a gift, not a curse, that she didn't have to succumb to exhaustion the way everybody else did.
But tonight, the ability to just lose consciousness for several hours seemed like heaven.
She sat on her swivel chair in the apartment, staring out the window at nothing in particular. She'd known now for 38 hours that Evie was alive. That Evie was Magpie. That Magpie was her sister.
But what was she supposed to do? She'd given the bullet back and told Magpie that she wanted them to try to get along, but Magpie had treated her with the same venom as usual. Of course she had. Nova all the sudden being kind to her wouldn't make her automatically want to be kind back. If anything, the exchange had probably just made her suspicious.
Her communication band beeped with a new notification. Surprised, Nova looked down at her wrist and saw a message from Adrian: What are you up to right now?
She frowned slightly. It was 2:34am. She suspected that the reason he wasn't asleep had something to do with being worried about Max, despite the fact that Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden had decided that their alarm system would be sufficient for making sure Flamethrower didn't break in and harm Max while they all slept.
I can't really blame him, though. It's his brother. Of course he's worried about something happening to him. The same way I would be…
The same way she would be worried about something happening to Evie, if she was more used to the fact that Evie was still alive. She still hadn't told Adrian what she'd found out. She needed to—they'd promised years ago never to keep secrets from each other. But this particular secret was still so unbelievable, so incredible, so tenuous, as if speaking it aloud would somehow make it no longer be true. And…
Yeah. She really should tell Adrian.
Want to come over? She messaged him. I have something to tell you.
When Adrian responded that he was on his way, Nova stepped out of her room and into the kitchen, where Leroy was boiling something in a pot on the stove. "Adrian's coming over in a few minutes," she told him, mainly so he wouldn't get startled at Adrian's arrival and shoot some concoction at him, the way he'd done once when Adrian had shown up unannounced.
Leroy's hairless brows raised in mild surprise. "At this hour? Surely you can make it another five or so hours without some romance?"
Nova's cheeks flushed. "He's not coming over for romance. We're going to have a conversation."
The glint in Leroy's eye told her he had just been teasing. "Ah. Conversations are nice."
"Yeah…" She took a deep breath. "Did you… did Ace… did you know I used to have a little sister?"
Leroy nodded slowly, his back to her as he stirred his pot. "I did."
"Did you know… what happened to her?"
"I did not." Leroy turned to face her, his expression neutral. "I knew about her because you mentioned her several times, when you first came to live with the Anarchists. You did not ever mention what became of her, and I assumed the worst. But…" He trailed off. "But no one ever told me specifically what happened, and I did not ask."
Nova stared into the pot of bubbling liquid, debating whether she should tell Leroy what she'd found out. Leroy was the closest thing to a dad she'd had since Papá died. Since Papá was murdered.
Since Evie wasn't murdered.
"She got shot," Nova said out loud, the gunshots ringing in her ears the way they had for the past thirteen years whenever something triggered the memory. "I could've saved her. But I was too scared. I stayed in my closet and didn't go out to rescue her, even though I could have."
"You were just a little girl," Leroy said evenly. "No one would expect a little girl to intentionally put herself in mortal danger, even if it was to save someone else."
Nova wasn't sure about that. Ruby had put herself in mortal danger as a child just to protect her grandma's jewels from a villain gang.
That wasn't the point, though. She cleared her throat and tried to force the next words out of her mouth. "She survived."
"Your sister?" Leroy's face was inscrutable. "Ace must not have been aware of that."
"He wasn't." Nova gulped, fiddling with one of the micro-flares on her utility belt. "I wasn't either, until recently. All of the records said she was dead. But… she isn't."
Leroy was quiet for a maddening several seconds as he stirred his pot, then dipped a vial into the boiling liquid and scooped out a small sample. He eyed the sample, flicked it with his index finger a few times, then dumped the substance back into the pot. "I suppose I was not entirely honest with you just a moment ago," he admitted.
Nova's heart lurched. "What do you mean?"
"I said that I did not know what happened to your sister," Leroy replied, his voice carrying the same calm tone as always.
Betrayal surged through Nova's chest. "You knew? You knew all along that she survived, and you never told me?"
Leroy regarded her indignation with mild amusement. "Calm down, little Nightmare. No, I did not know all along that your sister had survived. But as of recently, I began suspecting it. There was a young girl at the annual parade one year, running around and ever-so-sneakily taking things out of people's pockets. She caught my eye because she reminded me of a younger version of you, but at the time I did not think much about the resemblance. At the time I was merely… shall we say encouraged that there were still some petty lawbreakers about."
Nova's anger eased, but a pit remained in her stomach. She caught my eye because she reminded me of a younger version of you.
"I encountered her again one night not too long ago," Leroy continued. "This time, I mistook her for you. She was out on the streets by herself in the middle of the night, wearing an outfit strongly reminiscent of your Nightmare attire, and I could not tell that she was someone else until I saw her face. It was after that encounter that I began to wonder if she was the sister you used to mention, and if my initial assumptions had been wrong. I did not wish to discuss the topic with you until I was certain."
Nova was silent, processing this information. It was most definitely Magpie he was referring to—the story about her pickpocketing at the parade was all the confirmation she needed. Did she and Magpie really look that much alike, that Leroy could suspect their relation after just two encounters?
A knock at the door provided a welcome distraction from her thoughts. She hurried to open it, letting Adrian inside. Adrian pulled her into a quick hug before greeting Leroy, who responded with a respectful nod.
"Is everything all right?" Adrian asked Nova, tilting his face down to look at her.
She inhaled shakily. "Yes. No. I'm… not sure. Could we maybe go for a walk?"
If Adrian was worried about Flamethrower assaulting them, he didn't show it. He took her hand and the two of them stepped out into the brisk night air.
"Is this about what happened yesterday on patrol?" Adrian asked.
Nova startled. Had it really been only yesterday?
"Yes…" she said slowly, the day unfolding in her mind like a movie. Getting the text on her communication band about the results being ready. Heading over there the first chance she got, trying to divert Adrian and Danna's suspicion. Reading the results, spending some time just processing, thinking, crying. Not knowing what to do, but deciding to take the first step and return to Magpie—to Evie—what was rightfully hers.
She'd searched Magpie up in the Renegades database, but just like the time she'd done it three years ago, her current residence came up as unknown. So she'd given some thought as to where the girl would most likely be, and had remembered Max talking about the first time he'd met her—in a shop downtown called August Pawn. It had been a shot in the dark, but Nova figured it was at least worth a try.
"Nova?" Adrian rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand, once more bringing her into the present. "Do you want to tell me about it?"
Nova sighed. "Well… I guess the story really starts the night we were over for dinner at your house, and Magpie was there…"
Haltingly, she told him what Magpie had said at the top of the stairs, why she'd put her to sleep, and why she'd needed to get home so urgently that night. Adrian's expression wavered from exasperation, to understanding, to shock, then grew more and more amazed as Nova explained what the ballistics test had revealed.
"So, Evie's alive!" he whispered, a look of pure awe on his face. "All this time… it's been Magpie?"
Nova nodded, anguished. "What do I do, Adrian? She'll never want to have a relationship with me. And… I'm not sure if I want one with her."
"I don't know." Adrian, normally so confident, looked befuddled in the low flow of the streetlights. "Does she know? Did you tell her?"
Nova shook her head. She'd been caught off guard when the first thing she saw upon entering the shop was Magpie, examining a trinket under the watchful eye of the vaguely familiar shopkeeper who had probably once been a member of one of the villain gangs. Magpie had seemed equally surprised to see her, and even more shocked when Nova handed the bullet right to her. There had been a lot of things Nova had thought about saying, but in the moment, she'd frozen up. What did you say to someone who was your long-lost, long-missed sister, who also hated you?
"She might know," she told Adrian. "She knows her origin story, so it's possible… that could even be why she's always hated me so much, if she knows I hid rather than trying to save her, and then left her for dead." The thought caused a new jolt of panic to surge through her. "What if that's true?"
"I think the reason she hates you has more to do with her jealousy over your bracelet, plus the fact that she doesn't tend to show much warm appreciation for anybody," Adrian said reasonably. "Hmm. Have you tried looking up her file on the Renegades database?"
Nova nodded. "It says she used to live at the Gatlon City Children's Home, but nothing else. Not even a date of when she was brought there. The files on my family…" She glanced up at him. "Do you know the password that might have been used to protect those files? Some of the information is available, but for some of it you need an administrative code."
Adrian shook his head. "My dads probably know, or at least have it written down somewhere, but good luck getting them to find it now."
"Yeah…" Nova swallowed. "Your dad—Hugh—he was the one who filed the report. On—on the murders. He was the one who reported Evie as dead."
"He probably thought she was," said Adrian. "A lot of prodigies get very near to death before their latent powers kick in. Some of them even could be labeled clinically 'dead', if their heart stops beating for a few seconds."
"Yeah…" Nova knew that was probably right. The Council always had a hundred things on their minds at once, especially back then, before the Renegades officially existed as a syndicate. Besides, that particular night was also the night their own Lady Indomitable—Adrian's mom—had been murdered. She could see how the Captain, in the trauma of the evening, might not have been in the best mental space to check everything thoroughly.
Although she was relieved that her boyfriend's dad most likely hadn't been keeping such a life-changing secret from her, part of her was frustrated not to have any answers. Who had found Evie lying in the apartment, critically wounded and newly a prodigy? Who had given her the name "Margaret White"? Had it been an honest mistake, or a name given to protect her from her deranged uncle? Or had it simply been an appellation someone had decided on because nobody knew her real name, and everybody needs a name?
"I think you do want a relationship with her," Adrian broke through her thoughts. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be spending all this time thinking about her. I think you should have a conversation with her."
Nova grimaced but didn't contradict him. "What would I say?"
"I'm not sure." Adrian stared into the distance, thinking. "I mean, you could just tell her directly. Say that you just found out and that it sounds crazy, but it's the truth."
A tinge of nausea appeared in Nova's stomach. "She'd probably think I was playing some kind of cruel joke on her."
He shrugged. "But the information would be out there. She might not believe you at first, but after she's had some time to process, she might at least want to check into it and find out for sure."
"Hmm." The idea scared her more than she wanted to admit. Mostly because, if she told Magpie the truth and Magpie still didn't want anything to do with her, then what?
"I'll think about it," she decided. "Maybe I'll wait until after the parade. Then I'll have a week or so to try to figure out more, and to decide how to tell her." And, hopefully, to be able to tell her without feeling like she was going to throw up.