The days passed quietly. She didn't see Sophia much and spoke even less, just enough to keep up appearances. It was pleasurable to see how Sophia avoided her, as if she were afraid of her.

Taylor was satisfied with that.

She wasn't a particularly patient person, but for the reward waiting for her at the end of the rainbow, she could be patient, haha.

Besides...

It was as if Sophia were already 'dead.'

Loki had lit the fuse. She had to wait for it to explode, but it would explode. It was something that had already been 'decided,' like a vision of the future. There was no one who could extinguish that fuse.

Even Sophia herself knew she was finished, that she had no cards to play.

That's why she was running away from her like a little lamb.

Like a beaten dog.

That's why, lately, she was thinking more about Panacea and Glory Girl than Shadow Stalker.

Taylor approached the New Wave home in civilian clothes, hands stuffed in her pockets. She had her mp3 player's earbuds in, but wasn't listening to music. She knew it was risky to come here, to intrude. But curiosity always got the better of her, sooner or later. Curiosity could kill her, but it could also bring her back to life, haha.

Taylor turned the corner and then turned invisible, cloaked in an illusion. She peeked through the windows, confirming that at least Amy and her mother were there. Brandish, she knew her superhero name, but the woman's real name wouldn't come to mind. Well, it didn't matter.

She carefully opened one of the back windows, slipping into the house.

With some training, she had managed to suppress the sound of her footsteps consistently. So they shouldn't be able to detect her unless they bumped into her. Or if Gallant was visiting, she supposed he could read her emotions, even while she was invisible... Yes, that could be a problem. But well, he'd read 'emotions' and that's it, they wouldn't necessarily know who they belonged to.

And she was already in the house.

She wasn't going to leave with her tail between her legs now.

Without knowing exactly what she expected to find, Loki went to observe the mischievous Amy up close.

She could only hear a trivial conversation with her mother.

Amy said something that obviously meant she was adopted, but that was irrelevant to Loki. She doubted Gallant was worried about Amy's real family. Not with the fear she had seen in his eyes. It was something more direct, personal.

But it was clear that she wasn't going to get anything by standing idly by, listening like a fly on the wall. Only Dean knew how messed up Amy was, right? Whatever was happening to her, whatever could make her finally break down, it was a secret.

Amy wouldn't talk about it.

Maybe, however, she could find it in her room. It wasn't difficult to sneak in. The door had been left ajar.

She investigated the drawers, making sure to leave everything where it was. Even if Amy noticed something, she wouldn't automatically think that an invisible person had been investigating her things. People simply didn't work that way, even in a world where superpowers were simply a fact of life.

But it never hurt to be cautious.

After all that effort...

She didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Loki frowned. Frustrating. She shouldn't have expected to hit the jackpot right away, so to speak, but it was still frustrating.

Patience wasn't something that came naturally to her. She took a deep breath. With Sophia, she was managing because the reward was worth it, and because everything was already set up. With this? With Amy, who she was only pursuing out of mere curiosity, not real interest? Ironically, it was much harder.

"Amy? Are you there?"

Glory Girl's voice, she supposed. She might be semi-famous, but she hadn't heard her voice that many times. She sounded young, so there was a limited number of candidates, in any case.

Loki bit her lip. She hadn't heard her. She couldn't have heard her.

Her illusions were perfect. Naturally, not only her form but her shadow was invisible. She had probably only been drawn to the ajar door. It was normal, and nothing to worry about.

However, she supposed it was time to leave.

She wasn't going to get anything. Not today, not like this, surely.

"Amy?"

Glory Girl entered her adopted sister's room. But, of course, by then there was nothing. Only a slight breeze coming through the window.

—

Loki slipped out of the Dallon family's grounds and made herself visible again in an alley two or three blocks away. Just in case. The last thing she needed was to sabotage her efforts with Sophia, when she was so close to getting everything she wanted.

She started walking back home.

Taylor had lived in Brockton Bay her whole life, yet the streets were becoming less and less familiar to her. It wasn't because the New Wave house was on a different side of town. Even the street she had grown up on seemed like it was from a different city.

She wasn't sure why. The city had always been a dump, and she had realized that years ago. Before her mother died, even, although back then she had had more... optimism. It was hard to overlook the times when a classmate had been sent THERE because they had taken THAT. And even worse were the fantasies awakened in her young mind by the vague murmurs.

Well, in short, she had quickly learned that life was hard and unfair, everything could go wrong in an instant. And Brockton Bay's environment didn't help those who were teetering, most of the time it only gave them the final push.

So it wasn't about the city itself.

But then what was it? What was it that made her feel like she was walking through the streets of a different city?

Did it even matter?

Maybe it was just her mind wandering because she felt like she had nothing to do, aside from waiting. Because the lack of purpose always ate away at her.

She would never say that she knew herself very well, but it was perfectly possible that it was just that.

Anyway, it didn't matter. Whatever the answer was, it came down to pointless overthinking.

She finally arrived back home.

Dad would surely be in there, wondering why she had taken so long. She hoped he wouldn't ask too many questions. Neither about this nor about other things. She didn't like lying to him. She would do it if necessary, as she had done so far, but she didn't have to like it.

Dad opened the door. There was a... curious expression on his face.

"Did something happen?"

"You have a visitor."

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"A coworker, you know. She says she wants to apologize."

"Vista? Why would she...?"

"Sophia."

Her expression darkened for an instant. A single instant. If Danny noticed, he surely didn't imagine even half of what went through her head at that precise moment.

"I see."

"She insisted a lot. If you want me to kick her out..."

"No. No need. In the dining room?"

"Yes."

She followed him to the dining room. Sophia was waiting there, sitting cross-legged on their sofa. She was dressed in civilian clothes, but that didn't really matter. Obviously.

"Hello, Taylor."

Loki did everything she could to control her expression and reactions, for Dad's sake. He didn't need to know that something was going on. He didn't need more stress.

"Hello, Sophia," she replied dryly. "I'm glad you've... come to your senses."

Except that wasn't true.

Except that this was clearly a threat, escalating things.

Well, clearly she had no idea who she was messing with.