Earth Bets That Weren't (Kylia Quilor's Worm Oneshot/Snippet Thread)

[Kylia Quilor]

Before you read anything I write ficwise for Worm, a few things to bear in mind:

While I don't intend to (and won't) write stories where everything is nice and easy and simple, nothing I write will be as prone to bleakness or 'things getting regularly worse' as Worm. Things will, in the long run, tend to be better though of course bad things will happen. I am neither capable of nor interested in matching Wildbow's penchant for (well written) bleak and 'it gets worse'-ness in his stories. It is not fair to say that's all Worm is, but it is a large part of it.

For the purposes of my fics, the text of Ward, and Wildbow's many WoGs are only as canon as I want them to be (and I will be picking and choosing from both as I desire). I will be treating the full text of Worm as canon - allowing for differences as appropriate if the fic is an AU. That said, my interpretation of the canon and the characters therein (including personality, motivations, how they'd react in situations they didn't face in canon, etc) may not line up with yours. If you are someone who has a very rigid 'this is the only single acceptable interpretation of <character>' view, and my interpretation doesn't line up with yours, you may end up having a bad time with my stuff. Back button is right there.

Likewise, some people have very narrow views of what is acceptable expansions to canon (i.e. information that isn't in the text, but the text doesn't contradict either). I don't tend to have such a view, so again if you have such a rigid view, you may not enjoy my fic. Back button remains there.

All that said, no one is perfect, and I may get things wrong, or fail to adequately develop my points, etc, so polite critique or the like, even if your critique rooted in details from the WoGs or Ward, will always be listened to, though I may not ultimately agree with you. It's not as if I'm aware of every WoG Wildbow ever spun.

People who try to give me grief over writing choices rooted in the points above, decide to act as the 'Fanfic Police' over my interpretations, or who just declare that I'm just 'writing TINO' or 'Woobie Amy' or the like, without consideration that maybe my interpretation just isn't the same as yours shall be ruthlessly mocked or ignored, per my discretion and mood.

If you want to discuss my views re: Ward and the WoGs as related to my fic-writing, etc, feel free to DM me here on this site, or hit me up on my tumblr(s): Here or Here. I don't want to excessively clutter this thread with those discussions.

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Summaries of The Oneshots​

The Consequences of Forced Honesty -
What do you do when your deepest, darkest secret has been revealed, laid bare? To the most important person in your life, the one person you wanted most to never know? Amy hoped she'd never have to find out. Unfortunately, Tattletale took that choice away from her.

Fortunately, Amy's worst fears and nightmares turn out to have ignored one very important thing: Victoria Dallon loves her sister.

Her Words Burned Into My Skin -
-What the Fuck did you do?

-You don't need to know that.

As far as first words to say to your soulmate, neither are particularly good, but when a trip to the bank goes wrong for Amy Dallon, she finds out that fate doesn't really care about that sort of thing.

Ties of Blood, Ties of Family -
Celia Quiston cut her sister out of her life when Siobhan took up with Marquis. She was out of the country when Siobhan died, and only found out years later Siobhan tried to reconcile when she was near death, tried to ask her to take her daughter Amelia in. Eventually, she tracked her niece down, finding her in Amy Dallon, daughter of Brandish and Flashbang of New Wave.

Carol Dallon didn't think she'd ever grow to love Amelia when she took her in. But when the prospect of losing her adopted daughter hits her head on, she realizes that whatever else, she does indeed love and care about that little girl.

Bloody Bliss -
"Do I have permission to heal you?" Wash, rinse, repeat. Even after moving out of Carol's house, that's still Amy's life. Built up over years, the numbness was broken only by her crush on her sister. Until one day, Amy met someone - until Amy had her blood drunk by Taylor Hebert, a vampire. The blissful feeling of her blood being drained cut through the numbness of her life, letting her feel contentment, real contentment, for the first time in years. But after six months, Amy doesn't want to just be Taylor's blood bag. She wants to be more.

If only she could bring herself to admit it.

A Mile In My Sister's Shoes -
An encounter with an overdramatic Trump sees Amy and Victoria's powers swapped for a week. Predictably, Victoria finds the whole thing fascinating, and Amy just finds it annoying. But the very next day is one of those godawful double dates, and Amy needs to go to the bank to withdraw money for it...

Bloody Bliss II -
Victoria Dallon knows her sister, and knows her many quirks and foibles. So when she finds out Amy has been cutting her hours at the hospital, she immediately worries something is wrong with her sister. She should have been less worried, though she definitely isn't sure how she feels about this Taylor girl her sister is dating now.

The Girl Who Could Be God-Queen -
Victoria meets a new cape one night. The new cape - Illyria - seems to be performing a bit of an affected persona, but Glory Girl can understand that, and the girl's power is interesting, and she likes her attitude... maybe a little too violent though.

Taylor didn't expect to get powers from being stuffed into a locker by her bullies. But she made bug mastery work. Then an encounter with a strange stone sarcoughagus changes everything - now she has a demon literally older than humanity in her head, and a whole new suite of powers to get used to. But she's going to be a hero, even if Illyria keeps suggesting she rip people's spines out and take over the city - and then the world.

Her Words Burned Into My Skin II -
Taylor never thought much about soulmates. And right now, she has other problems - she needs to stick with the Undersiders, find their boss, turn them all in. Unfortunately, Fate, it seems, doesn't care about that.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: There's probably many fanfics that I can point to as influential here, but probably the most notable is Crayshack's Family Therapy, which is just, a really wonderful oneshot, highly recommend.

Please see the end of the work for additional author's notes.

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There were many things Amy loved about her sister. Her smile, her smarts, the way she could just light a room by walking into it. How much Victoria cared. The list went on.

As she watched the figure in white flying down towards her, she was reminded that at the top of the short list of things she didn't love about her sister was Victoria's dogged, stubborn persistence. At least when it came to her.

If it wasn't for the curfew there'd be too many people for her to find me so easily. Not with how dark it was. But Amy was a lone girl on the empty streets of a half-destroyed city and she was limited to those streets and alleys - even at her fastest she could only go three, four miles an hour and - and -

Victoria could fly at fifty.

I should have - I should have hid, I should have tried to - why did I think I could outrun her? She felt her heart, pounding in her throat, breasting faster, but it felt like less air was actually making it in - she couldn't -

I assumed - I don't - I didn't think I - she shouldn't be here she shouldn't - she shouldn't - I can't - she knows why I had to run! She knows! She fucking knows!

Her sister stopped, mid flight, floating five or six feet up in the air, just ahead of her.

"Amy." Vicky said, voice softer, quieter than Amy usually heard it. In the stillness of the street, it was still - still too much. "I was just at the house. I don't - I don't even know what to say."

What was there to say? What could there be to say? Amy shrugged, wishing she could - trying to - trying to feel some semblance of the... the apathy the gesture implied. Or just feel less. Her brain felt like it was - too many thoughts, too many things, she -

"I - I mean, it's obvious. Bonesaw - Bonesaw showed up. Her - her... creations trashed the place. I healed Mark. I ran."

Not enough. Not far enough. Not fast enough. She should have found a place to hide. There were empty houses all over, places she could have -

She hadn't expected Victoria to - her sister wasn't supposed to be here, wasn't supposed to chase after her. Not after - not after how long she -

"You could have healed Dad weeks ago! I - I know why you don't want to do brains, I - I-" Vicky cut herself off. "I - I didn't say anything before, never asked-"

"Almost never," Amy cut in. Her sister hadn't pressured her to heal Mark. Not in so many words. Not more than once. Not as much as Amy had been afraid she would have. But that made sense. That - Vicky knew. Victoria knew why. So she had to know why she couldn't be here. Why it wasn't safe to be around her right now. Or ever. Never again.

"Fine. Almost never." Victoria agreed. "Why - why did you do it now?"

Is she - is she really asking -

"Because he would have died if I hadn't! I -" She couldn't let that happen. Not to him. Not to Vicky. Not - not even to Carol. She - she should have healed him, wouldn't have, no matter what, not - not without Bonesaw, if she hadn't -

"So what, if I'd hurt him you'd have healed him!? You would have done it weeks ago if I'd forced the issue like that?! Is that what it would have taken for you to give a damn?!" Victoria demanded, all but snarling the words out. Amy stared, recoiling from the sudden anger on her face, in her voice, the -

Her sister shrank in on herself, arms around her midsection for a moment. "I'm sorry I - didn't mean that. I shouldn't have said that."

Amy swallowed, shaking her head. "No - I - I should have - you're right to hate me for not healing him sooner." Amy looked down, away from Victoria. There were capes that could create earthquakes, right? One of them could be in town? Maybe? They could - they could make the Earth swallow her up!

Victoria let out a long, ragged breath. "Amy, you're my sister. I'm never going to hate you. I can't hate you. And - you did heal Dad. He's not mad at you. I'm not mad at you. Please, come home."

"I can't," Amy said softly.

"Please, Ames." Victoria said just as softly. She opened her arms, flew closer, as if to hug her, and Amy recoiled, stepping back so quickly she stumbled, nearly fell over.

"Don't touch me!" Her sister pulled up short, so close Amy could reach out - she could...

She looked at her sister's arms, spread wide. So close. She almost reached out, almost took a step. Her whole world was crumbling around her, and her sister was here, not hating her, still here, wanting to help her, support her...

She wanted nothing more than to hug her sister and let Victoria take her back home and pretend everything was going to be fine. To go back to pretending in general. But she couldn't. Not now. Not -

"Amy!" Victoria looked hurt, letting her arms fall to her side, brows furrowed, lips a thin line. "Why- you can't just - For fuck's sake, Amy! The Nine are in town, one just tried to kill you! And that's - that's on top of everything else! It's not safe! And - damnit, Amy, I need you! Uncle Neil and Eric and Dean are dead, New Wave is crumbling, and the whole city is falling apart!" She lowered her voice, barely above a murmur. "I need you. I need my sister. Why - why are you running away? From home? From me?!"

Amy forced herself to take several more steps away from Victoria, she looked away, away from her sister, not wanting to see the hint of tears in the corners of Vicky's eyes...

I can't - I can't...

"You know why! You know why I can't stay home!" Amy pleaded with her. "I - I broke my most important rule!"

"To save Dad's life!"

"And what if that's all it takes? For me to - I can't - I can't slip! I can't let myself slip, or lose control or-" Her breath caught, feeling dampness in her own eyes now. Her throat was tight, her breathing felt... thick. She screwed her eyes shut, trying, desperately trying to control herself. She had to make Vicky see. Her sister always insisted on seeing the best in her, believing in her...

She'd never deserved Victoria's faith. Not now.

Not ever.

"Ames! You won't. I know you. I know you won't do anything like that! You're a good person! A hero!" Her sister raised her voice now.

"Am I?" Amy opened her eyes. "Bonesaw wasn't there to kill me, Vicky! She was there to recruit me! She thought I was Slaughterhouse Nine material!"

Victoria's breath caught for a moment, and she said nothing at first, just staring at Amy. She understands? She needs to understand... Her biological father had been a villain. One of the most infamous in the Bay. She'd broken her most important rule, the rule she'd promised herself she'd never break, the rule she couldn't break... what if that was all it took? What if Bonesaw was right, and she was -

I can't take the chance. I can't let Vicky take the chance. Her eyes darted around. There was nowhere she could run to. She couldn't get to a building before Vicky caught her, and even if she did, her sister would just come in after her -

"That's - she's Bonesaw! She's a crazy mass murderer! She doesn't know anything. She doesn't know you! You would never do anything like that! You're a hero!" Victoria repeated, insisting, asserting something as if that made it true.

...she is crazy though... The way she was so sure all Amy needed to do was kill that hybrid, that... Pagoda and then she had the gall to be shocked Amy wasn't ready to join the Nine...

"You've saved - God, Amy, you've saved more lives, helped more people than all of the rest of New Wave put together!" Victoria went on. She always loved saying that. As if that - as if it was that simple. As if it was enough. All the people she didn't, couldn't heal. And she hated it. Hated every second of it. What kind of hero hated saving lives?

Victoria loved her powers. Loved getting to help people.

What does it say about me that I don't? Amy knew. She'd always known.

"...I hate healing," Amy said. "I hate going to the hospital and -" her breath caught, but she forced herself to keep going, pushing ahead. "One person, after another, after another... it's..." she blinked, more tears in her eyes. "I - you do know how many times I've wished something would just... take my powers away. Or - or I'd screw up, somehow, someone would die and they'd... they'd forgive me but they wouldn't - they'd stop letting me heal." She felt tears rolling down her cheeks, yet another secret she'd tried to keep from her sister coming out.

"I'm not a hero."

"...God, Amy why... why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Because you'd try to make me stop. You already try."

"I try to get you to cut back, to stop sneaking out at night, yeah! I knew - I knew you felt guilty about all the people you can't heal, but..." Victoria trailed off, shaking her head, at a loss for words.

"I'm not a-" Amy started to repeat again. She had - she had to convince her. She had to convince her sister that she wasn't a hero, so Victoria could realize she wasn't safe to be around.

"Stop that! Amy! Stop saying that!" Victoria let out a breath. "Please, Amy you need - I just fucking managed to convince you to let me help you find a therapist, someone to talk to, someone to help you the ways I can't - and then Leviathan attacked and everything went to hell, but we - we can still do that! Maybe - I mean, maybe not with the Nine in town, but... as soon as they're gone! Especially now that Dad's better. Mom was setting money aside for Dad's care so we could afford-"

Amy licked her lower lip, swallowed again. Victoria had painted a wonderful picture, the idea that someone, anyone might be able to help her, help her be normal and not a fucking freak and keep her from becoming like her father and -

"We'd have to tell Carol why I - we can't tell her about- she would never-" Amy's words tripped over themselves. Everything her sister said was so tempting... she wanted it all. But... what if - what if it wasn't enough? It didn't matter what happened to her, as long as -

As long as she didn't hurt Victoria.

"For fuck's sake Amy! I know you don't think Mom loves you and- yes, she sucks, as much as I keep trying to - as much as I wish she didn't, but you're still her daughter. You're right, we can't tell her why you're so afraid, about how you... about how you feel about me." Her sister tried to hide the grimace that passed across her face for a moment, but Amy caught it. Her stomach churned.

Victoria hadn't judged her, when her secret had come out. Hadn't hated her. Had... had still loved her, as a sister. It was more than her wildest dreams had ever imagined was possible. But, even if she never said it, tried to never show it around her, Amy knew it made her sister... uncomfortable, to know how Amy felt. How she felt about her.

"But a member of Slaughterhouse Nine broke into the house, forced you to kill someone and was insane enough to think you would make a good member! Anyone would need a therapist after that!" Her sister lowered her voice, "I need one just knowing it happened at all."

Another time, another place, the way her sister said that would have made Amy smile, laugh, shake her head and remember why she loved her sister so much.

"Carol never wanted me, Vicky." Amy shook her head.

"You've been saying that for years but-"

"My father is Marquis!" Amy blurted out, dragging her last secret squirming out into the light, a last desperate attempt to... keep Victoria away, to force her to leave her, to keep her sister safe, she had to keep her safe.

"Marquis?" Victoria inhaled. "How - how do you know? I know you never wanted to find out - you told me not to try to figure it out."

"I didn't want to know! I - Mom got a letter. I read it. It's - it's under my pillow. My father's a villain." And she - she - she could turn out just like him? What if - what if that was how it had started? Breaking rules. Compromises. Wanting to let people get hurt, die... just because she was selfish?

"You figured that out years ago. Fine, you have his genes," Victoria shook her head. "But Carol and Mark Dallon are your parents. I'm your sister. You're not him. I know you don't believe it, but at least believe me: You're a hero."

Before Amy could step back or try to get away or - or - anything - Victoria had closed the distance between them again, feet settling on the ground, arms around her, pulling her into a painfully tight hug.

"Don't-" Amy started, terror gripping her, desperately trying to reign her power in before she could - before she could do anything to -

Her thoughts short-circuited for a moment.

Victoria's arms were around her, holding her tight, her face buried in her sister's shoulder like so many hugs before, but -

But her hands weren't touching Vicky. Her forcefield was blocking her, holding her back, she couldn't - her power couldn't work through Victoria's forcefield. They'd tested, years ago, when she'd first gotten her power...

"I trust you, Ames." Vicky said softly. "Even if you're an idiot and don't trust yourself. But since you don't... if it will make you come home, then I'll keep my forcefield up around you. Please, come home. We'll - we'll get you somewhere safe. I can't - I can't do this alone, and neither can you."

It was all too much. Everything Amy had tried to hold back, every secret, every disgusting part of herself that she hated, that Vicky should hate too, the terror of Bonesaw's visit, the fear that the psychotic little child could be right, the display of trust and love from her sister -

Her legs buckled under her and she dropped onto her knees, Vicky kneeling down with her. She clung to her sister for dear life, sobs wracking her body.

I shouldn't... I shouldn't be doing this but... but I can't... and -

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She repeated it, over and over again, a prayer and a mantra.

She was - she was too weak to do the right thing, the thing that was best for everyone, but somehow Victoria still loved her, and - and maybe... maybe Victoria could still be safe from her.

She has to be. I can't - I won't let myself hurt her...

---

One And A Half Months Earlier​

You and your sister love each other. It's very sweet and all, but the truth is, you'll never be able to love her the way she really wants you to.

Tattletale's words and her cruel, mocking tone rang in her ears as Victoria zoomed out of the bank through the hole she'd made in the wall when coming in.

She'd barely had a chance to do more than realize the shape of what the Thinker had been saying when the bullet took her by surprise, shattering her forcefield and letting the bugs the bug Master had set to crawling all over her -

The feeling of hundreds, thousands, fuck, maybe tens of thousands of the things crawling, squirming, all over her body - only a few of them actually biting her, but -

How did she figure out - The timing was too perfect. Tattletale had somehow figured out what took down her forcefield and had her teammate set the bugs on her right in time with that.

By the time Victoria had gotten them off, gotten her forcefield back up - there'd been no yelps or screams, none at all, thank you very much - and could fly again, the Undersiders were gone, fled through an even bigger hole in the back wall of the bank, Grue's darkness blocking any clear idea of where they'd gone.

But chasing them was the last thing on Victoria's mind.

She'd heard it, as the bugs had swarmed her, Amy's choked sob as that bug bitch let her go, the sound of Amy dropping to the ground, then getting up and running away -

Tattletale is a villain. Villains lie. She repeated the mantra in her head as she zoomed up, trying to get a look at the streets. Amy couldn't be far - she wasn't much of a runner, and -

She could see the Wards, including Dean, spread out in front of the Bank, some of them looking worse for the wear. The sight of her boyfriend - did he know? Had he -

Victoria shook her head. Villains lie. And what she'd said - it could mean anything, right? Right?

She looked back down again, eyes searching - there! She dove, flying into the alleyway ahead of Amy.

"Amy!" Her sister was crying - Amy saw Victoria, pulled up short, tried to look away so she wouldn't see the tears streaming down her face. She started to turn away. "Amy - don't -" Victoria flew closer to her, and Amy let out another choked sob and dropped to her knees, covering her face.

"Go away." Victoria had heard her sister be grumpy, bitchy, snarky, sad, angry, and all too rarely, happy. But she'd never - she'd never heard her sound so... broken. So despairing. Amy hunched her shoulders, as if trying to make herself as small as she could, as if she was trying to hide.

If - if that Thinker bitch was a liar then... Then Amy wouldn't be like this, would she?

So she'd told the truth, the -

Amy -

Her sister was -

"Tattletale wasn't lying, was she?" It was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Amy just sobbed again, shaking. "Amy... I -" How could she help Amy when her sister wouldn't talk to her? Wouldn't look at her?

She didn't want me to know this. Which made sense. Victoria didn't even know how she was supposed to feel about finding out that her sister was - that her sister was -

In love with her? Not - not in the way she'd always said 'I love you' to her sister, but -

I guess that explains why she hated all the double dates so much.

A villain had just held her sister at knifepoint while robbing a bank and she was thinking about the fact that the reason Amy had hated all the double dates she'd taken her sister on had failed because...

The person Amy wanted to be on a date with was her? Victoria had wondered, suspected if Amy was jealous of her, that she'd secretly liked Dean - Dean who had to know something because when she'd suggested the possibility, he'd changed topics really quickly after dismissing the idea - but... Dean had been the one she was jealous of the whole time, wasn't he?

Victoria didn't even know where to start when it came to grasping how she felt about that. And -

She had bigger problems. She - she could worry about how she felt about this later.

Amy probably thinks I hate her. Tattletale said this would tear my family apart but -

Victoria looked at her sister, crying, hunched, broken.

Victoria didn't know how she felt about Amy loving her like that. But she knew that Amy was her sister, and she loved her - as a sister. Had basically from the moment her Mom and Dad had brought Amy home with them one day and told her that Amy was her new sister.

So whatever else she knew, she knew that she wanted to - had to - help her sister.

She reached out and put a hand on Amy's shoulder. Amy flinched, pulling away, and Victoria bit her lip, letting her hand fall to her side. "Amy - I - we need to talk about... about what Tattletale said."

Amy lowered her hands a little, looking at her. Her sister's eyes were red, her face blotchy, sniffling. "I - I never wanted you to know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she sobbed again, looking back down at the ground. "...please don't hate me." She wrapped her arms around her midsection, hugging herself.

"Amy, you've known me for eleven years. You're one of the most important people in my life. I could never hate you." Be frustrated by her, angry with her sometimes, sure, but - how could she hate her? "I don't - why would you think I could?"

"Because - because I'm a disgusting freak in love with her sister." Amy whimpered. Victoria blinked. Was that really how Amy thought of herself? It - it fit. Her sister was... prone to blaming herself for things that weren't her fault or acting like she'd ruined everything when she made a mistake. Victoria sometimes thought Amy was an unintentional drama queen about things sometimes but...

I mean, this isn't normal - like, it's not but...

"Amy, you're - you're not a fucking freak! Or disgusting." She looked around. There was no one in the alley, but there was every chance that Dean would come looking for her, or someone else might see this, overhear them.

She wanted to go find her boyfriend, grab him - gently - and shake him - gently - until he told her everything he'd known, or suspected. Dean had always told her Amy didn't enjoy the Double Dates they'd gone on. Victoria had always assumed it was just... the wrong guy. That she just needed to find her someone else.

Is - is it just me? Is she gay? Bi? How does - How did any of this happen? It couldn't be normal, but - not normal wasn't the same as a freak. But... there had to be a reason. Victoria knew she was attractive, she knew there were guys - and girls - at Arcadia who had crushes on her and... then there were the gross people online. She really had to be careful about searching her own name - cape or otherwise - online sometimes.

Amy wasn't like any of those people. Amy was her sister. A good person. A hero. So how had this happened? Why? And - and what could Victoria do about it?

She needed to understand what was going on with her sister to help her, but even if she wanted, needed to find out what exactly Dean knew and why he didn't tell her anything about this...

They really shouldn't be having this conversation here.

"I won't - I have so many questions, Ames." Victoria said quietly. "But we really should - we should find a rooftop or something or go home, somewhere we can talk, privately." She gestured to the alleyway. There was a dumpster ten feet away, garbage cans further down, open exits into streets at either end. "Somewhere not here. In the middle of downtown."

Amy swallowed, tried to wipe at her face. "I...you -" she cut herself off, trying - and failing - to take a deep breath. "You can't tell Carol. She can't - she'll - I don't even - I can't even imagine what she'd - she'd throw me out of the house, she-"

"Mom won't throw you out of the house." Victoria interrupted. Amy and their mother were... Their mother was... a lot, in general, and with Amy she could be...

More? Their mother meant well, but she was - she - she was intense, and Amy just had a hard time handling that. Hard time handling her.

"But I won't tell her." Victoria promised. Victoria had no idea what their mom would say or do, but... it couldn't possibly be a good idea for Amy to deal with this when she was like this. She grabbed at Amy's arms, pulling her up to her feet. "Come on. We really shouldn't be talking about this here."

Amy managed a deep breath this time, though it was shaky. She wrapped her arms around herself tighter, pulling her sleeves over her hands. She swallowed, and nodded slowly. "You're right."

Picking her sister up to fly her somewhere was routine by now, but there was nothing routine about the way she held herself this time - still tense, still hunched, hugging herself. Usually Amy held on, but - she almost seemed afraid to touch Victoria now... lifting her up into a princess carry and hovering up slowly.

"This would be a lot easier if you held on," Victoria pointed out. Amy hesitated for a moment, then, hands still hidden inside her sleeves, she nodded, holding on. She started moving faster, getting above the alleyway and looking for a convenient, empty rooftop. Seconds later, she found one, flying over to it quickly.

They didn't usually talk when she flew Amy somewhere, but especially right now, the silence hung between them. Victoria tried to use the brief time it took to reach the rooftop to try to figure out where to start. What to ask.

How to make sure she didn't break Amy worse than she already had? How to help her sister get better?

Setting Amy down once they reached the rooftop, Amy pulled away, taking several steps, wrapping her arms around herself again as she stood there.

Victoria landed lightly on her feet, looking at her sister. "So. You're - you're in love with me."

Amy swallowed, looked away. "I don't want to be."

Well, I mean, they say you can't really control who you love... unless someone like Heartbreaker comes along... Victoria blinked as the second thought occurred to her.

"Wait - I - does my aura have-" Her aura shouldn't have any sort of long-term effects, but it did affect brain chemistry - it usually produced awe or fear, but sometimes for people with weird brain chemistry or who were on a lot of drugs, it could have other impacts...

That one Merchant who got really horny and begged me to step on him... She held back a shudder at the remembrance.

Could - could that somehow -

Was this her fault?

Amy cut her off, shaking her head, "Your aura doesn't have anything to do with it, Vicky." Amy said firmly. "I used to think... maybe it was... a factor. When I first realized how I felt, and I wanted to believe this wasn't because I'm messed up." She exhaled slowly and set down, hugging her knees to her chest. "It's not. I'm just-"

"You're not a freak," Victoria cut her sister off in turn. Okay good. I - I mean - I was pretty sure, but -

None of this made any sense. How had she missed it? Amy wasn't exactly a good liar, and here she was, finding out Amy had kept a secret like this for - for God knew how long?

"I... I'm trying to understand this, Amy." Victoria said after a long, silent moment. "How - how does it - I mean, are you gay? Bi? Is it just... just me?"

Amy said nothing, looking out over the city, then she closed her eyes, taking a breath. "I'm a lesbian. It's... it's not that I - I have found other girls..." She swallowed. "I've found other girls pretty it's just... none of them are you."

Fuck! Forget not noticing that her sister was in love with her - Amy was actively trying to hide that. How had she missed that her sister was -

Her sister was gay, and she hadn't even picked up on it.

"So all of those double dates-?"

"Torture. For lots of reasons." Reasons more than just 'date with a guy she could never possibly be into'.

Seeing her with Dean? Wishing she was the one on the date with her?

I mean, she said she doesn't want to feel like this but - she does, so... Victoria shook her head, trying to push those thoughts aside.

Her sister had been gay this whole time and Victoria - who had gay and bi friends for fuck's sake! - hadn't noticed! Even a little!

What kind of sister am I? If she'd known, or even had the slightest idea she could have - she could have helped, at least a little!

"God, Amy... why didn't you ever tell me?" Victoria shook her head and kept going when Amy started to open her mouth. "I mean - about being gay? I - I do wish you'd told me how you felt sooner," she could have helped her sooner, "but... for fuck's sake. You remember my friend Kelly?"

Amy blinked, confused, "The one with red hair, taller than you? Still plays basketball?"

"Yeah. She's gay. Out and everything, even in Nazi Town, USA. She asked me once, last year, if there was even a chance you were into girls, if I could put in a good word or something. I mean - I said there wasn't - I figured you'd have told me if - I mean, I tell you everything!"

This one hurt. Not being told. Her sister keeping this from her.

Victoria closed her eyes. This isn't about me. It was - but -

She could get angry with Amy about this later.

She looked back at her sister, who had hunched over, into herself a bit more.

Damnit.

"I'm sorry." Victoria let out a long breath. "I just - I wish you'd told me about being gay, at least. I could have at least tried... to-"

"It wouldn't have mattered," Amy countered quietly. "Kelly - she's - I mean, she's pretty and... tall and she has - she has a nice chest..." She saw the faintest hint of a flush on her sister's face, but it passed quickly.

So - she's into tall girls with nice boobs? Victoria tried not to think about how that did technically describe her.

"But she's not - she's not - I wouldn't have been able to date her."

"...Because she's not me?" Victoria asked. Amy let out a low groan, covering her face as she nodded. She moved over towards her sister - not getting too close, in case Amy recoiled from her again - and sat down, facing her. "I mean, I - I know I'm attractive," she felt no shame in admitting it. She did work hard to look this good...

Not that genetics didn't help, but still.

"But - I mean... am I that pretty?"

"It's not that simple." She inhaled another slow breath, letting out just as slowly before continuing, "I - I don't remember much, about when Carol first took me from... wherever I was when I lived with... with him," Amy rarely said 'my biological father', when talking about the man. Her sister didn't have a lot of memories from before she'd become her sister. She remembered a mother, vaguely, and then just as vaguely a father. Her biological mother was dead, she was pretty sure, but -

She'd asked their parents, Aunt Sara, Uncle Neil - she'd asked them about her father, a few times, though not in years. They'd always been evasive, and Mom especially hated it when Amy had asked, being more stern than usual. None of them had given Victoria answers when she'd asked either. After being given the runaround a few times, it hadn't been hard for the two of them to figure out that had to mean Amy's biological father had been a villain, of some sort. Birdcaged, presumably.

Victoria had wanted to look it up immediately - still wanted to. It wouldn't have been hard to figure out who the Brigade had taken down around the time Amy came to live with them and work from there. Amy had always said no.

And thanks to Tattletale, Victoria knew why.

I almost want to thank that smug bitch. Punch her in the face too, but...

"But I do remember - I remember you." Amy continued, bringing Victoria's focus back to her sister's explanation. "You just needed to be told that I was your sister now and you... you accepted me immediately. Loved me. Meanwhile, Mark was... he tried, but..." she shook her head, trailing off.

"And Carol," Amy continued. "She was... she was never comfortable around me. Always watched me like... watched me to see if I was going to screw up. She's still not comfortable around me. I can feel it, anytime I touch her, even by accident. Anytime I heal her."

"That's just Mom." Victoria said, the words sounding weak, pathetic. "She's never relaxed."

"...That's not it. I - Vicky, I can't remember the last time she ever hugged me, or said she was proud of me. When I first got my powers, I thought... I thought that finally, she'd say it."

Like with you. The last three words were unsaid, but Victoria didn't need to hear it. She tensed, remembering what that moment had felt like. The basketball game, the foul - realizing her parents would never really... never really have time for her, unless she had powers.

It had worked, sort of. Mom had said she was proud of her, more often, after she'd gotten her powers. But she also got lectures and direction and Mom got even more controlling, in a lot of ways.

It was one of the things that had always kept her coming back to Dean - he understood it, the weight of expectation from a parent who cared about the 'role' a child played more than the child themselves.

"And then... and then I thought if I..." Amy trailed off, shook her head. "This isn't about Carol. This is... you were the only person in my life who accepted me. Loved me unconditionally. You were always there for me." She blinked repeatedly, tears gathering in her eyes again. "On Mark's bad days, you were the only thing that made living in that house bearable." She shook her head. "Not were. Are."

Victoria swallowed. "Amy... You can't -" she cut herself off. Amy could. She could mean that. She did.

"I don't know... I don't know when a wire got crossed, or... or when I realized. There was no... single moment when I woke up and realized - realized how I felt about you." Amy explained. She wiped at her eyes, but more tears continued to gather, trail down her cheeks. "I used to think if I... If I understood it enough, if I could figure out the how, I could... undo it."

"Stop loving me?"

"Stop loving you... like this." Amy nodded. "You're my sister, Vicky. That's... that's all I've ever wanted to be, your sister." She sounded choked, voice thick, her throat probably tight from the crying.

"There's... there's a psychological theory, called the Westermark Effect." Amy said quietly. Victoria didn't recognize the name, and Amy went on after a moment. "It was proposed to explain why almost every human culture has an incest taboo. Or - or how it emerges, anyway." She took a shuddering breath, then went on. "The theory goes that children raised around each other as siblings, or close, before the age of six sort of... develop an aversion to the idea of romantic of sexual attraction to one another."

Despite her reputation on PHO, Victoria was not an idiot. "And you were six when you came to live with us." Amy nodded. "So being gay and me being attractive were just... icing on the cake?" Amy nodded again.

Somehow it was... almost a bit a relief to know that Amy's feelings for her weren't just because of her looks? That it was something deeper?

Victoria swallowed, as she considered that thought, and that relief. Why -

Why should she feel better about it being because... because Amy never felt like she belonged? Because Mom had really -

Victoria couldn't believe Mom didn't care about Amy. Why would she have adopted her, villain's daughter or not, if she didn't care about her? Didn't want her? Amy had to be wrong about that.

But... none of that changed how it had to feel. She was wracking her own brain, trying to think of the last time Mom had hugged Amy. It had to have happened. Mom wasn't - she wasn't much of a hugger, but she did do it sometimes. Aunt Sarah. Dad. Uncle Neil. Their cousins, a few times.

Me.

So she had to have hugged Amy sometimes. But the fact that Victoria couldn't think of when... it was pretty damning.

"Amy," Victoria closed the distance between her and her sister, pulling her in for a hug before Amy could recoil. "I'm sorry you've been dealing with... I'm sorry you've been hurting like this, and I never noticed."

Her sister tried to squirm away, didn't return the hug. "You shouldn't - you shouldn't touch me," Amy whimpered.

"Why? Because of how you feel about me? Amy, this... you're still my sister. I don't love you like that, but I do love you, and you've been suffering in silence for... years. You don't have to do that anymore. You'll... You'll get through this, and I'll help you." Victoria blinked repeatedly, feeling a bit of wetness in her own eyes. "You said I've always been there for you, but you've always been there for me. Even when I'm bitching about Dean or when - when you bail me out because I let my anger get the better of me."

Victoria knew it stressed her sister out, that Amy didn't like it, when she asked her to do that. Even if she did sometimes enjoy playing mind games on the assholes she healed for her. Like that Nazi the other day, implying she'd given him erectile dysfunction.

I really need to stop doing that. Stop letting them make me lose - She cut that thought off. That wasn't right.

I need to stop letting myself lose control like that. She'd said it before. Every time, even. Just like she'd promised Amy it wouldn't happen again, every time.

But this time she would make it work. The last thing her sister needed was more stress. More things to deal with.

She pulled back, one hand on Amy's shoulder, "I don't hate you. You're not a freak."

Amy swallowed, meeting her gaze for a moment, then looking down and away. She didn't believe her.

Victoria would just have to keep saying it, keep beating Amy over the head with it until she did.

Her sister really could be stubborn sometimes.

She wasn't sure how she could help Amy. Her first thought - finding Amy a girlfriend - was... probably not going to be as easy as she'd like. In theory though, if she could -

Amy doesn't have a lot of friends. Doesn't go anywhere. Pushes people away. Just goes to school and heals and that's about it. Put it like that... no wonder her sister had latched onto her the way she had?

In theory, then... if she could just convince Amy to give someone a chance... that might help? Probably the easiest way to get Amy over her, right?

Just have to find someone right for her that I can convince her to consider.

But... as obvious a solution as it seemed to Victoria... she doubted her sister would be convinced so easily.

Definitely no suggesting double dates for... a month, at least.

Victoria let her hand fall to her side.

"You still shouldn't-" Amy started. She choked off her words, then she started to speak again, stopped, closed her mouth.

"The only reason you don't hate me is because you don't - you don't realize what I can do." Amy said, sounding certain.

"Amy, I don't hate you because there's nothing you'd actually be capable of doing that could make me hate you." Victoria countered, trying not to snap at her. It's like talking to a brick wall! Amy had probably been convincing herself that Victoria would hate her if she found out for years, but how long would it take for her sister to get it!?

"Do you understand what my power can do? I- I'm not just a healer, Vicky. I can change anything about someone's body, as long as I have biomass to work with. I could make someone grow a third eye or make their blood carry less oxygen or - I mean, I threatened to fuck up that bug girl's taste buds so everything tasted like bile. I could... I could make a plant that made kudzu look like child's play!"

Victoria blinked. She'd known Amy's power could do more, but - she could just... make a plant? That was... bad idea to make super kudzu, but that meant she could probably make something really cool too, right?

"Okay. That's not - Amy, help me out here, why is any of this a bad thing? I mean, I'm sure the PRT wouldn't like it if you made super kudzu, but..." She shook her head, not seeing the problem.

"Do you realize what it means that I can do brains, when I have that sort of power? When I can do that much?" She stood up, starting to pace, refusing to look at her. "Your entire personality... everything that makes you you is there, in the brain. And I could change any of it! A single mistake in healing brain damage could change everything about a person! And that's only if I make a mistake?" Amy pressed her palms against her temples, tangling her fingers in her frizzy hair. "What if I changed something on purpose?!"

Victoria stared at Amy. What did this have to do with what they'd just been talking about? Or was her sister just taking the chance to talk about something else that was bothering her? Explaining why she had such a hard rule about brains? Victoria felt like she was missing something obvious, some... thing that would explain why Amy was bringing this up now.

"Okay? But I mean, you wouldn't change something on purpose. You're a good person, Amy. You've saved so many lives, healing. More lives than the rest of New Wave put together. So what if you could do worse? Threatening to fuck with the taste buds of a villain holding a knife to you is hardly that big a deal. Nothing against - nothing against the stuff I've done! And I could do a lot worse too, and I don't!"

Not that the prospect of actually doing that worse didn't come to mind. She tried not to linger on those thoughts, when she had them. What she had done those six times she'd needed to call in Amy to bail her out was bad enough.

Amy let out an inarticulate sound of frustration. "You don't - you don't get it! With my power, if - if I lost control or if I slipped, or if I - if I ended up like him, like my father - you don't love me like that, but if - but if it all became too much, I could - I could make you." Amy looked at her, eyes wide, pleading, "I don't want to, I'm not - but it would be so easy. So easy to slip. So easy to lose control. So easy to change you. That's why I don't touch brains. So I don't slip. So I don't... so I can't do anything. So I don't... go down that slope. So I don't start making excuses, and then one day, when it's too late for me to stop it, I've just... I've become a villain, I've become just like my father and then I stop caring and I just... I just reach out -"

She hugged herself again. "I'm so afraid, one mistake, and... I'll be a monster worse than Heartbreaker." She looked down at the ground again, voice small, quiet, terrified. "I don't want to."

Victoria felt like her brain was screeching to a halt at her sister's confession. She couldn't think of anything for a long moment, no words, no ideas, no - anything.

She knew a lot about how powers worked. And she'd thought a lot about what powers could do, how they could be applied. She'd... somehow manage to miss the sheer breadth of what Amy could do, but she was so used to thinking of her sister as a healer, and nothing but... but this...

This was even more than that.

Her sister had the power to do something so... so monstrous. To change something about a person like that. Victoria wasn't sure she'd say it was worse than Heartbreaker - sounded about the same really - but...

Amy wouldn't actually do that? Obviously. If nothing else - her sister had had her powers for two years and change. She'd had the ability to do that to her this whole time, to make Victoria love her - and Amy had been in love with her that whole time. But obviously it hadn't happened, given that...

Given that I'm not in love with her.

But for some reason, her sister was afraid she'd - she'd do it?

Amy was a hero. A good person. And even if she was... a little messed up (and who wasn't?), she wouldn't, couldn't do that. Mom had the ability to hurt a lot of people, if she wanted. Aunt Sarah or Crystal could wreck all kinds of destruction. God only knew what Dragon could do if she decided to turn villain.

None of them would. None of them could. Because they were heroes.

Just like her sister.

"For fuck's-" Victoria started, raising her voice, then she cut herself off. "Amy, you're not your biological father. You're a hero, not a villain. Villainy isn't genetic. Kaiser isn't a racist piece of shit because of Allfather's DNA, he's a racist piece of shit because he's a racist piece of shit! Your parents are Carol and Mark Dallon. Heroes. Just like you. Our whole family is heroes. You're not capable of doing something so evil."

"What if - what if that's what he thought? If he started out justifying, assuming he couldn't do something bad, and kept - and - and then one day he -" Amy cut herself off again, gasping a little, screwing her eyes shut to hold back tears. "I'm just so afraid. That I'll turn out like him. Or that I'll lose control, just for a moment, and destroy everything."

Victoria stepped closer to her sister. "Ames. I've known you for eleven years. Whoever the fuck your sperm donor is, he's not your dad. I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it, but you're a hero. A good person. And you're not - you're not fucking capable of doing something like that. To anyone! Least of all me." She reached out, and grabbed her sister's shoulder again, holding tight without actually pressing down enough to hurt her.

"Amy, look at me, please." She said it again, when Amy didn't look, and then her sister opened her eyes and looked at her. "I know you'd never do anything like that on purpose. And if - if you do slip, or lose control, which I also don't think would happen, then just tell me. Tell me, and then fix it." A thought occurred, and she laughed softly. "As long as you do that, I promise I won't hate you if you accidentally brainwash me. Deal?"

"Vicky! How can you just -"

"Trust you? Why not? I know you, Amy." She said again. She pulled her hand off Amy's shoulder and held them open, inviting Amy in for a hug. "I know you, I trust you, and I love you. You've been keeping this all bottled up, so convinced I'd hate you if I found out. Well I don't. And I won't. So please, let me help you, just like you've always helped me."

Amy looked at her spread arms, biting her lower lip for a moment, hesitating, warring with herself. Then she nodded, and came in close. Victoria closed her arms around her sister, holding her tight, feeling Amy do the same for her.

Victoria knew she'd have a lot to unpack later, when it was just her, when she wasn't at risk of making things worse for Amy. But that was for later.

For right now...

"I promise, we'll get through this."

"How?" Amy asked, plaintive, desperate, all fight gone from her now.

"I don't know. But we'll figure it out together, alright?"

"Together." Amy replied.

"Good."

Victoria had always known her sister wasn't happy that often, not for years. She'd tried to help her, and nothing had really worked. But, now that she understood what was going on with her sister, Victoria could help her. She'd figure it out. She was Glory Girl. There wasn't anything she couldn't do if she worked at it. Now that she knew.

Still want to punch Tattletale though.

---

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So, a lot of concluding thoughts.

Amy's depiction of Carol is not entirely fair. I do actually think Carol loves Amy. She just sucks at showing it and it's hidden behind layers of reflexive suspicion and hostility. On the other hand, Vicky is a little too rose-tinted about her family, or at least, she wants to be. She tries to be. She does know her Mom kinda sucks, that is a big part of why she triggered. But I do firmly believe that Victoria Dallon tries really hard to pretend that the family is more hunky-dory than it is.

Not everyone might believe that Victoria would be so chill upon leaning about all this, especially the brains thing. I tend to think that Victoria 1.) Considers Amy her favorite person in the whole world right now (and did up until that critical moment in 11h), and 2.) Is so sure that her sister is a good person (because Vicky did get some of Carol's black/white moral thinking too, after all) that the idea of Amy doing what actually happened in Canon in 11h is unthinkable to her. Hopefully I sold it for this depiction of Victoria, at least.

But Victoria's not actually chill about all this. She's very much trying hard to suppress working through how she feels about this right now, because she doesn't want to make things worse for Amy.

If this was eventually turned into a longer fic, a significant part of the story would be focusing on Victoria dealing with how she feels about all this - and she doesn't like it. And as much as neither she nor Amy want it to, it will make her rethink past interactions with her sister, future interactions... things aren't exactly going to just go back to normal. And as much as Victoria wants to help Amy, she's going to realize there's a limit to how much she can do on her own, and as the first part shows, she's going to try to get Amy to talk to a therapist.

Amy's path to better, in any universe that is close to or diverges from canon, is a long and hard one. But the crucial first steps have been taken. The simple act of knowing Victoria knows and doesn't hate her would be a huge weight off of Amy's shoulders. I firmly believe that as of Interlude 3, Amy had largely given up. Just given up in general. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.

Now? Now there is. Obviously, Mark getting brain damage set things back a lot for her, and Bonesaw's visit saw her in nearly the same place she was in canon, but because Vicky knows what Amy is afraid of now, that crucial final nail in the coffin of Amy's psyche is never hammered in. And, spoiler alert, it's never going to get hammered in. S9 trying to recruit her will not be fun for Amy, at all, but the first scene of this oneshot would, in the notional longer fic, be rock bottom for her. She won't get worse than that.

The longer fic would start with this - first scene and all - and then pick up with Amy's POV after the second scene and through her and Victoria dealing with all this, and what it means, and how to try to get better. Long-term, I'm not really sure how much it really diverges, beyond what happens with Vicky and Amy. They're still in the bay after 15.x, but what does that do? What are their experiences during the S9 arcs, and how do those impact them?

Does Victoria get to punch Tattletale? Can I find a way to somehow make Taylor/Amy happen by the end of the fic, because I'm a diehard, hopeless shipper? Honestly, no idea. If the longer fic does someday happen, I guess we'll find out together, eh?

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: This is actually one of my earliest Wormfic ideas, though not the earliest, and it is also the only snippet you'll see for a while that has an extensive outline written for the associated notional fic. My original plan was to have this be the first long Wormfic I actually wrote and posted, but then other ideas took hold and those ones will be my first long Wormfics. But I still had a very strong idea of this scene in particular, so I still wanted to write it.

In the notional long fic of this idea, this would probably be the second chapter, rather than the first, but this scene is the first one I imagined for the idea, and the notional first chapter doesn't really work as a standalone bit. Some of the exposition herein would be cut and moved to chapter 1, in the longer version.

---

---

What the fuck did you do?

As far as sentences to tattoo themselves on her left shoulder, Amy Dallon could think of much better.

But then... you never did get to choose what your soulmate first said to you, did you?

She let her hand drop from the collar of her shirt, her arm falling to her side as she stared at her reflection in the mirror on her closet door, her shirt collar partially slipping back into place, half-covering her soulmate tattoo, soulmate mark, whatever you wanted to call it.

Amy pulled away from the mirror, looking away. She hated looking at her reflection. At her plain, brown, frizzy, uncontrollable hair. At her stupid freckles. Her brown eyes. At everything that reminded her - as if she even needed a reminder - that she didn't belong in her family.

That she wasn't really a Dallon.

"Can't even manage having a soulmate right, can you Amy?" Amy muttered to herself, dropping down onto her bed. She didn't want to think about the fact that the bug-controlling villain that had held a knife to her throat just hours before was apparently her goddamn soulmate. But given that the only other thoughts she could force her mind to focus on right now were what Tattletale had - and hadn't -said, or her conversation with Dean...

Amy had never imagined she'd have a soulmate. She'd never been one of those kids dreaming of the idea. Vicky had, for a while, before she met Dean and decided she didn't like soulmates anymore.

Given that only one, maybe two percent of the population had a soulmate, it hadn't been like there was much danger of her having one. Or having to think about what she'd do if she met hers. Or what the fuck it meant that a thief who thought it was a good idea to sick black widow spiders on innocent people was apparently her 'perfect match'.

Is this how it happens? Another way it happens? Another way I end up being like him? She screwed her eyes shut, trying to hold back tears.

If it had been almost anyone else, Amy might actually have... have been... happy to find out she had a soulmate? Maybe?

That there was someone in the world she was at least theoretically capable of loving, of being happy with, that wasn't her fucking sister? That maybe she wasn't so completely fucked up and broken and disgusting that someone might actually be capable of loving her?

Two years ago, a year ago - that would have been amazing news. Even now... maybe it would count for something.

If it wasn't a villain.

At least it's not Tattletale. Amy might have just let the bug bitch slit her throat then.

Amy focused on that... that anger. It was better than dwelling on the rest of it. She didn't know what or who or how decided soulmates. No one did. But whatever it was, what have it the fucking right to decide she was matched with that... that -

Okay, so she had no idea what the girl actually looked like under her creepy mask. She had nice hair though, and she was tall....

Amy clawed at her bedsheets as she registered what had just passed through her mind. Nope. No. No. Fuck - fuck this. She sat up, hands on the sides of her head, fingers tangling in her hair.

"It doesn't fucking matter if she's my fucking soulmate," Amy muttered. "She's a villain. She's evil. She has power and she's using it to hurt people and steal from a goddamn bank!"

Not every pair of soulmates worked out. Amy didn't know how common it was, she'd never looked it up, but you heard stories about it.

But a lot of them do.

Amy pressed her palms against her temples harder, trying to push that thought, all its implications out of her head.

It painted a terrifyingly tempting idea. If her soulmate was a villain, it wouldn't matter if she turned out like her father, right? And - and it was someone who could love her. Someone she could love, could maybe be happy with, that wasn't Vicky.

It would be a way to feel free of - of her worst fears.

It was a way out. Something to grab onto. Something to keep her from drowning. Something, someone, some way she could...

"No." Amy bit the inside of her cheek, almost drawing blood. Her breathing was ragged, shaky.

She couldn't - she couldn't just -

The sound of a knock on her door forced her out of her head.

"Amy?"

Amy pulled her hands away from her temples, covering her eyes a moment, forcing herself to take a deeper breath. There was only one person it could be. Her sister. Here to check on her now that she was done sulking over getting bitten by Skitter's bugs.

My soulmate's bugs. God, this just kept getting better and better.

"I'm fine!" Amy let out with a groan.

And now she's even less likely to believe you.

"Amy, you're a terrible liar," Vicky said before opening the door anyway, slipping in and closing it behind her. "I'm sorry I was... I'm not used to being vulnerable, in a fight. I kinda snapped at you after you took care of all those bites. I shouldn't have."

"It's fine." Amy said, lowering her hands, looking at her sister.

Looking at her sister, and comparing what little she knew of Skitter's appearance, Amy couldn't even begin to understand how... how was the other girl her soulmate? As horrifying as Tattletale ending up as her soulmate would have been, at least the other girl seemed to be closer to her type.

Assuming Vicky is my type, and not just me being a broken, messed up freak.

"Apology accepted," she added, so her sister wouldn't misinterpret, wouldn't think she was still mad at her.

"Okay, that's good." Victoria sat down on the edge of her bed, reaching a hand out, taking hers. Amy felt everything about her sister's body 'appear' in her mind. It was impossible to describe to anyone else (and she'd tried, at Victoria's urging) what she actually 'saw', when her power read biology. At least it wasn't - it would have been even worse if what she 'saw' turned her on, but she wasn't so gross as to respond to reading her sister's biology like that.

"But you're not fine. I saw how you were when Tattletale started talking about... whatever secret you think you need to hide from me."

Humiliation. Shame. Heartbreak.

"You don't need to tell me." Victoria said, holding up a hand quickly. She felt the truth in Victoria's biology. She meant it. Amy's newly tense shoulders relaxed, just a little, she loosened the grip her free hand had had on her sheets. "I - I want to ask, but I won't. I meant what I said - I trust you."

You shouldn't. If Amy really was a hero, she'd tell Victoria, tell her sister, so that she knew what kind of danger she could be in. But she'd lose her sister forever, even if Victoria would be safer and...

Amy couldn't do that. Couldn't lose the only thing she had.

She was too selfish to even let go of Victoria's hand, the comfort of her reassuring her, of knowing that Victoria meant what she was saying.

"But I just... I just wanted to tell you that. That I do trust you, I wasn't just - performing for the villain or whatever." She squeezed Amy's hand. "You know I love you, and whatever it is, I'm still going to be your sister. Nothing changes that."

It's not that simple. It'll change everything. You'll hate me. Victoria meant it now, but she couldn't know how bad Amy's secret was.

"Aaaand you don't believe me." Victoria said. Amy blinked. "It's all over your face. You think I'm going to... what, judge you or something? Maybe I should ask."

"No!" Amy raised her voice, responding maybe too quickly, but she - she couldn't let Victoria get hung up on this issue. When her sister got an idea in her head, she could - she sometimes refused to let it go. Hence all those godawful double dates. This was one thing Amy couldn't let Vicky decide to not let go. "I - I don't want to talk about it." She said, quieter, looking down at her lap.

"Okay... I won't push, I promise. Not right now." Victoria let go of Amy's hand, her biology fading from her 'view' just as quickly as it had formed. "Just... really, no lying that you're fine, are you okay?"

Amy said nothing for a long moment, swallowing, biting the inside of her cheek again. Was that going to be enough? Victoria said she wouldn't push 'right now', but if she -

How can I make sure she doesn't linger on this at all?

"No. Not really." Amy admitted, since her sister already knew she wasn't. She swallowed again, bringing her hand up to her shoulder without even thinking about what she was doing, slipping under her shirt collar to press against the little raised lines.

I... I could -

If nothing else, maybe this would convince Vicky to stop arranging double dates? It would definitely distract her from that fucking Thinker's taunts, right?

"I - I'm more bothered by this, than anything," Amy lied. Victoria said she was a terrible liar, but Amy had gotten away with telling her she wasn't going to sneak out to the hospital again over a dozen times. Her sister wasn't as good at telling if she was lying as she liked to think.

Victoria stared at the words on her skin. "You got a tattoo? Mom is going to freak out!" She giggled for a moment, then her brow furrowed, eyes narrowing. "Wait, why would you get those..." Victoria's words came slower with each one, and she looked up, meeting Amy's eyes.

"You have a soulmate tattoo!" She spread her arms wide, letting out a high-pitched sound of delight that Amy didn't have the words to describe further. The force of Vicky's hug crashing into her was almost a tackle, and she only didn't fall over onto the bed because her sister's arms around her shoulders were keeping her up.

Amy didn't return the hug, struck dumb by the suddenness of it all. It took several seconds for her brain to reboot, while Victoria kept talking.

"You met your soulmate - holy shit Amy! You - I'm so happy for you! That - that's why none of the double dates worked out, because you had a soulmate and you just hadn't met them yet!"

As Amy's brain started working again, her sister pulled back, hands still on her shoulders, meeting her gaze again.

Well, I wanted a distraction. I guess this works.

"Who is it? Do we know them? No, I mean, of course not, if we knew them you'd have met them already and this - this is new. Right?" Victoria narrowed her eyes. "You weren't keeping this hidden for a long time so you could break it out to distract me sometime, right?"

Fuck. Vicky knowing it was a distraction didn't stop it from being one though?

"No! It happened today. And... you have met them. Sorta. Seen them and know a name for them, anyway." She exhaled, moving her hands to her lap, looking down at them.

"That narrows it down. It's one of the Undersiders, isn't it?" Amy nodded. "Please tell me it isn't Regent. Dean says he's probably Hijack. You know, one of Heartbreaker's kids."

"Why - why do you leap straight to him?" Did Victoria think Regent was her type? Why would she think that?

"Well, I mean, Grue's pretty muscular, and that's never really seemed your type-"

"I like muscles just fine!" Amy snapped defensively, raising her voice a touch. "Just because I've never been interested in any of the brainless meathead jocks-"

"Oh, come on Amy, give me more credit than that." Vicky threw up a hand in protest, "Fine, you've never liked any of the guys I've tried to set you up with, but I wouldn't pick some random brainless meathead jock for you. So between Grue and Regent I just sort of figured it would-" Victoria cut herself off.

Amy tensed, but before she could brace herself for the worst, Victoria was smacking the palm of her hand against her forehead.

"Fuck! I'm an idiot! Of course you didn't like any of those guys! You're gay aren't you!? God, I'm a shitty sister. How the fuck did I not notice?"

"...because I was trying to hide it?" Amy offered, shrinking in on herself. This was - this was inevitable, since she was revealing that her soulmate was a woman, but - there were reasons why she hadn't wanted Victoria to know she was gay, and as the months and years of keeping it in had piled up, the reasons to not tell her had just piled up too.

The betrayed look on her sister's face, mouth open a little, eyebrows drawn together.

"Why? Why didn't you tell me? I mean, I - you didn't think I'd have an issue with it, right?"

"No! No! Not at all, Vicky. I don't think you're - I don't think you're homophobic! And you're not a shitty sister!" Victoria was the best sister Amy could have ever asked for. From the first moment she'd been told Amy was her sister, that's all Victoria had ever been.

The one thing about her life that -

Amy closed her eyes, trying to clamp down on that train of thought.

"Then why didn't you want to tell me?" Victoria's still sounded hurt, but maybe a little less, at least. That was good. She hated it when Vicky was upset. Which her sister knew, and used against her all the damn time...

"I wasn't - I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to come out." I wasn't ready to risk you having one more piece of the puzzle and figuring it out. "I tell you, you'd keep it secret, but you'd start suggesting girls I can do double dates with you and Dean and I'd say no, and you'd keep at it and then next thing you know all we're at Massimo's and - and then the the tabloids are taking pictures and Panacea is out as a gay cape. In Nazi Capital, USA."

It wasn't the biggest reason she'd kept things hidden, but it was part of it. Especially with what had happened to Aunt Jess...

Empire Eighty-Eight might have had another 'rogue element' decide to shoot her one day. And if she got seriously hurt, or worse... Victoria would get herself a Birdcage sentence or die trying, plowing through the gang. Leaving aside that she didn't want to get hurt or killed, she didn't want Vicky to do that out of revenge...

"I wouldn't have pressured you to come out like that!"

"Tell me you wouldn't have kept suggesting it. Talking up the merits of any gay or bi girls you knew, or that Dean knew. Wheedling." Amy muttered, not meeting her sister's eyes.

Victoria started to reply, then cut herself off, paused, then nodded. "Okay... I probably would have. A little. But I - we wouldn't have to go anywhere public! There's places the tabloids can't get to and - I just want you to be happy Amy, right? You know that's why I kept proposing the double dates."

She paused, and muttered another curse. "Dean knew, didn't he? He was always telling me to ease off on the double dates, that you weren't liking any of them, that he knew you wouldn't like any of the guys I was ever thinking of... he'd never tell me why because of course he'd never out someone." She grumbled as she went on: "I really respect his insistence on keeping what he picks up from people private but it's annoying sometimes."

"I... it wouldn't surprise me if Dean knew." Amy said after hesitating. Of course the only thing she actually appreciated about her sister's boyfriend would be the thing Vicky disliked the most about him. "He never said anything about it to me." Not about her being gay anyway.

She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. "Even if we tried keeping it under the radar, it would get out. Carol would find out eventually, and if Carol finds out, then Aunt Sarah finds out, and then the next thing you know they're making me the face of a New Wave pride merch campaign or something like that. Having me to outreach events with gay and trans kids and -" Amy's rambling, increasing in anxious speed with every word, was cut off by her sister taking her hand and squeezing it.

"Ames, breathe." Amy forced herself to close her eyes and inhale, centering herself, looking over her sister's biology again. Feeling how much Vicky cared about her, and meant what she started to say next as Amy let the breath out.

"I... I hate to admit it, but you're probably right about what Aunt Sarah would do too. And... I mean, outreach events are important, especially with gay and trans kids and stuff, but... you'd be absolutely miserable with all of it."

"Yeah." Amy nodded, looking back down at her lap, at her hand in Vicky's.

Victoria let go of Amy's hand and then clapped her hands together. "Okay, so keep it under wraps for now, but I mean, you have a soulmate now, you can't keep that hidden forever."

"She's a villain."

"Details, details. Which one is it? Hellhound? Tattletale? The bug girl?"

"Skitter." At Victoria's raised eyebrow, she added, "That's the name the Wards settled on for her, since she didn't have one."

"Creepy name to go with her creepy-ass outfit." Victoria mused. Then she inclined her head to the side. "She did have nice hair though."

Of course Victoria would notice that. Amy conveniently ignoring that she had noticed it too. "I guess..." She looked away.

"Ooooh, have a thing for girls with long hair?" Victoria smirked. "Good to know."

"Doesn't matter. Soulmate or not, she's a villain. A thief. And- creepy. And held a knife to my throat. And sicked Black Widow spiders on people, and had her bugs bite Clockblocker - you don't even want to know where."

"I mean, I had her bugs biting me all over too, so... no, I really don't want to know." Victoria agreed. "It's a sucky power for her to have, but not everyone can be Alexandria Packages or the most amazing healer in the entire goddamn world you know." She gave Amy a very gentle fist-bump against her shoulder. Amy felt her cheeks get hot and she looked down.

I'm not - I'm not the - I'm not that. An amazing healer wouldn't hate every minute of it. Wouldn't let people suffer from brain injuries they could treat in a minute just because they're too much of a coward. Too pathetic to -

Victoria snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Hey, Amy, Earth to Amy." Amy jolted, startled, lurching back a second. "We're not done talking about this. I want to know everything that happened."

"I told you. I hit her with a fire extinguisher after messing with her bugs, then she hit me with her baton, and then smashed my phone, you burst in, and she held a knife to my throat."

"Yeah, but you didn't mention she was your soulmate! Fuck, why did she do all that if-"

"Because she was in the middle of robbing the bank? Still processing it? I'm sure it's bad for her villainous reputation to have a hero as her soulmate." That thought was giving her a little satisfaction. The idea that Tattletale or one of the other Undersiders was giving Skitter shit, or would, if they found out.

Let her feel what it's like to be subjected to that bitch.

And it wasn't like Amy hadn't threatened to give her cancer back. Way to fucking go Amy. She really couldn't even do having a soulmate right.

"Yes, yes, yes, fine, whatever." Victoria waved a hand to the side dismissively. "I guess you messing with her bugs explains why her first words were to you were 'What the fuck did you do?' But what did you say to her? What's her tattoo?"

"You don't need to know that." Amy said quietly.

"Oh, come on! Amy!" Victoria stretched out the word 'on', pleading, exasperated, hands raised. "You can't leave me hanging like this, I'm dying of curiosity here! I wanna know what the first thing said to your soulmate was!"

How can you be the smartest person I know and also be so stupid sometimes, Vicky?

"No, I mean... that's what I said to her."

Victoria's mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth and she dropped her hands. "Oh. Right." She managed a rueful expression after a second. "That makes sense." She stood up, off the bed, floating a little into the air. With the door closed, Carol couldn't tell her 'no flying in the house'. "Okay, so, you're gay. I wish I'd known sooner, but I get why you didn't want to come out yet. Your soulmate is Skitter, and you guys probably at least make the top one percent for worst soulmate meetings ever, but I mean -" Victoria grinned, "You have a soulmate! You met her! You should be like - this is a good thing Ames! You should be happier about this!"

Right. Because it's not a sign from the universe that Carol's right. Her 'mother' didn't need to say it - and hadn't - but Amy knew she was just waiting for her to turn out like her father, whoever she was.

"Soulmate or not, she's a villain. She hurt people."

"I checked PHO, you know. This was her first outing, as far as anyone can tell, apart from maybe a tangle with the ABB a couple days ago. It's not like she has a whole rap sheet," Victoria said, not sounding like she was trying to convince herself - which she should, because the rationalizations were paper thin. She paused for a long moment, and actually stroked her chin, clearly thinking.

God, you're such a fucking nerd Vicky. Despite her mood, she couldn't help thinking of that time Victoria had gone as Sherlock Holmes for Halloween, complete with the pipe and everything. She'd used it any time she wanted to make a show of thinking for like, a month after.

"Assault and Battery are married, you know."

The complete non sequitur made Amy stare at her sister, eyebrows raised.

"I know. You told me that one last year." She'd picked it up from Dean, or maybe one of the other Wards.

"Right, I'm not - there's a rumor they're not just married, but soulmates. I don't know if that one is true but there's a separate and better supported rumor that Assault used to be a villain."

Amy blinked. Then opened her mouth. Then blinked again. "One of the Protectorate heroes used to be a villain?"

"Yeah. It happens. Not all the time, but there's some that even we even know it's true for sure like, confirmed and everything." Victoria shook her head, "They haven't done that with Assault, but there was this guy, Madcap, specialized in breaking people out of transport when they were destined for the Birdcage. Exactly the same powers as Assault, or close enough, and he went up against Battery a bunch of times. And then he's captured - and boom, Battery is here in the Bay and Assault shows up out of nowhere."

Okay that...it wasn't proof, maybe Assault just had similar powers, but her sister knew a hell of a lot more about powers than she did, so she'd know if they were the same, or just similar, right?

Why would they take someone who broke out people being sent to the Birdcage? She'd never really interacted with Assault outside of a handful of PR events, so she didn't know him, but that -

They couldn't just take a villain and let him pretend to be a hero!

"Why would they - why do that? Are you - what, are you saying that he switched sides because they were soulmates and... what, the PRT just let him?"

"I mean, there's usually some sort of parole thing going on, from what they say." Victoria shrugged. "Madcap never actually killed anyone or even close."

"Just broke killers out before they could go to prison."

Victoria grimaced, "Yeah, that's pretty messed up, but that's not the point. The point is that yeah, there's a theory that if they really are soulmates, that's why Madcap decided to change sides. And maybe part of why they let him, I don't know."

"...and you think I... can... do that with Skitter?"

"Why not? She's our age. She hasn't done that much. Maybe she just thought her power meant she had to be a villain. Some people kinda get screwed like that."

"That's not how it works! You don't - you don't just... she's a villain!"

"Yeah, but she's also your soulmate, and you are the greatest hero in the city, so she can't be all bad. Creepy powers and creepy costume and creepy name or not, she can't be all bad if she's your soulmate."

Or she can be and I'm just as bad.

"I'm not-"

"Yes, yes you are." Victoria cut off. She floated over to the side of the bed, next to Amy. "You've saved more lives than the rest of New Wave put together. You're an amazing hero, deal with it Amy. You're never going to convince me otherwise. Period. End of story."

Amy shook her head. There was no - there was no point in arguing with her sister when she got like this. She'd said this before. It wasn't true, it would never be true, but... there was no convincing her sister when she decided she was right about something like this.

"...fine."

"We'll have to keep working on that." Victoria said, patting her cheek.

"Just because Skitter is my soulmate doesn't mean we have to get together, you know." You heard stories - all thirdhand or passed around a million times or whatever - of people finding out they had a soulmate years after getting married and having kids. Sometimes they broke things off with their spouse, but not always. And even without that... not every soulmate pair worked out.

This was clearly one of them.

"No, but I mean... Amy. The fact that she's your soulmate means that you could be happy with her. Don't you want to at least try?" Victoria's voice was lower. She shook her head. "If anyone deserves a chance to be happy, it's you."

"...I don't need a girlfriend to be happy." I just need you.

All she needed was Vicky as a sister. It was all she should even want.

"Okay, I didn't think a lesbian could pull the 'I don't need a man to be fulfilled' card," Victoria mused, "But no, you don't need a girlfriend to be happy. I don't need Dean to be happy, but I'm happier that I have him."

Amy inhaled. And don't I know it. She hated it. And she hated that she hated it. And at the same time, she was glad for Vicky. Glad that Dean did make her happy. It was his only real redeeming feature.

Why couldn't she just be fucking normal about anything?

"I just... this is your soulmate, Amy. I don't - I don't want you to like... regret not reaching out to her or something."

Amy looked back at her lap, as if her hands would somehow provide magical insights.

"All this assumes she even wants to try anything with me."

"You won't know until you try!"

"How would I even reach out to her? I - I can't tell everyone that Panacea's soulmate is a villain. And - and if she did switch sides and then we ever went out in public together, not in costume-"

"People would figure it out. Yeah, true." Victoria sighed, stroking her chin again. Amy thought of Vicky with the pipe again, managing a small chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"Just... remembering that time you dressed as Sherlock Holmes for Halloween, complete with the pipe and everything."

Victoria smiled, "Oh yeah. I kept using that thing for ages until Mom made me stop." She paused, "I wonder where I ended up putting it. Maybe somewhere in my closet..." She trailed off and shook her head. "Okay, so yeah, you can't just make a big announcement on PHO that Skitter is your soulmate, can she please reach out to you." Her eyes widened. "Connections! You can make a throwaway account and do the 'Connections' section on PHO. Something vague, but that she'd get, and... if she's interested, she can reach out."

Amy opened her mouth to reject the idea, but...

It is a chance. Could she really turn down the possibility of a chance to be happy? Could she really be happy with Skitter?

Is Vicky right? Could - could she stop being a villain? Is that - that's not a thing, but - the Protectorate does it? Doesn't that mean it's...?

Amy didn't want to be miserable. She didn't want to keep being this pathetic freak in love with her sister, too selfish to admit it to her (so she knew how dangerous Amy could be to her) because she knew it would alienate the only good thing she had in her life.

But...

If things worked out with Skitter, if she could... if she could somehow get the bug girl to switch sides, and - and maybe have a less creepy costume... then she'd have another good thing in her life? And then - maybe it would keep her from being a threat to Vicky? If she had something else, something other than her sister to hold onto, then maybe -

Just maybe she wouldn't - there'd be less chance - less chance she'd slip? That she'd cross that line?

It was a faint hope, but Amy hated how tantalizing the idea was. How much she wanted to reach out and take it. She could at least try it.

Victoria thought it was a good idea. That it was worth trying. So her sister wouldn't hate her for trying it. And -

If her sister thought maybe there was a chance Skitter wasn't all that bad, or at least... didn't have to be that bad...

"I... okay. Okay. I'll give it a try."

"Yes!" Victoria flew over and hugged her tight, letting out another high pitched, happy sound. "This is gonna be good Ames, I can just feel it!" Amy returned the hug this time, trying to let her sister's happiness be infectious. She forced herself to smile a little, and...

Maybe it's a little infectious? Just a tiny bit? Wishful thinking probably but...

"Alright, let's get you set up with a throwaway account - that's not hard, I've made a few - and then I'll help you figure out what to post." Victoria said eagerly, pulling back from the hug and tugging Amy to her feet. "Up, up, up, your laptop's over at the desk. I'm going to grab the chair from my room, be right back."

She was still flying when she left Amy's room.

Carol yelled 'no flying in the House!' up from the living room as Victoria returned with her chair.

---

Connections ► Brockton Bay

Subject: Your Words Burned Into My Skin

-What the Fuck did you do?

-You don't need to know that.

Not the greatest things to say for a first meeting, but no one chooses when these things will happen. We can't pretend it didn't happen, and maybe we shouldn't? If you agree, and want to at least talk over PHO, you know my main.

-A

---

---

Author's Note: So, as I noted, I have this outlined quite a bit, all the way out to the equivalent of the end of Arc 16, and then a few notes for after. The notional fic would fairly close divergence at first and then things would start to split away roundabout Leviathan.

Amy does agree with Vicky a little fast here, but for one, soulmates are a known quantity in this version of Earth-Bet, and while there are cases of them not working out, they are less common then them working out. Amy, I firmly believe, really sees no real way out of her situation in canon (she was wrong in canon, but that's Amy for you), but her soulmate represents something. A chance.

And of course, Victoria is pushing her to do it, and as Amy's track record of just giving in when Victoria pushes suggests, that counts for a lot. Hopefully I made it at least feel believable here that she would take the opportunity presented. Plus, it's not as if she's agreeing to date the girl just yet. She's barely agreeing to take a chance and reach out, to maybe talk to her.

The early bits of the fic would focus on Taylor and Amy talking online. If I wrote this fic, hopefully I would sell Taylor giving this a shot convincingly, but she would have her own reasons to be hesitant and not want to try it. This would not be a fic where 'soulmates instantly get together, them against the world'. Those stories can be fun, but that's what I wanted to do with the trope. I've always liked taking slightly different tacks with the soulmate trope.

This would fundamentally be a fic where they get together and ultimately are happier together (and of course, the things Amy did to Vicky wouldn't happen in this story, though the reasons why would be a little more complex than 'having a girlfriend makes Amy magically better and she's suddenly out of love with Vicky'), and would make for a slightly better wormverse, or at least a slightly better Brockton Bay. Certainly a better Taylor and Amy. Both girls are fucked up and a mess, and need more than just a relationship to get better, but together, they would be able to have a foundation stone laid, as it were, that could lead to them getting better, together and separately.

Chronologically, things would move quickly because well - a lot is going to happen and keep happening to the Bay, this fic wouldn't derail those things. And to be fair, Taylor changes a lot in the like, four or five months before the timeskip. The story wouldn't just have it be like, two chapters and boom, they're making out, but the time compression of Worm does force certain things for fanfics that operate within the space of canon events. Hopefully, if I do write this notional fic, it would all be believable.

Also, it's worth noting that while Victoria raises the prospect of Assault and Battery being soulmates, as that is a rumor in-universe, it is not in fact true.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: This takes place in 2003, when Amy and Victoria are around 9 years old, give or take.

As far as I know, there's nothing in the text of Worm that establishes the exact legalities of Amy's adoption. Tattletale says the adoption records are falsified in 3.11, and while 'Tattletale Lies and/or Misrepresents the Truth' is a good rule of thumb, and it's not established what she's even saying is falsified (all of it could be falsified, just some of it, just the details regarding Amy's parentage, etc), it's also not impossible that she's telling something true or approaching it, and the records are entirely or largely falsified.

I don't speak Portuguese, any translation issues are entirely down to my using Google Translate. It's usually okay for short bits, so hopefully there's no glaring issues.

Finally, thanks to Mamba King Gidorah for beta-reading this and giving some very useful suggestions to improve it. All mistakes are mine.

---

---

Carol Dallon looked up at the sound of her secretary's voice on the other end of her phone.

"Mrs. Dallon, your 3:15 appointment is here."

Carol frowned. She knew she had the appointment, but she didn't know what it was about. Someone wanting a consult, but her schedule said nothing about any details. Just that she'd specifically requested Carol as the 'perfect' lawyer for whatever her issue was.

The firm had generally been good at weeding out the people who just wanted to meet with Brandish and had no real reason to need her as their lawyer - her specialties were in property law, and by necessity, parahuman related civil matters.

The door to her office opened, and a short, stocky woman with brown hair, tanned, freckled skin and wearing a suit and tie walked in. Carol stood, holding out a hand.

"Mrs. Quiston? Pleasure to meet you, I'm Carol Dallon. I understand you requested me specifically?"

"Please, call me Celia," Mrs. Quiston requested, taking Carol's hand and shaking it firmly. The other woman's grip was firm, and reasonably strong. Carol gestured to the chair across from her desk. Celia nodded and sat down. "And yes, I did. I appreciate you're a busy woman, both as a lawyer and as a cape, but I think you're the perfect lawyer to handle a legal matter that's risen up for me."

"Well, I'm certainly willing to hear you out, and if I think I'm not the right associate at this firm to handle it, I can direct you to whoever is." Carol agreed. She sat down herself, grabbing a legal pad to start taking notes. Celia crossed one leg over the other and laced her hands together, resting them on her knee as she started talking.

"It's a bit complicated, so if I can explain everything before you tell me if you can help me, I'd appreciate it." Carol nodded, and Celia went on. "I had a sister, Siobhan. We used to be quite close, as kids, but things happened, we grew apart, that sort of thing. Eleven ... no, ten and a half years ago, she took up with a criminal. He was a perfect gentleman, never hurt her as far as I know, but I didn't approve of her sleeping with a man that, while he couldn't be convicted of murder, was undoubtedly guilty."

Carol jotted that down, wondering where this was going. People being guilty of crimes but being unable to be brought in was one of things she hated most as a lawyer, and as cape. This firm, at least, tended not to provide criminal defense to the worst of the worst, but it was the worst part of her profession, as far as she was concerned.

"We argued, harsh words were exchanged, and in the end, we cut contact with each other. I moved across the country and then ultimately ended up going to South America for business, where I've been living for most of the last five years. When I came back to the States a few months ago, I found a letter that had been waiting for me. As it turns out, my sister had broken things off with her criminal beau about a year after our argument but then turned out to be pregnant. She raised her daughter on her own for five years. I found all of this out from a letter that I missed while out of the country. She sent it to me a few months before her death due to cancer. She was hoping that we could reconcile and that I'd agree to take in her daughter."

Celia frowned, looking down at her hands for a moment. "Obviously, we didn't get the chance to reconcile, and she died, though not before deciding that my niece's father was an acceptable option to raise her, lacking any better alternative."

Carol couldn't imagine what that would be like, to find out your sister died and you weren't there to be with them. She'd had arguments with Sarah and Mike, but nothing so serious that it would end their relationship entirely. And if Crystal or Eric had ended up in the custody of a criminal...

Wait.

Carol tensed, schooling her expression. The timelines... the meeting with her specifically. Criminal father, died of cancer, raised her for five years? It could just be a coincidence, but her career as Brandish had taught her that coincidences didn't happen as much as you thought they did.

Still. She needed to know for sure before she reacted.

"All I want is to honor Siobhan's last wishes and take care of my niece. I tracked down her father, but unfortunately, he was finally arrested and imprisoned after only having her for about a year. Took me a while longer to track her down, but I did manage it."

Carol stood up, fingers twisting, resisting the urge to use her power, to form one of her swords. There was no way this woman wasn't -

She was talking about Amelia. About Marquis.

"Ah, so you do know what I'm talking about. Excellent. I was hoping you'd put the pieces together." Celia stood up and reached inside her suit jacket. Carol braced herself - there were metal detectors at the entrances to the building, but the cleverness of criminals was not something she was prepared to underestimate.

"Get out of my office." Carol snapped. "I can't represent you."

"Well, of course not, given that you're the problem here, Brandish." Celia pulled folded papers out of her suit jacket, tossing them onto the desk. "It took me a while to confirm that you had to be the ones to take my niece. And then a while to arrange testing to prove it."

"Prove?" Carol looked at the papers and unfolded them. DNA test results. Comparing 'Celia Quiston' and 'Unknown Female Child'.

The test results suggested a 97% chance that Celia was an aunt to the child.

"You took Amy's DNA without permission?!" Carol raised her voice, holding back a snarl. When could she have done it? At school? I'm going to have words with the principal about this. Unlike her sister, Amy wasn't prone to going over to friend's houses, or going to the park to play (not that Carol would let Victoria or her sister go to the park without supervision), not unless she was going somewhere because Victoria was going.

The two were inseparable. The way her daughter had embraced her sister so completely, and vice-versa, was a good thing, but it didn't make it any easier to stop seeing him when she looked at her. And every time she did that...

"Sue me, charge me, go for it. But when you're doing that, I'm going to be suing for custody of my niece and ruining New Wave's good name. The adoption records for Amelia Claire Dallon are good forgeries, but they're forgeries nonetheless." Celia leaned forward, putting her hands on Carol's desk, meeting her gaze. "I am taking my niece back from the people who kidnapped her: You and the rest of your family."

"Kidnapped?" Carol pulled her hand back as a blade of light formed in her hand. How dare this woman - she took his child into her home, fed her, housed her, cared for her, kept her safe, and this - this woman just came in and tried to act like what Carol had done was even close to - "Marquis begged us to take her in, to protect her!"

Celia jumped back, producing no weapon, staring her down regardless. She didn't look remotely afraid to be facing an angry cape. "Somehow, I suspect you won't attack an unarmed civilian in your own office." The smug, satisfied smirk on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her almost made Carol want to prove her wrong. "Now, will you give me my niece, or do we have to do this the hard way?"

Celia cleared her throat, "The 'I take this to court and the press' way, I mean." She clarified. "You forging the records for Amelia's adoption aside, I actually approve of New Wave's work, so I'd really rather not air this out publicly, if it's avoidable. But," she paused after emphasizing the word, "one way or another, I am not leaving this godforsaken shithole of a city without my niece."

Carol dismissed her blade, forcing herself to take a slow breath.

Was this his whole plan? Trick one of us into adopting her, into forging the paperwork to hide her from his enemies, and then someone would come looking, find out, use it against us?

The legalities of the forged adoption papers were pretty clear. And even if she could convince a judge or a jury that it was for the best, it was to keep Amy safe; it would undermine everything New Wave was about. Accountability.

Purely on the level of taking Amy in, taking a villain's child in and protecting her, caring for her, letting her close to her daughter - Carol had to assume Sarah could make that work for New Wave. But it would be a hit. And their lives were under a microscope. Capes across the country were finally giving New Wave a real chance, listening.

There'd only been a few unmaskings, minor capes mostly, but if things could keep going... accountability, real accountability for heroes could be in reach. Something better than 'unwritten rules' and the PRT and Protectorate layering everything behind red tape.

Anything that undermined that, anything that gave the press vultures an opening had to be avoided.

"So, easy way or hard way?" Celia asked again.

"Get out of my office," Carol demanded.

"I'll give you a few days to decide, but just that, Mrs. Dallon." She grabbed Carol's pen off the legal pad and scrawled a phone number along the side of it. "You can reach me at this number if you decide to see sense."

"Sense? You'd rip Amy away from the only home she's known!" Carol snapped.

"You had no right to take her, and that bastard Marquis had no right to give her to you." Celia countered. "Three days. 72 hours. Make up your mind." Celia turned on her heel, stalking out of Carol's office, and Carol dropped down into her chair, breathing heavily, hand twitching.

If she wants Amy so badly... a member of the family couldn't just vanish without explanation, not with how many eyes were on New Wave, but it would get that child out of her home, away from her daughter.

Away from her.

She wouldn't have to worry about her turning into her father, about watching her. Controlling her. Making sure that whenever she inevitably triggered, she didn't hurt anyone.

Victoria would be devastated... her daughter adored Amy, and Amy adored Victoria. The two were inseparable, and if she even hinted at the idea of Amy leaving their home...

But Victoria could get over it. Her daughter was still young. Resilient. She'd managed six years without Amy; she could manage without her.

It would be simple enough. Even if the idea of just... letting that woman win by leveling threats...

New Wave was more important, wasn't it? And she - she would be free of having to deal with Amy. Worry about her. Watch her.

So why does it feel like I'm trying to convince myself? Amy wasn't her daughter. She was an obligation. An obligation she'd cared for and dealt with, but just an obligation. Carol wasn't so heartless as to leave a child in danger, even Marquis's child. That's why she'd taken the girl in at all.

The biggest stumbling block was just Victoria. Just her. And how to explain Amy vanishing. And the fact that letting Celia win was bowing to blackmail. And...

That was it. Nothing else.

Sarah had said she'd grow to love Amy, but -

She hadn't.

She hadn't.

Carol closed her eyes, took another slow breath. And Celia dared to act like they'd 'kidnapped' Amy? Where was she when Amy's biological mother was dying? And she wants to come back now, years later, rip Amy away from Victoria, away from her home, away from her family-

Away from me.

Carol blinked as the words rose unbidden in her mind. As she realized what they meant.

And...

That they were true.

She stared at her desk blankly for a long moment as it sank in. All of it.

Paging her secretary, Carol spoke as soon as the woman picked up: "Maria, cancel my four o'clock." She paused, "No. Have James handle it. He's familiar with the case. Tell him I'll owe him one, but something's come up - a family issue."

"Of course."

"Good." Carol hung up, then dialed another number. She waited until she heard her sister's voice on the other end of the line, answering. "Sarah? Something - something's come up. I'm on my way over." She tried to keep her voice level, but her sister could always pick up when -

"What's wrong? Should I get everyone else?"

"N-Not yet. Mark needs to stay with Victoria and Amy and -" She swallowed. "I think we should ask Mike and Jess to head over there too." Celia claimed she meant 'the press and the courts' as her 'hard way', but that could have just been a lie to lure her into a false sense of security while she tried to grab Amy somehow by force. Did she have friends? Could she hire someone?

"Carol? You're worrying me."

"It's about - it's about Amy. She has - she has living family, and they want her back." Carol said, voice feeling fragile, like glass. She choked a little as the words refused to come out for a moment: "They want to take my daughter."

She heard her sister start to swear and then cut herself off. "I'll call Mike and Jess. And - I'll get out the good bourbon."

---

"I'm a terrible mother," Carol said quietly, staring ahead, past Sarah. Sarah looked at the half-empty glass of bourbon in her sister's hand. She'd detailed her meeting with 'Celia Quiston' - was that even the woman's actual name? - and the threats she'd leveled against Carol, against New Wave.

"Because you don't want to give her up?" Sarah's eyes flicked to Carol's face, the distant, sunken expression there something she'd but rarely seen on her sister. "Even if this really is Amy's aunt, that doesn't mean she just gets to take her."

Carol had always had doubts in her abilities as a mother - both to Victoria, and then Amy. But she couldn't understand what was giving rise to them now, of all times?

"Because for a moment, just for a moment, I considered letting her take Amy," Carol admitted, even quieter.

Did I- her sister's words were barely above a whisper, and Sarah allowed herself a brief second to entertain the idea she hadn't heard her say that she'd considered giving up one of her daughters.

"God... Carol. Why?! I know - I know you had issues taking her in at first, but I thought you were past all that. Within a few months, all you could talk about was how close Victoria was with her. You said it reminded you of us."

As kids, Carol had always been the more introverted, withdrawn, and serious of the two of them. Sarah was always the one tugging her into the limelight, making her meet people, getting her to relax when school or college threatened to overwhelm her. Even before they'd triggered, they'd been close. After... they'd been inseparable for a long time.

Their parents hadn't understood. Had refused to understand, really.

One of many reasons they didn't talk to their parents, one of many reasons why their children had never met their grandparents.

"It does. They do." Carol nodded. "You said I'd grow to love her, and... God help me, I did. But I can't trust her. Every time I look at her, I see him. I wonder what game he was playing, asking us to take her in." She swallowed, voice thick as she kept going: "I keep waiting for the trap, I keep watching, for any sign she'll end up like her father. Having Victoria was hard enough, always second-guessing myself, Mark having his bad days more and more often... worrying about her, and now Amy."

She blinked repeatedly, taking another sip of her bourbon before going on.

"I don't - I don't remember the last time I hugged her."

"You're not much of a hugger in general," Sarah said, trying to find something she could say to keep Carol from dwelling, spiraling downwards as she berated herself.

"But I at least remember the last time I hugged Victoria. I don't - I barely call Amy 'my daughter', I - I worry for her safety, but I worry about my safety around her." She let out a half-choked laugh, dark and bitter. "I'm afraid of a nine-year-old child. And she has to have picked up on something"

Sarah opened her mouth to protest that last bit, but then closed it. Even when it had just been Victoria, Carol had always been a stricter parent than Sarah. Part of that was compensating for Mark - when he had his good days, Mark preferred to be the 'fun parent', and part of that was just her sister.

But Sarah had seen that much, that Carol was never quite as affectionate with Amy. She had just never realized things were as bad as Carol was describing them.

"You're still not a terrible mother, Carol," Sarah said. "I wish you'd told me about this sooner, so I could help you with it, but you know it's happening, that it's an issue, and you do love her. So you can try to be better." She put her hand on her sister's arm. "That's all we can do, isn't it? Try to be better."

Damnit, Carol, would it have been so hard to tell me any of this sooner? She should have seen it, she knew how hard Carol found it to trust. She'd been almost amazed when she realized Carol trusted Mark enough to marry him, have a child with him. It had seemed... like a sign Carol was doing better.

And she was.

But maybe not as well as Sarah had thought.

"I want to try, but... what if I can't? Doesn't Amy deserve someone who can be a better-"

"Okay, Carol, just - stop. You love that girl. You care about her. You take care of her. You took her in when you didn't want to because you were too good a person to let her be left at risk in the foster care system." Sarah said firmly.

That train of thought needed to be shut down. What Celia Quiston was threatening to do could hurt New Wave, yes. As much as she hated that fact, respecting secret identities was the norm. That said, convincing people that breaking them with Marquis was doable, given how dangerous he really was - especially since New Wave wasn't being hypocritical about it all. Taking in his child was justifiable, he'd asked them to, it was for her safety. But the fact that they'd forged the adoption paperwork, that they hadn't tried to find a living relative, all because Marquis had said there was no one - why had they taken him at his word? - would hurt them. And a custody battle, just by having it, could kill their momentum entirely.

Even if it didn't, there'd be a hit, the cape tabloids would go rabid with it. But even if their momentum stalled or slowed, New Wave could survive it, if it all came out into the open.

But if Amy Dallon just... disappeared one day, then there'd be enough people tugging on that thread for it to all come out, and the damage to New Wave would be worse, because it wouldn't come out in a controlled way.

They were just starting to get somewhere, being taken seriously.

Realities of New Wave aside, Amy was her niece. She cared about the girl as much as she did Victoria. She was part of the family. Losing her would hurt.

"We don't know anything about this 'Aunt'. We don't know how she'd raise her. What I know is that Amy would be shattered if she got taken away from Victoria, and Victoria would be the same. I know you love her, and she is your daughter. Your family, our family, is the only family she knows. It's the best place for her. Here, with you."

She exhaled, "You know you have work to do. That puts you leagues ahead of Mom and Dad."

Carol coughed a moment before barking a single bitter laugh. "That's a low bar to clear." Carol took a long breath, swallowed, and then took one more sip of the bourbon. "I don't want to give her up."

"Then don't." Sarah pressed. "Now, let's figure out how we're going to protect our family."

---

Carol didn't want to be here.

It was only at Sarah's urging that she'd agreed to come.

"What if this is just a distraction to make sure we're out of the way, and someone can -" Carol cut herself off. They'd prepared for the possibility anyway - Mark, Neil, Jess and Mike were with all four children at a cabin not too far from the city that Neil had inherited from his father. They'd tried very hard to keep the location secret, so...

There was no reason to believe that Celia Quiston would do anything or had... friends or allies or anything that would try to grab Amy by force.

She was Amelia's aunt, by all available evidence. Marquis had had Amelia's birth certificate, and though his own name hadn't been on it, her mother's had. Carol hadn't ever looked at the thing, shoving it into a safe with other important documents and mostly forgetting about it.

But it did say 'Siobhan Quiston' as the girl's mother's name. That had been Amelia's original last name too, before Marquis had taken her in and changed it.

Of course, he would. She couldn't imagine his sensibilities would have allowed a child of his to not have his last name, at least if he was raising them. And checking records on Siobhan Quiston had turned up an obituary of the woman's mother - Amelia Quiston, the namesake of Amy, presumably - a few years before Amelia's birth, killed at the hands of the Teeth. She had been survived by two daughters, Celia and Siobhan. The picture of the mother with the obituary did resemble Celia, especially the freckles.

Marquis hadn't had freckles, so perhaps she'd gotten them from Siobhan. Carol didn't know enough to say. Amy looked like her father - too much, but... apparently she did have something from her mother..

"Even if it is, the others are more than capable," Sarah said quietly.

The two of them were at a coffee shop on the Boardwalk, waiting. It was two days since Celia Quiston had accosted her at her office and a day since Celia had reached out to Sarah through New Wave's public line, asking for a face-to-face meeting in a public venue.

She had claimed she wanted to apologize for letting her temper get the better of her. The only apology she wanted was the woman staying far, far from her family. But, though she hadn't made her threats again if they didn't agree to the meeting, if they didn't agree, Celia might still go public.

Carol was worried about what it would do to New Wave, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized the greatest problem was that if word got out that Amy was Marquis's daughter, any of his enemies who wanted to hurt her would know exactly where she was. And how they might be able to get to her...

Would they let fear of reprisal New Wave stop them? Carol could hope, but...

Marquis had fought the Teeth, Empire Eighty-Eight, and even Slaughterhouse Nine. Had had to have other enemies Carol didn't know about. The Teeth and the Nine were long gone from the city, but Carol would never credit E88 with an abundance of caution or brains.

The idea of her daughters being in even more danger... Carol couldn't accept that. She had to at least try to head it off, and if that meant meeting with that - with that woman again, then she would do it.

The door to the shop opened, the bell ringing and two people came in - Celia Quiston and another woman with black hair and olive skin sitting in a wheelchair. Celia guided the woman through the door, then let go of the chair, letting her wheel herself. Celia looked around, her eyes falling on Sarah and then her.

Carol tensed, and she thought she saw Celia doing the same from across the distance, but before Celia could come closer, the woman in the wheelchair reached up and grabbed Celia's wrist. She couldn't catch the words the woman said to her, but then Celia nodded and made her way to the counter while the woman in the wheelchair made her way to their table.

The Coffee shop did have a pretty open layout, which might be why Celia had agreed to this particular location once Sarah suggested it - they'd traded options back and forth.

"She did say she was going to bring someone," Sarah murmured, as the woman reached their table.

"Mrs. Dallon, Mrs. Pelham?" The woman asked. Her accent was hard to place - it almost sounded hispanic, but... not. But definitely not someone from Spain, one of her instructors at Law School had been an immigrant from Spain and he'd sounded nothing like this woman. Portuguese? Brazilian?

Celia did say she'd been in South America...

"Please, call me Sarah." Sarah held out a hand. "You're with Celia Quiston? Are you her lawyer?"

"Ah, Deus não," She shook her head. "I'm Gabriela Almedia, Celia's girlfriend." She shook Sarah's hand. Carol hesitated for a long moment, then forced herself to offer her own hand, which Gabriela accepted and shook. "I'd like to apologize for her being a complete idiot in your office two days ago, Mrs. Dallon," she added.

"I can accept your apology, but you weren't the one who threatened my family." Carol finally said. "I'd like to hear it from Celia."

"And you will." Gabriela pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a breath. "But I figured I might help try to reduce some tensions now, by coming over while she ordered drinks." She gestured to Sarah's half-finished latte and Carol's forgotten, barely touched coffee.

"And where do you stand on all this?" Carol asked, words coming out flatly. "Do you want to take-"

"I don't want to take your daughter from you," Gabriela said quickly.

"Then what exactly is the point of this meeting? Is she just giving up? Dropping her threat?"

"As much as I would like her to, not unless we can come to an agreement." Gabriela admitted. "But after I yelled at her for a long time, she got it through her very thick skull that taking Amy away from the only family she knows, the family that has loved and taken care of her for the last three years, is not the best choice for her."

Carol looked over towards the counter as she felt herself release a small breath. Celia was accepting two cups from the barista, and she made her way towards the table, setting a cup of tea down in front of Gabriela, and a coffee in front of an empty chair, before sitting down.

"Mrs. Quiston," Sarah nodded.

"Mrs. Pelham."

"Please, call me Sarah." Sarah held out a hand, and Celia accepted it, shaking. Celia looked over at her, her hand closing tight around her coffee cup, clenching her jaw for a moment. Gabriella cleared her throat, and Celia gave her a quick look - her expression softened for a moment, then she looked back at Carol.

"Mrs. Dallon." She swallowed, "I haven't been handling the fact that my sister died, wanting to reconcile and thinking I wanted nothing to do with her, thinking I'd abandon her daughter, while I was too far away to be of any use." The words sounded rehearsed, practiced, and the way she was maintaining eye contact with Carol made her think the other woman had said this in front of a mirror. "And I took that out on you, in your office. I'm sorry for that."

Carol inhaled sharply, taking a sip of her coffee for a moment to take a moment to consider. It was... understandable, as far as excuses went, and being practiced didn't mean it wasn't genuine, but that didn't mean it was either. Carol couldn't tell one way or the other as she searched Celia's expression.

"I'd have an easier time accepting your apology if you dropped your threats against my family." Carol pointed out. "Did you even think about the danger that would put Amy in?"

"Her name is-" Celia started to counter, but Gabriela put a hand on Celia's arm and Celia took a breath. "Our mother never liked the diminutive 'Amy'," Celia offered as an explanation.

"Well, Amy doesn't like Amelia," Carol countered. The adoption paperwork was for 'Amy', she was Amy in all public records now, enrolled in school as Amy. Her second grade teacher had tried to call her 'Amelia', out of an apparent hatred for diminutives, even if they were the child's actual name. Amy had gotten in quite a bit of trouble for refusing to answer to Amelia until the teacher had been forced to call her by her name after Carol had met with the principal.

If Amy had just told me what was going on sooner... She'd had to find out the details from Victoria, when the punishments had escalated from timeouts to detention.

"Then I'll try not to call her Amelia to her face." Celia promised, running her free hand through her hair.

You're not going to be seeing her again, so why would that matter? Carol held that back. This was a negotiation. She knew what her reputation at the firm was, and she was often brought in when hardball was required, but she was capable of being diplomatic, if she had to.

And as long as Celia was threatening to go to the courts, the press...

"Anyway, no, when I said I'd go to the press or the courts, I didn't think about how it might put her in danger. Until you said otherwise, I just sort of assumed you just... took Amel- Amy. That is why I used the term 'kidnapped." Carol's other hand grabbed onto the armrest of her chair as she reigned in her power.

"Marquis was quite clear that he had enemies that might try to get to him through her," Sarah offered, cutting in to try and defuse things. "Carol took her in for her safety, but she's part of our family now."

"I'm not giving my daughter up."

The words 'my daughter' referring to Amy still felt... strange to her ears, and yet... they remained true. She'd tried to do better for Amy in the last two days, but it was hard, when she was actually seeing her, to forget Marquis. But she needed to keep trying.

"I get that. And as much as part of me would like to push on that, I'm - I just want to be part of her life. I'm not asking you to give her to me."

Carol kept control of her expression, not letting anything show. That was too easy. Just wanted to be part of her life? Wanted a chance to get close, to - convince Amy to choose her? To talk Amy into letting her take her away?

Amy wouldn't do that. Not to Victoria.

...not as long as Carol didn't chase her away.

"That's quite a change from what you were saying in my office," Carol said slowly.

"Yeah. Well, like I said, I let my temper get the best of me. I - I may have cut contact with Siobhan over her taking up with Marquis but she's still my sister. I missed her, I always wanted to reach out but..." Celia shook her head, "Siobhan's taste in men was never good, Marquis was just the final crowning choice."

Carol held back a grimace. Had Amy inherited her mother's taste in men? She'd always worried about what the girl had inherited from Marquis - and what the shape of whatever power she'd eventually get would be - but it had never occurred to her to worry about what she might have inherited from her birth mother.

"So I didn't. I kept putting it off. But I still loved her. And now Amy's all that's left of her in this world." Her voice came a little thick. "And then Siobhan died still thinking I hated or... something." She reached into a pocket and took out a folded piece of paper, and a photo. It was an old photo, maybe from a disposable camera, a little faded, but it was of a woman who looked like a thinner, taller version of Celia at a park, holding onto the hand of a little girl who could only be Amy, wearing a little dress with flowers on it.

So this is her birth mother. Carol picked up the photo for a moment. Amy didn't remember much about her life before coming into her home. Not even about Marquis now. Which was for the best overall, but...

Did she deserve to know more about her birth mother? Or was it best to leave all that in the past?

She looked at the folded paper - a letter, written to Celia. The very letter that Celia hadn't received until years later.

It was as Celia had described it originally - an appeal to their sisterhood, a desire to reconcile, saying that her relationship with 'Patrick' was long over... and that she was dying. That she had a daughter, Amelia...

Carol clenched her jaw, putting the letter down. It felt vaguely... voyeuristic to read it, given how it wasn't meant for her.

"I think you're insane for wanting to live in this shithole of a city, but you guys are doing good work, so maybe it won't be a shithole forever. And... taking Amy away from the only family she knows is..." she inhaled slowly, taking a sip from her coffee.

"There's a part of me, the part of me that hates this city the most, that wants to just demand you let me take her... anywhere. Anywhere else." She let out a long sigh. "But... you are her family too. And you are the ones who housed, cared for her, protected her and loved her for three years. And this is her home."

Carol stared at Celia, watching her.

She said she just wanted to be part of Amy's life. Would that really just be until she decided to try to force the issue again? Or was she sincere?

"What exactly did you have in mind?" Sarah asked. "For being in her life."

"Talking to her. Telling her I'm her Aunt. Maybe telling her about her birth mother, if she wants to know." She sighed.

"And, if it proves to be practical and possible, moving to this city for good." Gabriela cut in. She reached over and took Celia's hand, squeezing it. "Celia's distaste for this city aside, this is where Amy lives, so..." She shrugged.

Planning to stay, then. Being right there, always in reach.

"If you promise to not take this to the courts, or the press, then... we can..." Carol hated the idea of letting this stranger get close to her family. But it would keep Amy safe... and -

It was the best available option, right now. Long term... maybe something could be done. "We can arrange for something. For you to meet Amy - at my home - and introduce yourself as her Aunt. But whatever happens, you need to remember Amy is my daughter."

Celia bit her lower lip, sucking it a little like she'd bit a lemon, then nodded. "She's your daughter."

"Which means there are some ground rules to bear in mind. First and foremost, keep all details about her birth father to a minimum. She's not ready to know about Marquis." The longer Amy went before learning about him, the better.

Ideally, she'd never learn, but... that probably wasn't possible now. She'd just - she'd just have to make sure there was no chance Amy would follow in his footsteps. One way or another.

At the end of the day, as much as Amy was his daughter, she was also hers. She was Mark's. And she was Victoria's sister.

That mattered. It really did.

---

Letting Celia Quiston into her home felt... she hated it.

But it was also the place where she was in control of the situation the most. Her ground. Her space. If this meeting was going to happen, and it had to, then this was the best place for it now.

Victoria was sitting at the kitchen table, doing math homework. Celia would be here soon...

"Victoria," she walked into the kitchen, her daughter looking up at the mention of her name. "Is Amy up in her room?" Her daughter nodded. "Go get her, bring her down to the living room. We have some guests that will be arriving soon."

"Sure Mom!" Probably happy for the excuse to abandon the homework, Victoria hurried out of the kitchen:

"No running in the house!" she called after Victoria, who managed to slow herself down as she went up the stairs. Carol shook her head, moving back into the living room.

"We can always call this off, if you aren't ready for it," Mark murmured behind her. Carol turned - her husband was having one of his good days today, thank God - and faced him. She shook her head.

"I'm never going to be ready, but this... this has to happen. It's the best way to keep our family safe, and protect New Wave." Carol said quietly. She pressed her forehead against Mark's for a moment, then pulled back as Victoria started coming down the stairs, Amy behind her.

Victoria was talking animatedly about... something. A movie she'd seen? She was coming in halfway into the story and her daughter was talking a mile a minute.

Amy reached the bottom of the stairs after her sister, hooked on Victoria's every word, holding onto her hand as Victoria tugged her along.

"Who's coming over, Mom?" Victoria asked once they entered the living room. Amy stood behind Victoria, her daughter bowing her head a little, not quite meeting Carol's gaze.

Carol tried to ignore the tightness in her chest at that.

"Amy, could you look at me please?" She forced herself to use a softer tone than she usually did with her children. Amy looked up at her, swallowing. "I know you don't remember much about before you became part of this family. But do you remember much of your birth mother?"

"Mom?" Victoria asked, Carol quickly gestured for her to quiet, and Amy licked her lips a moment, before answering.

"I... just... bits and pieces? I think maybe I remember a face... a home - it smelled like strawberries a lot?" Amy answered. "I remember - I remember missing her, after - after I went to-"

"Your biological father is a different discussion, for another time," Carol cut in. Amy's jaw snapped shut and she nodded, looking away again. Carol took a breath and went on. "The reason I asked is because - your mother has a sister. She never knew about you until recently, but now that she does, she would like to meet you."

Amy's eyes widened, "I...I have an Aunt?"

"You already have Aunts, silly! Aunt Sarah and Aunt Jess!" Victoria teased, then she frowned. "Why - she's not - she's not going to come to take Amy, right?" Victoria grabbed Amy's hand and tugged her close, Amy yelping in surprise. Victoria wrapped her arms around Amy in a tight, possessive hug. "She can't take her. You're not going to let anyone take Amy, right?"

"No, never," Carol said firmly, more tightness in her chest. Whatever else, she'd raised a daughter that had so much love in her heart to give for Amy, from the moment she'd been told Amy was her sister now. "No one is going to take you away, Amy. You're my daughter," she swallowed, bracing herself a little, then crouched down a bit and wrapped her arms around both her daughters. Victoria pulled one arm off of Amy and put it around her.

Amy, for her part, stiffened, tensed, unsure, but after a long moment, mimicked Victoria's action and tentatively put it up and onto Carol, around her shoulder.

Carol pulled back after a moment. Before she could say anything else, there was a sound of a ringing doorbell.

"Is that her?" Amy asked softly, something Carol couldn't place in her tone. Apprehension? Longing? Anxiety? All three?

"It should be." Carol stood up, nodding to Mark and made her way back to the front door, looking through the peephole. Celia and Gabriela. No one else. No extra cars out front, just the one van she could assume was Celia's. Better to transport someone in a wheelchair with? There could be people in it, but...

She opened the door.

"Mrs. Dallon," Celia said, the forced politeness obvious in the strain in her voice.

"If we're going to do this, you may as well call me Carol," Carol said after a moment, then stepped aside.

Celia nodded, "Carol then." She moved behind Gabriela, the other woman leaning back in her chair as Celia tilted it back to get up and over the one front step, then lifting the back of the chair up and then repeating it to get the chair through the front door entirely.

"Thank you for inviting us into your home," Gabriela said, her politeness sounding much more genuine.

"Amy's just in the living room." She gestured. Mark was coming towards them. "This is Mark, my husband."

"Pleasure to meet you," Gabriela held out a hand first, and Mark shook it. "Gabriela,"

"Likewise," Mark agreed, then shook Celia's hand. "And you must be Celia then."

"I am." She nodded, returning the handshake, then letting her hands fall by her sides, Gabriela wheeling herself forward. All four of them returned to the living room. Victoria was standing half in-front of Amy, crossing her arms in front of her chest, glaring at Celia.

"You have freckles, like Amy. You're her aunt?"

Celia chuckled, "I am. You're Victoria then?" Victoria nodded. Amy hesitantly looked at her Aunt, hands clasped, twisting them back and forth. "Amy. I'm glad I finally get to meet you. I'm your Aunt Celia."

Amy bit her lip, then after a moment, held out one hand. Celia accepted it, shaking it. She opened her mouth to say something, but then Victoria interrupted, stepping between them again.

"Why are you here!?" She demanded. "Mom said you aren't allowed to take Amy, so why are you here?!"

"Victoria!" Carol snapped at her daughter, "Be polite!"

"Not if she wants to take Amy away!" Victoria raised her voice back, one hand closing into a fist.

"I promise I'm not here to take your sister away from you," Celia said quickly, calmly. She inhaled. "Why would you-"

"In all the movies and books when the adopted kid's family finds them they always take them away from their families!" Victoria said, voice lower. "But - you're not going to?"

"No. This isn't a story, and this is Amy's home. I won't rip her away from it, or from you."

"Good." Victoria nodded, then stepped aside, looking at Amy. "She's okay then."

"...I don't want to leave." Amy said quietly, looking at Victoria. She dropped her hands by her sides. "I..." she closed her mouth, licked her lips, started again. "Where - I don't... I don't remember having an Aunt - I mean..." she cut herself off, flushing. "I mean, an Aunt that -"

"I understand what you mean. I'm not sure how much you remember of your birth mother - Siobhan was her name - but we... we had a fight, before you were born, and I went away. Far away. I never knew you existed until a few months ago, when I found an old letter." She reached into her pocket and took out the photo of a younger Amy and Siobhan at the park. "She'd sent me this." She held it out to Amy.

Amelia took the picture, looking at her, blinking repeatedly. "Is this -"

"Yes, it's her. And you."

"I barely remember her." Amy said quietly, one hand trailing over Siohban's face. "...she smelled like strawberries?"

Celia laughed, "Siobhan found this strawberry scented shampoo when we were teenagers, and fell in love with it. Used it all the da- darn time," Celia corrected herself mid-word. "I guess she never stopped. They were her favorite food in general." She crouched, putting a hand on Amy's shoulder. "Tell you what, why don't we sit on the couch here, and I can tell you about her, and you can tell me about you. What you like to do? Favorite foods? I want to know everything."

Amy considered for a moment, then nodded slowly. She held the picture back out to Celia, but Celia shook her hand. "Keep it, so you always remember what she looked like. Your adoptive mother loves you very much, but so did Siobhan. Remember that." Amy blinked repeatedly, and Carol could see a bit of wetness in her eyes. She looked past Celia to Gabriela, who'd watched the whole scene quietly.

"This is Gabriela, my girlfriend," Celia introduced.

"Girlfriend? But - you're a girl?" She said it without any real emotion beyond a bit of confusion. Carol resisted the urge to let out a sigh.

"You know how Legend has a husband, even though he's a man?" Carol asked. Amy nodded slowly, then.

"Oh." she said, following the logic. "Okay."

"You're probably still at the age where you both think boys are stupid and icky, right?" Celia asked, chuckling.

Victoria nodded, "Most of them are! Eric's okay, but Crystal says he's annoying."

"She has to live with him all the time," Amy said, smiling just a little.

"Well, some people never stop thinking boys are icky, even when they grow up." Celia stood up and moved over to the couch, and Amy hesitated a moment, then moved to sit next to her. Victoria, unsurprisingly, sat down on Amy's other side.

"So, like I said, tell me about yourself," Celia said. "I want to know everything."

Carol heard Gabriela wheeling over next to her and Mark, as Amy started hesitantly talking - Victoria occasionally chiming in.

"I'm sure it wasn't easy to agree to this, so thank you." Gabriela murmured. Then she chuckled softly, "Victoria seems to be quite attached to Amy."

"She was from pretty much the moment we told her Amy was her sister," Mark offered. "They're pretty inseparable."

"I can tell. You've raised lovely daughters," Gabriela complimented.

"Thank you," Carol let out a breath, feeling her shoulders relax just a little. So far... there wasn't a trap. And Amy... Amy was her daughter, and didn't want to leave. She didn't think she would, but...

Being animated like this, talking, actually genuinely smiling a little - this was when she reminded Carol of her father the least.

Amy wasn't just his child. She was hers.

She just needed to make sure she reminded herself of that, when it got too hard to remember.

---

---

Author's Note: This didn't entirely go the way I thought it would, and I also cut a few bits for space and time - I had a whole scene where Gabriela talked Celia down, but it was starting to stretch. There's also certain character beats around Gabriela that I realized were just extraneous to the oneshot.

I don't really have much of a firm notion as to where exactly this would go. Long-term, with Carol trying to be a little better (though she can only be so much better - Carol is just not a great mom, to either of her kids, though that's not entirely her fault), and with Celia as a presence in her life, Amy would grow up with... better mental health than she has in canon, with Victoria no longer quite the sole source of consistent affection. Also, I imagine having a gay Aunt to confide in as she's realizing she's gay would also be of help.

Whether or not Amy develops her feelings for Victoria or not in this AU, hard to say, I'd say that at the very least it would be less severe, and easier to get over, if it does happen. If I extended this outward into a longer story, I might even contemplate giving Amy a different power from a different sort of trigger event. We'd get more exploration of Gabriela, and her and Celia's relationship with Amy.

As for Carol - in canon, she was only able to let down all her guard and hostility towards Amy when she finally saw herself in Amy. The timing of which is... well, we've all read canon. 15.x is what it is.

But I do believe Carol did actually love Amy before, she just had so much paranoia and baggage that she couldn't really show it very well, and that left her showing the suspicion and hostility and - she's not a great parent to Vicky either, so Amy got it from both ends there, not even getting the good parts of what Victoria got, minimal as it seems to have been sometimes.

But basically, the prospect of losing Amy, and that momentary thought she had of 'if she wants her so bad, she can have her' and so on forced Carol to have a bit of self-reflection and realize that she does care about this little girl, and does see her as a daughter. She's not going to magically be a great parent after this, she's not going to magically get over all her weird projecting baggage with regards to Amy and Marquis. But she is going to try, and she is going to make a better effort and do a little better than she did in canon.

Amy's still going to have a complicated relationship with Carol, but growing up, it will be a little better.

Carol's complicated as hell. I don't particularly like her, but I try to be fair to her, and hopefully I succeeded here, without going too far in the other direction.

 

[Hellkite]

I feel like you did a very good job portraying Carol and all her, her-ness. It'd be pretty interesting if the actions they took in this story ended up saving Fluer's life. As in these trips to protect the children caused her to be out of the house when the neo-nazi broke in and when she came back there was obvious evidence the house was broken into. I would think, awareness of the possibilities would make her more cautious and less likely to die.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

I feel like you did a very good job portraying Carol and all her, her-ness. It'd be pretty interesting if the actions they took in this story ended up saving Fluer's life. As in these trips to protect the children caused her to be out of the house when the neo-nazi broke in and when she came back there was obvious evidence the house was broken into. I would think, awareness of the possibilities would make her more cautious and less likely to die.

Click to shrink...

Worm implies Fleur died fairly soon after New Wave unmasked, but Ward makes it sound more like she died somewhere between 2007-2009. Since she's alive here, this fic is implicitly going with the later date.

In of itself, this doesn't directly do anything to save Fleur, but butterflies are a thing, so it absolutely could down the line, yeah.

Glad you liked how I handled Carol!

 

[Kylia Quilor]

This is a bit different from the AUs posted here so far, and probably some of the others to come. But I hit a wall after finding out, 10k words in, that a oneshot idea I had was just... absolutely unworkable, so I decided to say fuck it and write something significantly more self-indulgent.

Realistically, if Vampires existed in the Wormverse, at least as a widespread global phenomenon, they'd be outed at some point by parahuman powers - scanning tinkertech, thinker perception powers, vampires surviving a villain hitting them with something lethal, etc. But at least for this oneshot, let's pretend somehow vampires are still secret. Maybe Cauldron and some top elements of the PRT/Protectorate and some villains know about them, maybe they don't.

Also, Amy and Taylor are both 20 years old here, though Taylor was turned shortly after she turned 18. Amy's various issues, while still bad, were slightly less bad than canon, but with a few extra years tacked on, she's still in a place about as bad as she was at the start of canon. (Otherwise, if she made it to 20 there's a decent chance she'd have either melted down completely or started to get better once she was out of Carol's house, if she was experiencing the same sort of stuff she was in canon.)

My first time posting something with actual Taylor onscreen. Granted, it's a bit AU, but still. Hope I got her sounding reasonably IC, or at least not too far off base. She's a hard girl to get a handle on.

Thanks to Mamba King Gidorah for beta-reading this.

---

---

Amy Dallon stared at the door in front of her.

She shouldn't be here.

She should be at the hospital, healing people. There were people who could be dying right now because she was so fucking selfish as to come here rather than heal. People who couldn't be home with their families because she was here. But she couldn't go back. She'd been there earlier today, five hours. Five hours of numbness, rote healing.

Do I have your permission to heal you? Peel off her glove, hand to bare skin, concentrate, focus, force herself to only heal, despite every idea for more that came to mind. Ways she could change the patient, make it impossible for them to have the same sort of injury they did, or harder. Ways to make that smoker with lung cancer get sick every time they inhaled cigarette smoke.

Ideas for so much worse. There was so much her power could do, and she couldn't let herself do any of it. But the urges, the unbidden thoughts that kept rising to the top of her mind...

Do all that, and then on to the next patient. Do I have your permission to heal you? It blurred together. She didn't remember who she healed almost all the time. Hadn't in years.

And that was on days when she didn't have emergencies. Multiple injury events. Cape fights spilling out into others. On those days... everything blurred together in a different, worse way. There were no moments of peace walking to the next patient or waiting for the next patient serious enough to merit her. There was just - moving from patient to patient to patient, hands, arms covered in blood sometimes...

And then the ones she couldn't help. Couldn't heal fast enough before they died. The ones where there just wasn't enough biomass to work with. The ones with brain damage.

She should be at the hospital.

If not that, she could at least be home, at the small little apartment she'd moved into after turning 18. Getting out of the house should have helped. And it did.

And... it didn't. She was away from Carol, but that didn't stop her adoptive mother from calling. Visiting. Berating. Scolding. Trying to control. Trying to get her to come home. And she saw Vicky less, too. Vicky didn't understand why Amy didn't want to go to college. Why Amy had decided to become a 'consultant' for the PRT. So even when she did see Vicky, her sister would ask about that as much as anything else.

It had been the only real way to get out of the house. But Vicky... Vicky just didn't get it. Not all of it. Not enough.

Moving out had helped at first. But she couldn't just heal Protectorate heroes - local and otherwise. Couldn't just go to the aftermath of Endbringer fights and patch the survivors up. She kept going to local hospitals. She kept...

She just kept going. Over. And over. And over. She couldn't not.

But if she couldn't do that, she could be home. Getting badly needed sleep. Reading a fucking book. Look into those plans she'd once had to adopt a pet cat. Even mindlessly watching stupid videos on the internet would have been better than this.

Instead, she was here.

Amy reached out and knocked on the apartment door.

Nothing for a moment, and then she opened the door.

"Can I come in?" Six months ago, calling her breathtaking would have been a lie. She'd been striking, even then: pale skin, gorgeous, long, curly dark hair. Tall. Her eyes were maybe a little too large, but expressive, a very noticeable green that stood out.

Nothing about her had changed, and yet now, looking at her, she was, indeed, almost breathtaking.

She nodded and stepped aside. Amy went in, hearing the door close with a click behind her.

The apartment was larger than hers - she didn't know how the other woman did it. Did she have a job? Work, at all? Then again... she might not even need to pay rent, depending on a lot of things.

The other woman brushed past her as they entered the first room. There was a book on a side table next to a large, comfortable-looking cushioned chair. She'd interrupted her reading...

"You shouldn't be here," she said.

"Of course, that's how you greet me," Amy muttered, "No 'hi Amy, how are you?', not even a 'what do you want?' You're undead, Taylor, but I don't fucking understand how you can be so... you."

Taylor was just wearing... normal clothes: black shirt, long sleeves. Faded blue jeans, snug around her long legs. She'd probably just been planning to have a quiet night in.

And here I am, fucking it up for her because I can't fucking help myself. She'd traded being one kind of freak for another.

"Hi Amy, how are you?" Taylor asked, no real inflection in her tone as she said it. Amy rolled her eyes and let out a breath.

"Well, it doesn't count when you do it like that." Amy crossed her arms over her chest. She looked down at herself. A nice, dark red turtleneck. She'd thought she'd looked nice in it when she'd put it on. A skirt - nothing too short, but shorter than she usually wore. Heels - fucking heels. Small ones, sure, but still.

Overdressed. Overdoing it. Of course. Why the fuck did she even want to look nice for Taylor?

You know why.

"Sorry," Amy said quietly. "I - I just wanted -"

"Amy, you can't keep doing this," Taylor interrupted. "It's only been two days since I fed on you last. If I do it again so soon, I could seriously hurt you."

Amy bit back the first response that came to mind, berating Taylor for assuming that's what Amy wanted...

It was what she wanted, after all. Not all she wanted, but...

Six months ago, if someone had told her someone other than her sister would start to dominate her thoughts, her dreams, become a daily focus for her, she'd have...

Well, she'd freaked because someone knew how much she'd thought about Vicky, but then she'd have refused to believe that person.

And now... she thought of Taylor daily. Hourly, some days. The pale, dark-haired girl dominated her thoughts sometimes. She dreamed of her. Found her thoughts wandering off about her at the stupidest times. Wondering what Taylor might think of some stupid, pointless thought that came to her mind...

She thought about all of Taylor, not just the feeling of her fangs sinking into her throat, the feeling of her blood filling the other girl's mouth...

But she did think about that more than almost anything else...

Almost. Cruelest fucking word in the English language, wasn't it?

Amy glared at Taylor. "And if I said I don't care if I get hurt?"

"I care if you get hurt, Amy. If I take too much of your blood in too short a time-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I know intimately what too much blood loss can do to the human body, Taylor." Amy took a step towards Taylor.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I don't care. Because I'm tired of feeling numb all the time, and the only time I don't is when I'm with you, when you're feeding on me." She pulled down on her turtleneck, baring her throat, the bite marks there mostly faded, but the one from two days ago was still there, still a sign of Taylor. She licked her lips a little at the way Taylor's pupils dilated a little, the way she took in a little sharp intake of breath at the sight of the sign of her claim to Amy...

"Amy... you can't keep doing this," Taylor said again. "I can't be... I can't be what you seem to want from me." Taylor stepped back.

"And what the fuck do you think I want from you then, Taylor?" Amy dropped her hands to her sides, raising her voice. "Unless you've been holding out on me, even a fucking vampire can't read my mind, so what the fuck do you think I want?" She blinked, "Apart from the obvious, anyway."

"You're treating me like drinking from you is a drug you need another hit of," Taylor said quietly. "Or worse. I can't be your reason to keep living, Amy." Taylor said quietly.

"Oh fuck you!" Amy shouted. "God, who has a fucking high opinion of themselves? Be my reason to keep living? Jesus goddamn Christ, what do you think I was doing for the 19 years and change before I met you, just living without a reason?"

She turned away, shaking her head, "Don't go acting like you haven't been getting anything out of this. I remember what you said that first night. About how much better my blood tasted than everyone else's." Her power protected her from all sorts of illnesses, diseases, infections, anything that could make her body not work perfectly. Apparently it made her blood 'super pure' to a vampire's taste buds.

"I didn't say I wasn't, Amy. But this isn't healthy."

"Getting a walking corpse to drink my blood because the feeling of ecstasy I get when you feed from me is the only way I can fucking feel anything anymore isn't healthy? Why didn't I think of that?!" She threw her hands into the air. "You know what, Taylor? Fuck this, and fuck you. I'm done." She walked to the door, half-opening it, pausing, hand on the knob. She opened her mouth to give Taylor one last parting comment but then shook her head, slamming the door behind her.

She held back the tears - at how fucking stupid she'd been, how fucking stupid Taylor was, how fucking pointless it all had been - until she got into her car.

What the fuck did she think was going to happen? She barely knew Taylor - Taylor barely knew her. Just all the fucking issues she'd unloaded on the other woman.

Be my reason to keep living! Amy could live just fine being numb. She'd managed it for long enough. But God forbid, maybe she liked not being numb?! God forbid she wanted to spend time one with of the two people on this fucking planet she actually liked spending time with.

God forbid she think maybe Taylor liked spending time with her.

God forbid you fucking say something sooner, Amy? You never can do anything right, you know. You fucking lucked into Taylor, and then you fucking screwed it over because that's all you fucking do with your life.

"Fuck you," She muttered. She wished she could say that the voice in her head sounded like Carol's, but it didn't. If it sounded like anyone, it sounded like Vicky. Like her every nightmare of what would happen if her sister found out what she really was. What kind of freak she was, how disgusting she really was.

Taylor knew and didn't mind. But, of course, why would she? She didn't care. Couldn't. Who could care about her? Vicky cared, but Vicky didn't know her.

"Fuck this. Fuck her. 'Only reason for living' my ass." She started up the engine, blinking back tears.

What had she even wanted, really? What had she expected? Why hadn't she just-

Fuck you. She drove out onto the dark streets of Brockton Bay, ignoring the question of whether that last thought was directed at Taylor or herself.

---

Six months.

Six months ago, her life had changed.

She remembered their first meeting perfectly. She'd been wearing this nice dark blue blouse Vicky had foisted on her. Pants that were tight on her, that Vicky had insisted made her look good. Almost everything she had that wasn't her preferred baggy/oversized stuff was a gift from or foisted on her by her sister. Gloves, because she always did, now. Tired of finding everything out about someone just by shaking their hand when she was off the healing clock.

She'd only even been at Brockton Bay's one active lesbian bar because Vicky had pushed her to.

She'd sat there, contemplating the merits of developing a drinking problem, wondering if her power would protect her from the long-term damages of alcohol. She'd been at the end of the bar, away from everyone else, nursing a glass of Coke, running through harsh thoughts for her sister, for Dean. Fucking Dean.

And then Taylor had sat down next to her.

Tall. Dark, curly hair, gorgeously maintained. A black lace choker around her neck, contrasting with her pale skin. A black dress.

The whole look should have been pointlessly gothy and edgy and a total turnoff, but it hadn't been. Striking, but not beautiful.

"Usually, people here dressed like you are don't try to avoid everyone else."

"I'm not really here to actually get a date," Amy had muttered. "Just here because it's pretending to make an effort at finding a girlfriend, or my sister starts trying to set me up on dates again, now that she's finally figured out why I didn't like all the guys she set me up with." She'd pinched the bridge of her nose as she'd said that. "Sorry." With Vicky's help - at Vicky's insistence - she'd done makeup - but Vicky had refused to let Amy try to do more to cover up her freckles - her hair... she didn't really look that much like Panacea. She didn't do many publicity events, and even when she did, she was always wearing her hood, her robes...

"Fair enough." She'd flagged down a bartender and ordered an iced tea. Amy had stared at the woman.

"I just said you didn't have a chance. So why are you still sitting there?" Only one other woman had bothered to approach her that whole night, and she'd driven her off with her usual prickliness, but...

"I didn't sit down here to flirt." The dark-haired woman had explained. "I figured your vibe of 'get the fuck away from me' might rub off to keep people away from me too." She'd spoken in a quiet, careful tone, not a lot of inflection, tilting her head just a little as she spoke. Amy had gotten the distinct feeling of... of being examined. Considered. Evaluated.

It wasn't creepy, the way the other woman was looking at her. But it was weird.

"Really." Amy had almost taken off her glove to touch the woman, see if she was telling the truth. "And who forced you to come here?"

"I did." She'd answered. "Psyched myself up to come here," she exhaled slowly. "Got out of a bad relationship. Took a lot to even come here."

"Ah." Amy nodded, taking another sip of her Coke. This could've still been some sort of flirting, but...

"Taylor." She'd offered her name. "If I'm going to be using your aura to keep people away, I should give you my name."

"Amy." Amy had replied.

They'd sat in silence for a while. Amy stewing. Dean had been the one to 'notice'. To finally say something to Vicky about 'maybe Amy's gay'. She still didn't know how much Dean had known or how long he'd known. What he'd suspected, and when.

Useless bastard probably thought he was helping, suggesting she might be gay. It had made Vicky ask, and then Amy's choices were to lie about it - and then Vicky would just go back to offering more double dates and attempts to set her up with guys - or be honest when confronted.

She'd selected the latter.

And then Vicky had started offering - threatening - to set her up on dates with gay or bi girls she knew, or Dean knew, or that her friends knew. Apparently, Shadow Stalker was bi. Vicky's hints when she'd brought it up hadn't been hard to pick up on.

Vicky's grasp of what she actually wanted in a partner was blessedly no better now that she'd known Amy was gay.

Eventually, the silence had gotten to her, and she'd asked Taylor about her gothy outfit. Taylor had said she always liked black. She'd asked Amy about her outfit. Amy had explained her sister dragging her for shopping at various points. They'd talked back and forth - it had felt... stilted, for her. Sounded stilted for Taylor.

They were playacting at getting to know each other. A script. And then an errant comment about a book she'd been reading - she'd finally picked up the Maggie Holt series, after years of Victoria urging her too - and it turned out, they were something Taylor was incredibly fond of. They talked about that back and forth for a bit, then to other books. The hour had been... interesting.

When it hit the time she'd always planned to leave, Amy almost hesitated. She didn't want to date Taylor or take her home or -

But still. It had been weirdly nice. But probably nicer to make sure it was a one-time thing.

It was only when she'd gotten outside, away from Taylor, into the alley by the back entrance to the bar that she'd stumbled, a sudden feeling of... she still didn't have the words for it. An absence of something had hit her, and she'd realized she'd been talking way too much. Sharing way too much. She didn't talk to people. Amy didn't have friendly conversations!

So why the fuck had she talked to her?

Cape. Some parahuman with some kind of emotional Shaker aura, like Vicky? A full-on Master? A Social Thinker that knew just what to say? She must have recognized her. She'd doubled over, feeling nauseous. She hadn't spilled her guts, but she could have. She could have shared something important with some villain, someone who wanted info on New Wave, on her -

The next few moments had been a blur. Not because Amy didn't remember but because it had all gone so fast. One moment, she was there, doubled over, stumbling towards her car. The next, she was pinned to the wall, a hand on her neck, another on her right wrist.

It was Taylor. In the light of Brockton Bay at night, in a mostly dark alleyway, she looked - she'd looked even more striking. Imposing. Her green eyes were different - slitted, like a cat's, her mouth open...

In that moment, seeing fangs in the woman's mouth, pinned to the wall, unable to move thanks to strength that had to be brute strength - Shaker/Master/Thinker and Brute and maybe Changer? Was she some sort of grab-bag? - Amy regretted her habit of wearing gloves now. She could have touched her with her free hand, knocked her out, called for help -

She'd tried to shout for help, but the hand on her throat had pressed down - and hadn't that done something, despite, or maybe because of the terror pumping blood through her veins - and choked it off. The woman had leaned in.

"I'm sorry. I need to do this. I'll try not to hurt you too much."

And then she'd leaned in more. She'd felt lips on her neck - through her skin, she tried to reach out with her power, do something, anything, but it was as if she wasn't touching anything at all, and then -

Pain.

Sharp. Sudden. Blinding. Two points, right into her neck, and then -

Amy still didn't really have the right words for it. Ecstasy, she'd called it. That still seemed too little. It wasn't - it wasn't orgasmic, but it was like a high, a rush, exhilaration - all at the same time bound up with almost perfect relaxation, contentment, bliss. A flood of joy rushing through her -

She'd moaned, sagging in Taylor's grip as feelings she couldn't remember feeling in years rushed through her. Distantly, she could still feel the pain in her neck, could feel her blood pumping out, could hear a gulping sound -

The pain, again, the high fading quickly, the bliss lingering as Taylor pulled back, and then Taylor's tongue licked over where she'd bit her.

"The fuck is going on with your blood, Amy? It's perfect."

That had been the last thing she'd heard - Taylor had grabbed her chin, made her look her in the eye, and then...

She'd woken several hours later on a couch that wasn't hers, in an apartment that wasn't hers.

---

The next week after storming out of Taylor's apartment, was one of those periodic weeks from hell she got.

Leviathan had attacked earlier than anyone expected, hitting some city in southern India that Amy couldn't pronounce the name of - or at least wasn't going to bother trying to get right. She hadn't gone to the battle itself; her contract with the PRT didn't cover that, but she had gone in the aftermath. The battle had been a victory, as much as any Endbringer fight could be.

Healing capes in the aftermath of Endbringer fights, capes who had gotten too injured to serve, or who would have needed months and months of physical therapy and healing to get back onto the streets - that had been her contract with the PRT. It paid for her apartment, food, what little entertainment she bothered to buy (books, internet access, some Aleph horror movies that didn't really do it for her anymore), and then piled up in her account.

She could have demanded so much more than the modest amount she did. She was paid less than Strider, and all he did was move people.

Asking for money had been hard enough. But she'd needed a way out of the house. Away from Carol. Away from Vicky, or so she'd thought.

It had all been the hardest thing she'd ever done, and even after two days of constant work, healing capes (and civilians, she couldn't just say no to that when Search and Rescue brought them in the aftermath), especially once who got buried by rubble and were found hours or more after the battle, after feeling even deader inside than usual, she couldn't say making the contract wasn't still one of the few smart decisions she'd made in her life.

It still sucked.

And yet, at least during those two days, she'd barely thought of Taylor.

And then it was back to the Bay. A day of exhaustion, numbness, staring at her laptop screen, barely even doing anything. She'd try to read and be unable to focus her eyes, going over the same page over and over and over again, unable to retain any of it.

Finally, she'd settled for just staring at the wall.

She'd had a lot of thinking about Taylor to catch up on.

And then, after that one day of rest, back to the grindstone. She could have kept staying home, but people at Brockton General and every other hospital in the city needed her. A cape fight between Lung and Empire 88 - broken up by New Wave and the Protectorate coming in to force them apart and catch Hookwolf for what had to be his seventy-thousandth merry-go-round with him not actually managing to be successfully taken to the Birdcage. She'd had to heal Eric and Crystal and Uncle Neil. Velocity and Dauntless. And a whole bunch of civilians caught in the earlier fight. ABB and Empire thugs taken prisoner. PRT officers and cops who'd taken hits trying crowd control or trying to restrain the unpowered minions...

That had taken so long everything else had mounted up.

The numbness had gotten so intense, so overwhelming, she'd stopped even noticing it by the end of that week. She'd gotten to the point, like she sometimes did, of just... not paying attention to anything. Running through familiar patterns on autopilot.

She'd barely even noticed driving home. Taking the stairs up four flights because waiting for the elevator seemed to be too long. Unlocking the door.

The first time she actually really registered anything more than in passing since leaving the hospital earlier was the sight of Taylor sitting on her couch.

She was wearing a long black skirt, down to just above her feet, a black shirt with long sleeves, but less concealing, tighter, without being too much. The lace choker. Her hair as gorgeous as always - it was fucking unfair someone who couldn't see themselves in a mirror always kept her hair so fucking perfect.

Amy stood there, staring. She blinked. Taylor stared back at her. Amy slapped herself on the face. She had to be seeing things. Taylor couldn't be here.

But she was. Amy pinched herself.

Still there.

"How the fuck are you here?" Amy demanded finally, finding the words.

"...it's been a week. You haven't come by again. You didn't answer any of my texts."

"You texted?" Amy blinked. Did I block her number? That sounded like something she'd do. Stupid, self-defeating, useless, stubborn. Then she shook her head. "I didn't ask why you were here, you creepy-ass stalker of a vampire. I asked how. Don't you need an invitation or something?"

"...you invited me in once."

"Five fucking months ago! It fucking lasts that long?!"

"Until you formally uninvite me, it lasts forever."

"Who the hell made these stupid rules?" Amy demanded, then she shook her head, "Fuck it. I don't care." She walked past the couch into the little half-kitchen that was basically in the same room as her living room. She looked longingly at the coffee machine, but after the day she'd had, all she really wanted to do was sleep. She forced herself to settle for a glass of water.

"What happens if I uninvite you right now?"

Taylor blinked for a moment, and in that moment, Amy almost thought she looked hurt, eyes downcast for just a second. But just that second, just that moment. And it had to be Amy deluding herself. Just like she had a week ago.

"It doesn't really matter now that I'm here, but I wouldn't be able to come back in without your invitation," Taylor answered. "Why didn't you answer any of my texts? Why didn't you come by again when it was safe? I was worried about -"

"Worried about never getting to taste the best fucking blood you've ever had again, right?"

"Worried about you!" Taylor snapped, raising her voice just a tiny bit - which for her, might as well have been shouting. Amy refused to let herself flinch, ignoring the twinge in her gut.

"Right. I buy that." Amy countered. She gulped down half the glass of water, licking her lips. "I didn't come by for the same reason I blocked your number." Because I'm a fucking idiot. She didn't say that, instead digging her hole deeper. "Because I meant it when I said 'fuck this, and fuck you. I'm done.' Done with all of this, and done with you." She didn't have a handy door to slam to punctuate it this time.

"You're throwing a temper tantrum because I wouldn't feed from you when it wasn't safe?" Taylor's voice returned to normal. The vampire did have emotional inflection, but it was so fucking subtle and so hard to pick up on. Amy still wasn't really sure about it. But the sarcasm was clear in her words.

"It's not a goddamn temper tantrum, Taylor!" Amy said, raising her voice. "This, this is the whole fucking problem." She gestured to Taylor, and then to herself. "You don't get it. You don't take me seriously. You called me an addict; you said you're somehow my only reason for living. I'm not, and you're not! I managed just fine before you, and I can manage just fine without you now!"

Taylor stared at her for a long moment, silent, and then she nodded and stood. "Fine. I'll get out of your hair. Just... please remember you promised to keep vampires a secret."

"I fucking should tell people. You might not have killed anyone, but that's by pure chance and your bitchass sire. How many people die a year to Vampires?" Amy didn't even know why she was bothering. Taylor was going to leave; she was going to be free of the vampire. She could find something else to do with her time, she could - she could be free of her.

Like you got 'free' of Vicky. Like she hadn't just replaced one twisted obsession with another.

So the fuck what. It's a better obsession. A safer obsession. I managed years, and that was with Vicky right there. I can survive obsessing over Taylor from a distance. Imagining what's nearly as impossible, but -

Arguing with Taylor wouldn't change anything, anyway.

"Amy..." Taylor started, and Amy shook her head.

"I said 'should'. Not that I would. The rest of New Wave would probably decide I'd cracked if I started talking about Vampires. At best, they'd call you some weird Master/Brute/Trump/Changer/God Knows What The Fuck and pretend you're the only one." And then if they decided Taylor had 'mastered Panacea,' fuck only knew what would happen. She'd get stuck in M/S quarantine and Taylor? They'd go after her. Birdcage her, if they could, maybe?

Taylor didn't deserve that.

"Alright." Taylor nodded. She started for the door, then stopped, turned halfway back to her. She stared at Amy. Amy stared back at her.

Say something, you stupid bitch. Amy wasn't sure if she meant herself or Taylor.

"I haven't killed anyone yet, you're right. And I didn't want my first victim to be you." Taylor said, her words even quieter than usual but carrying through the room.

Then she left, closing the door quietly behind her.

Amy didn't even bother undressing, collapsing onto the bed. She could pretend she just fell asleep easily, but the momentary look of pain, imagined or not, on Taylor's face played through her mind on repeat. The way Taylor had emphasized 'you', in the last thing she'd said, too, had remained in her mind.

Berating herself for her stupidity. Over. And over. And Over again.

---

Amy had done the unthinkable.

She'd called the hospital, and said that even though she'd volunteered, she couldn't come in today. If there was an emergency, she could be called, but otherwise, she'd needed the day.

She almost thought the nurse she'd spoken to sounded approving when she said it was okay. But why the fuck would a nurse approve of Amy being a selfish piece of shit too caught up in the consequences of her own stupidity to heal people?

But she'd done it. What little sleep she'd gotten since Taylor had left her apartment was fitful, plagued by... she couldn't even call them dreams. Just memories and stupid thoughts, over and over again.

She imagined the feeling of hurt on Taylor's face. She had to have. Had to.

And yet, here she was...

She took a breath.

Closed her eyes.

Took another breath.

What was she even going to say? She'd had a chance to tell the truth a week ago. She'd had another chance yesterday. Instead, she yelled. She berated. She pushed back at Taylor. She latched onto one tiny thing Taylor said, blew it up, and focused on that.

Anything to avoid being honest, apparently. To take the fucking chance, to tell Taylor the truth.

And what the fuck even is the truth, you stupid bitch? Taylor wasn't wrong that Amy wanted the vampire to drink her blood. Taylor was wrong that she was Amy's only reason to live... but was she wrong that Amy was addicted?

As if getting addicted to feeling something, anything is bad? She could survive with the numbness, the emptiness, the wash, rinse, repeat of her life. But she didn't want to. Was that so bad? When Taylor fed from her, she felt better. Not just during. But after. Sometimes a whole day, the feeling of... blissed-out contentment. Hours on end of... peace.

Was that so bad?

But the truth was that it was more. That she hadn't come by a week ago just to have Taylor feed from her.

But what... what did that mean?

And could she actually say it?

Amy lifted her hand to knock.

Lowered it.

Lifted her hand to knock again.

Lowered it.

She did this... at least three more times, but finally, her hand about to knock, the door opened, Taylor on the other side. She was wearing casual, normal clothes again - shirt, jeans... hair as gorgeous as ever. Her expression was clear for a change: Frustration. Eyes narrowed, brow furrowed, glaring at her.

She must have... smelled me or heard me, and then I was here, in front of the door, for like, fifteen minutes...

"Why are you here?" Taylor demanded in a quiet tone.

Amy parted her lips a little, inhaled. "To apologize."

Taylor's expression faded to her usually carefully guarded neutrality. "What?" Her tone was flat, almost emotionless.

"I'm sorry for storming out a week ago. I'm sorry for not hearing you out yesterday or - I'm sorry for - I'm just sorry. For a lot of things." Amy trailed off. "I... that's - that's not all I want to say, but it's all you need to hear." She bit her lower lip, stepping back. She looked down the hall towards the stairs.

"Wait." Taylor said before she could leave. Taylor stepped aside, and Amy swallowed but walked inside. Taylor directed her to the living room, and Amy nodded, stopping once they reached it. Taylor sat down on her chair again.

"Why?" Taylor asked now.

"Why am I sorry? Why did I say what I said a week ago? Yesterday?" Taylor nodded. Amy licked her lips again and stared. "It - I don't - I don't really have a good answer?" She admitted, lowering her voice looking down at the ground. "I'm an idiot. I screw everything up. I -" She screwed her eyes shut, forcing herself to take another breath. "I didn't actually come here last week for you to feed on me. Or - or at least - that wasn't the only reason."

"Why else would you have come?"

"Why would you be worried about me except for liking the taste of my blood?" Amy asked. She shook her head. "I don't - you know me. Or at least, some of me. About all the stupid, freak bullshit I have going on. I've told you things I haven't told anyone. About myself, my power, my sister..." She trailed off, looking away.

She still wasn't sure what had possessed her to tell Taylor that. Taylor said the only time she'd used her emotional manipulation abilities - basically a shaker effect, even if it wasn't a parahuman power - had been that first night. Amy had no way of knowing if it was true, but she believed her.

Maybe she was an idiot but at this point...

I'm not sure I care.

"I think about you every day. Not just about you drinking my blood, though, yeah, that too, but - just... you. In general." Amy said, finally. She let out a small breath.

"What do you mean, 'just me, in general'?" Taylor asked.

"You! Your face, your hair, your lips." She flushed. "You. But not - not just that. Not just - not just - I think about just, sitting, with you. About the times after you're done feeding on me, and I relax a little, and you're relaxed and we just... talk, about books. Or about nothing. Sometimes you tell me about vampires. I -"

She cut herself off. "Taylor, there are two people I know that I really, honestly enjoy spending time with. Vicky's one of them. The other one? It's you. I don't - I don't really get how, or when, or why or - maybe it's just what happens when a vampire feeds off of someone enough times; maybe I'm just fucked up even more than I thought. Maybe you grew on me. Maybe I am addicted. But I don't..."

She paused, swallowed, tried to find the right words. Considered a few. Rejected them. Tried again.

"I don't want to be just your blood bag." Amy said finally. She held up a hand, a small snort of... almost laughter escaping her. "It's not that I want to stop being your blood bag, I just..." She put her hands over her face her eyes, pulling them down as she inhaled slowly. "I want more. I want - I want you. Taylor. All of you."

Taylor said nothing for... what felt like forever, but was probably just closer to a minute. Maybe less. She stared at her. Amy stared back, unable to hold herself in place - she twitched, fidgeted.

Taylor stood, but she still didn't say anything.

"Taylor. I just - I'm sorry." She said again. She started to turn, to leave. She'd... she'd said everything she'd have wanted to say and then some.

Taylor's hand touched her shoulder.

"Amy. Wait." Amy turned, almost letting out a cry at how close Taylor was, the distance between them minuscule now. Amy's eyes darted to Taylor's lips, and she licked her own lips. All she'd have to do was get on her tiptoes... maybe put her hand behind Taylor's head a little, tilt it down...

She didn't have to do those things. Taylor's hand on her shoulder went around the back of her neck, the other onto her hip... Taylor tilted her head down, her lips touching Amy's tentatively, slowly...

It was - it wasn't like Amy had imagined it. Taylor clearly didn't have a lot of experience kissing - but Amy had been less than that. The carefulness, the way she pressed, soft, gentle, slowly building up as Amy tried to yield to her -

But, Taylor was kissing her?! She'd said - she'd told Taylor the truth, and now the woman, the vampire, the object of her increasing obsessions, was kissing her. Amy kissed back, one hand getting up in Taylor's hair, feeling the soft, silky locks around it, her other hand clinging to Taylor's shoulder.

Her knees felt weak. She buckled a little - surprise, shock, need -

The kiss continued, Taylor pressing further against her lips, and then -

Amy forced herself away from Taylor's lips, gasping, cheeks flushed, lips almost feeling numb, heart pounding in her chest.

"This... this is real, right?" Amy asked quietly, hating how small and plaintive she sounded.

"Yeah. It's - it's real." Taylor nodded. "This is a bad idea, you know that right? You know what I am. What I could be. I'm a monster." Amy bristled when Taylor said this was a bad idea but felt herself relax just a little as Taylor went on.

I could be a monster. I'm closer to one than you are. And Taylor had a better excuse. She literally needed to keep drinking blood to live.

Well, keep existing, anyway.

"You know what I could be."

"Hardly the same thing. You're a hero." Taylor countered. "I want this, Amy. Want you. But I can't - I don't think I could let go easily."

"Like I can either, Taylor?" Amy felt herself smile, just a little. She tried not to let herself feel too much at this. At this happening, at it being real. Hope was a fragile thing, and she'd lost it a long time ago. But -

"Maybe you're right, and this is a bad idea, but I'm tired of caring about that," Amy whispered, not sure why she was, but it seemed... it seemed right. "Please... Taylor."

Taylor nodded slowly, then kissed her again, lips only lingering on her lips for a moment, then down her neck - trailing over the skin, licking along the almost entirely faded bitemarks there - Taylor's saliva left a tingling sensation everywhere it touched on her bare skin... Amy let out a soft moan.

Taylor pulled back, licking her lips. Amy watched her with baited breath, lips parted, the whole world felt like it was standing still. Taylor's eyes turned to slits, she opened her mouth, and Amy watched fangs extend...

Taylor leaned in, almost to her neck again, then she hesitated. Pulled back.

"Taylor?" Amy squirmed, doubts creeping back in.

"If - if this is going to happen, and it is going to happen... then I'm not drinking your blood like this," Taylor said, her voice almost thick, and Amy shivered as she realized - or hoped maybe? - that the note in the vampire's voice was desire, need. "We're doing it on my bed... and you're going to be naked."

Amy felt like her entire body went red in that moment, an incoherent, wordless squeak escaping her lips. She didn't resist when Taylor grabbed her hand and tugged her to follow her. She didn't resist when Taylor ordered - ordered - her to strip or resist when she was pushed down onto the bed, Taylor straddling her.

And she didn't resist when Taylor's teeth sank into her neck again, finally.

But this time, it was so much more.

---

---

I actually have ideas for two more follow-on bits, one from Victoria's POV as she finds out Amy has a gf, and one from Taylor's POV. I don't know if they'll happen anytime soon, but they are on the roster.

As I said, I hope Taylor came across as reasonably IC under the circumstances. She doesn't have many speaking lines, and we don't get a look at her POV, but still.

 

[Fungame2]

Are there plans to continue any of these atm because that soulmates au I NEED IT!

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Are there plans to continue any of these atm because that soulmates au I NEED IT!

Click to shrink...

Not in the near future but if any of them get turned into a full fic, Her Words (the soulmate AU) is the most likely to be so.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: One of a number of fic Ideas I discussed with several people in the Gaylor Discord server. This one ended up generating some conversation, so I decided to go with it.

There's a bit of skimming over certain events to move the one-shot forward and get to the scenes I wanted. I'm not totally happy with this one, I think of all the Worm oneshots I've published so far, I'm the least happy with this one, but it still feels pretty good overall. It also got away from me lengthwise and I just wanted to wrap it up.

A good bit of dialogue during the bank scene is ripped directly from the text of Worm.

So, I wasn't really aware that 'Amy can do plants' was somehow a controversial position in this fandom, beyond knowing that there was a particular BNF who had strong feelings about it. But it is apparently controversial. For the record, since it comes up in this oneshot, and probably will in future fics of mine, Amy's power absolutely, 100% can do plants in any fic I write. And frankly, that seems pretty obvious to me that it would be true in canon too.

If that is something you can't handle, the back-button is right there.

---

---

"The Cape goes by the name 'Freaky Friday', but despite the reference to the 1976 movie, they do not swap people's bodies. If multiple capes are in their radius of effect, then Freaky Friday is capable of switching their powers. The exact radius is unclear, but appears to be no further than 25 meters away from them. All powers switched by Freaky Friday return to normal after exactly one week (168 Hours) in all observed cases. Switched powers function exactly the same as they did before and do not appear to be affected in any way after returning to normal. The act of switching is intensely disorienting to the subjects in the first few minutes and has been used by Freaky Friday to effect escapes repeatedly. It can also cause significant harm - such as if a cape whose power makes them immune to fire happens to be touching flame and their powers are switched, or if a flying cape loses their flight while mid-air.

If encountered, only one Cape should ever get close enough or be close enough to him, as he does not appear to be able to swap powers with himself."

-Excerpt from an Internal PRT Alert about the Trump cape 'Freaky Friday'

---

Come on Vicky, you're not usually late to picking me up. Amy yawned, not bothering to cover up her mouth. It was late, Vicky was supposed to be picking her up tonight - if her sister had said she was going to be late, Amy would have grabbed the bus, but now it would be another half hour until the right bus going the right way stopped here.

So she was stuck either way.

Victoria was probably caught up with Dean. She loved her sister, she really did - too much - but...

Of all the guys in the entire city you could have chosen to date, it had to be him?! Victoria's taste in men was baffling.

"Panacea! In the flesh!" A man's voice said from nearby, walking towards her. Amy dropped her head into her hand, groaning.

"I don't do requests, or autographs," Amy mumbled, not looking in the direction of whoever was talking. "And Glory Girl will be here to pick me up soon, so.."

"Oh, even better! The more the merrier!" The man said, sounding positively delighted. "Come now, look at me Panpan, it's rude to talk to someone without making eye contact!" The voice reminded her of the court jester in a fantasy movie she'd seen last month, on one of those double dates her sister kept dragging her onto. Affected, slightly high-pitched, upbeat. Very cheery.

"That's not my fucking name," Amy countered, not bothering to look at the clearly deranged fan.

"My, such a rude girl." The man replied. "Turn that frown upside down!"

"What, is this the part where you tell me I'd look prettier if I smiled?" What kind of fucking creep was this guy? Was he trying to hit on her?

"Well, that's certainly true - it's true of most everyone - but mostly you should be smiling because I'm going to give you a rare gift." The man said, sounding like he was grinning.

"I don't accept gifts. If you really want to thank me for my work, donate to the New Wave Foundation," Amy said, the words practically rote. At first, when healing had been a novelty and the thanks from people had actually meant something, she had accepted gifts - sweets, flowers, things like that. Unfortunately, that had ended when some freshly triggered asshole - so fresh he hadn't even had a cape name yet - had gifted her chocolates that he'd infected with a plague - his power was infecting objects with diseases.

Fortunately, her power killed the disease, and he'd been stupid enough to sign the box, hoping to take credit for killing Panacea. Vicky had gotten sick, but Amy had caught it soon enough to stop it.

The guy had gotten caught days after his trigger and was hopefully rotting in a sealed off cell somewhere.

"Ah, but this gift is special. I'm going to give you the chance to walk-" He started, and then he was cut off by Victoria's voice shouting out.

"Hey! Get away from my sister!" Amy looked up to see Victoria hovering about ten feet up a short distance away.

"Ah, Glory Girl! Right on time!" The man laughed - giggled, really, again, reminiscent of that court jester. Why was that the only thing Amy could remember about the movie?

Well, that and how pretty the princess character looked. She'd looked like a taller Vicky that had swapped out her costume for a suit of armor and picked up a sword.

But her sister usually didn't just shout at people for talking to her... even annoying people. At least not as a first resort. Blinking, Amy turned to look at the guy, then stepped back, cursing under her breath as she saw that he was a cape.

He had to be anyway. Normal criminals didn't wear elaborate, colorful masks and outfits. His costume was an orange and blue three-piece suit, split down the middle, garishly clashing shades that made her eyes hurt. His mask was the same color-clash, and after a moment, Amy realized why it looked so familiar - it was the comedy/tragedy masks... but mashed together, with the orange half tragedy and the blue half comedy.

"Right, I'm here. So you can get the fuck away from my sister already!" Vicky snapped, swooping down to get between her and the masked cape. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Why me? I'm Freaky Friday. And I'm here to give you both a lovely little gift: Perspective!"

The name Freaky Friday rang a bell - a movie? TV Show? - but before Amy could do anything more than have that thought, the cape, Freaky Friday, flourished his hands dramatically - Amy felt... something, like a sudden momentary absence, and then -

She doubled over, feeling like she'd been hit in the stomach. She gasped, and heard Vicky do the same thing.
Amy tried to call out to her sister, to reach for her, heard Freaky Friday giggling and racing off and then -

Nothing.

---

"...and he said his name was Freaky Friday." Victoria repeated the story of what had happened for the third time in the last hour, controlling her tone. She'd told this to Mom, she'd told it to Dad, and now she was telling it to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil. Amy wasn't really up for talking, so that left her to do it. But three times was starting to grate on her, just a little.

She'd been going to the Hospital to pick up Amy, maybe try to talk her into going shopping for the double date tomorrow - her sister was pretty, if she'd just stop covering herself up with her robes or baggy clothes or whatever else - and she'd gotten there and there'd been some guy in a crazy orange and blue outfit and a mask. Some random cape was accosting her sister, and she'd seen red, for a moment. She'd held herself back, tried telling him to go away first, he hadn't, and then...

She'd collapsed to the ground, unconscious. She'd been standing on the ground at least... which turned out to be a really good thing when she'd been shaken awake by one of the hospital workers on a smoke break just a few minutes later.

Taking the man's hand to help her to her feet had been... insane. It was overwhelming, actually. She didn't know how to describe it, the sudden conception of the entirety of his body in her awareness. She wasn't seeing it, right down to the cells, but it was the only word that even kind of seemed right. She knew he wasn't eating enough, drank too much coffee, could see the build of tar and other shit inside of his lungs that would become lung cancer in a decade...

And she'd known, known she could change it all. The impulse, to do something to his body, to remove the buildup or change something anything -

That had been almost as overwhelming as the sudden assault of his biology on her mind. Holding back a bit of hyperventilating,she'd only been halfway to her feet when she'd pulled her hand back, staggered, nearly fell over again. It was everything all at once - it was too much, it was nothing like what she felt when she flew -

Hands on the ground, she could feel bacteria and god knew whatever else under her hands, on the sidewalk.

Vicky was a lot of things, including blonde, and a jock. She was also, despite what PHO sometimes liked to say about her, not an idiot. Indeed, as she admitted herself, and as Amy frequently called it, she was a nerd. At least when it came to powers. It hadn't been hard for her to grasp, as she'd forced herself up to her feet, the comforting familiarity of her forcefield absent, that she had her sister's powers now.

Amy had had a hell of a time explaining what it felt like when she sensed someone's biology, and Victoria had pestered about it more than once over the years. Now she could relate to why Amy got frustrated with her about it so quickly. Just thinking about how to put it into words even in her own head left her feeling... inadequate? Dumb? Just a little, just for a moment. Powers were hard to explain in some cases, but she felt like she should have an easier time of it than this.

Waking her sister up - and the ache in her chest at the feeling of her own forcefield around her in the process - had been simple enough. Watching Amy freak out and float up into the air had been a lot less simple.

Their powers had been swapped.

There could only really be one explanation - that cape. That jackass 'Freaky Friday'. His name made sense now. And what he'd said about gifting them with 'perspective'.

When she'd first gotten her power, her sister had avoided touching most people for a while, apart from her. Which she'd really appreciated at the time, because her sister had always given her the best hugs. But now that she had Amy's power, Vicky could sort of understand why Amy had taken a while to be willing to shake hands or whatever.

Amy's reaction had been somewhere between confusion and hyperventilating. Victoria would have been doing the same, probably, knew she was repressing, but she was repressing. Because the part of her taking Parahumans Studies classes at BBU was letting her focus on that, focus on the how of what had just happened, trying to work it out, what it meant. It was a distraction, but Victoria was good at those in general. It had given her enough presence of mind enough to let her call Mom, tell her they'd been attacked by some sort of Trump cape. She'd come to pick them up - even if Victoria had been willing to ask Amy to take that risk, there was no way her sister was in a fit state to fly that distance or carry her.

"Well, then, Victoria, Amy, I have good news." Aunt Sarah said. "This... swapping of your powers is temporary."

"Oh thank god," Victoria muttered. Amy didn't say anything and she looked at her sister, who was looking at her hands in her lap. "Not that your power isn't really awesome, Amy, but I already miss being able to fly." She chuckled, reaching out to nudge her sister's shoulder.

And meeting her forcefield again.

Amy had been keeping that up the whole hour since they'd woken up. Does she not know how to be selective with it? Victoria had taken a few days to get all the ins and outs of her power, how to know how much her forcefield could take (okay, that one had taken longer, including nearly dying and Amy triggering for her to really get it) but she hadn't kept her family out. She bit her lower lip for a moment, resolving to ask Amy in private, once they had a moment.

"...how long?" Amy finally asked quietly, looking back down at her hands. Amy had been avoiding touching anything as much as she could too, afraid of breaking anything with her strength.

Suppressing a small laugh, Victoria had to admit that was a fair concern - even now, years after her trigger, Dad still kept a few spare doors on hand in the basement because she still didn't always reign her strength in when slamming the door. Usually after her latest breakup with Dean.

Amy doesn't really slam her door much, but... the image of her sister flopping down on the bed like she liked to do when she wanted to sulk, but doing it too hard and breaking the bed made her smile, just for a moment.

A flash of guilt roiled in her stomach a moment and she wiped the smile off her face. It was funny, but her sister was clearly having a hard time with this too. Victoria had to be there for her. She reached out and tried to squeeze Amy's shoulder through the forcefield.

Does she not - does she not trust me with her power? Victoria couldn't believe that, but it felt like it, a little stab in her chest...

She forced that thought away.

"A week. Exactly. 168 hours to be precise. Freaky Friday is a known quantity - he's been active for about a year, apparently." Aunt Sarah explained. "The PRT let me know he'd been sighted in the city a few hours ago, copied New Wave on an internal report about his power."

"Uncharacteristically helpful of them," Mom crossed her arms in front of her chest. "They don't usually go that far about new villains in town. Not that quickly, at least."

"Well, Freaky Friday is potentially quite destabilizing. According to the PRT, his power only works if there's two other parahumans in his radius. So they wanted to make sure we knew that if one of us saw him-"

"Make sure we're the only ones approaching him." Victoria nodded.

"Exactly. I was going to let your mother know when she left work... I didn't expect he'd approach you, Amy." Sarah had the decency to sound apologetic but Victoria didn't really hold it much against her aunt that she hadn't said anything.

"Do we know why he might have specifically targeted Panacea?" Mom asked, arms still crossed.

"I mean... it's not like Amy's scheduled time at the hospital is a secret." Or that she snuck out at night to heal more. At least she wouldn't be able to do that for a week. Amy was never happier when she came home from the hospital, not when it was scheduled, and not when it was secret. "And Glory Girl watch on PHO always mentions me going to pick her up when I do." She didn't every time, but most of the time, she did. Hospitals in Brockton Bay were the closest thing the city had to neutral territory, and no gang had ever been stupid enough to try anything on Amy. No one had since that one asshole had tried to infect her through a box of chocolates... and gotten Victoria as collateral damage.

"So maybe... maybe he just knew that's where two capes would be to switch?" Victoria offered.

"Did his voice sound familiar, Amy? Maybe he approached you earlier, out of costume?" Mom asked. "Can you think of any reason he might have targeted you?"

"...no, I can't," Amy said, looking up, not meeting Mom's gaze. "And he didn't sound familiar either."

"No one who complained about you not healing them on request recently? They could be a friend or family member of Freaky Friday-" Amy looked back down at her hands, shoulders hunching again. Damnit Mom! Victoria inhaled sharply and interrupted, saving Amy from more beratement.

"Mom!" Victoria raised her voice. "It's not Amy's fault. Maybe he was targeting me? Or New Wave in general!"

"Maybe, but we can't rule anything out." Mom countered. Amy looked back at her, still not meeting her eyes directly, but she opened her mouth, about to say something more - maybe raise her voice, from the look on her face, but Aunt Sarah cut in before she could talk.

"Regardless, it's happened. And we'll have to make sure none of the rest of us get too close to him in groups." She let out a breath. "I'll call the hospitals and let them know that you can't attend as planned for the next week." Amy let out a breath and nodded, shoulders sagging.

"I could-" Victoria started to offer, but Aunt Sarah shook her head.

"Victoria, the PRT isn't going to just approve you going in untrained and unpracticed to heal people. If it's an emergency and there's someone who needs help right in front of you, that's one thing, but -"

"Come on! It's not like Amy's power has any negative side effects! It's the same power. Amy has my forcefield and my flight and my strength... and probably my aura too." She looked at Amy, "Do you have the aura?"

Amy nodded.

I've always wondered what it feels like to experience. Really, this sucked, that she couldn't fly for a week, but there were so many questions she'd had about Amy's power, and being on the other end of her power and -

Now that she knew for sure this had an endpoint, there wasn't much point in freaking out. So she didn't even need to use all the interesting questions as a distraction from the problem.

She was going to have to get Amy to help her out with this. Plus Dean. Would he suddenly be able to read her emotions? Would that upset him?

Dean liked that he couldn't get a proper read on her feelings, and Victoria preferred that too, even if it got annoying when he wasn't understanding her, but that was... that was what happened with normal relationships too.

Still. What would I look like, emotionally to him? She was going to have to ask him all about that too, when she saw him at school.

She bounced a little as she sat there on the couch, all the interesting possibilities she could do. And she could do Amy's healing for her for the week. Amy probably wouldn't want to do her patrols or anything, and that was fine, her sister didn't like fighting, but -

It was healing. It was cool! And Amy could do so much cool stuff with her power - she only told Victoria about everything she could do, but now Victoria could - she could heal Dad's depression!

Then her heart sank after the momentary elation. If she did that, everyone would know Amy was lying about not being able to do brains. And Amy would get annoyed at her, and probably sulk for weeks about it afterwards and -

But I mean - I know Amy's worried about what could go wrong, but... it didn't feel like healing that guy's early damage from smoking, or anything like that wouldn't go exactly like I told it too?

She was jolted out her thoughts by Aunt Sarah finally answering her:

"Victoria, they made your sister go through three months of training and observation before they let her heal any civilians. And the only reason it was that short was probably because they had you as the first person she healed."

"But they know it's the same power now! All that testing was to make sure Amy's power didn't come with some... side effect, like mastering me or something, like with that one power-booster in the Birdcage. Ingenue," she recalled the name after a moment's thought.

Or Teacher. The people he gave powers to became his mastered slaves, basically. Or maybe just really susceptible to his manipulation. The literature on him, such as it was, wasn't settled. Probably wouldn't be. Which was a bit of a shame, but also probably for the best.

"And to make sure that she knew what she was doing. We didn't let you go out and fight criminals on your own right after you triggered either," Aunt Sarah pointed out. "If you make a mistake, it could cause serious problems for New Wave in general, and your sister especially, once your powers switch back."

Victoria bit her tongue, holding back a groan. She could do this! Maybe - okay, maybe a little coaching from Amy at first, a day to practice or something, but she could definitely do this! If she couldn't be a hero by fighting crime, she could at least make sure -

She looked at the expressions on her Mom's face, on Aunt Sarah's face. She looked at her Uncle Neil, hoping he'd be on her side, but he just gave her a momentary shrug, and a smile.

Victoria sighed. They couldn't stop Amy from sneaking out and healing, so they couldn't stop her from trying it, right?

"So we just do... nothing for a week?"

"You can probably go about your daily lives, as long as you're careful not to use your powers too much." Aunt Sarah said. "Just no patrols, no going to the hospital - call it a week off."

"Okay." Victoria stood, "Is there anything else you need Amy and me for, or-?"

"Go ahead," Mom said, gesturing to the stairs. Amy stood up slowly, and headed for the stairs first. It took Victoria a moment to realize Amy wasn't dragging her feet like she usually did, especially after talking to Mom. "Amy! No flying in the house is still a rule!"

Amy dropped a few inches down onto the ground, flushing. "I didn't even realize I was..."

"Well, make sure you pay closer attention to what you're doing with your power, Amy." Mom scolded. "And be careful about closing doors."

"It's not like we don't have replacements handy if she breaks one." Dad interjected. He came out of the kitchen, two cups in hand. He handed one to her, and one to Amy. Hot chocolate. From the smell of it, the really good hot cocoa too. Victoria inhaled slowly, savoring it. Dad only broke this stuff out when someone really needed it. Memories of days in the past, when Dad had good days more often and could be more present flashed through her mind, and she blinked a few seconds.

Dad was here now, and this helped.

"Thanks Dad," Victoria said, Amy muttering her own thanks as she took a small sip from her cocoa. He nodded and then Victoria continued upstairs behind Amy. "Come on," she gestured once they were there, towards her room. Amy hesitated for a moment, Victoria stared at her, and then her sister followed her into the room, closing the door way too gently behind her.

"You don't need to be that careful, Amy," Victoria grinned. She took a sip of her cocoa and sat down on her bed, patting a spot next to her for Amy to sit down.

"Better safe than sorry," Amy said quietly. "How many doors did you break in your first month with your pours? Six?"

"Five... and one handle snapped off, but the door was fine." Victoria corrected. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side, Ames?" She asked, unable to stop smiling despite the faux-wounded tone she affected. If Amy could banter with her a little by bringing that up, she wasn't doing as badly as she could be. That was good. She let out a small breath.

Still.

"How are you holding up?" She didn't want to leap straight to the questions she really wanted to ask. Her sister didn't usually get prickly around her, the way she did everyone else, but sometimes Amy clammed up and got defensive with her too, and Victoria hated that. But she had 11 years of being an 'Amy Whisperer' under her belt. She knew how to handle her sister.

Amy started to open her mouth, but Victoria raised her finger, pointing at her. "And don't say you're fine." That was always her sister's answer. Amy was pretty much the best sister anyone could ask for, but she could be frustrating as hell, when she insisted on taking blame for things that weren't her fault, or when she made trying to help her like pulling teeth.

"...I don't know how I'm holding up," Amy admitted. "I... I mean - I've been stuck with my power for two years and a half years and - now I don't have it but I have your power, and you have my power and - and-" she sagged, letting out a breath. "No offense, Vicky, but I don't want your power. At all." Amy added.

"Why not? You can fly! I mean, I know you don't really like getting into the fighting and all that, but why wouldn't you want to fly!?"

Flying was amazing - exhilarating. One of the coolest things in the world, and it was probably her favorite part of her power. Superstrength was nice, and the forcefield was awesome, and her aura could sometimes end fights before they started, but flying? Flying was hands down the best, the one part of her power she'd never want to do without.

"Your power is made for fighting."

Not answering my question, Ames. Why don't you want to fly!? Her sister was truly alien to her sometimes.

"And flying! It's not like anyone's expecting you to go out and beat up criminals, anymore than they're expecting me to go and heal people." Victoria frowned. "And like, fine, you don't want to fight, I get that." Her sister's power could be used to fight - touch someone's bare skin, instant knockout - but Amy didn't have any way to heal herself and her power didn't come with a defense. At least Dad could attack from range with his grenades. Amy didn't really have that option.

And her sister just... didn't want to fight. Didn't like it. Had never wanted to. "So you don't have to, but I want to go heal people. You save more people in a week than I could ever hope to! I - I'd miss flying too much to give it up forever, but since I have your powers..." she pouted, "But they won't let me."

"For a good reason, Vicky." Amy sighed, giving her an exasperated look. Victoria took solace in her sister continuing to return to form, rather than shrinking in on herself. "The training and testing wasn't just about making sure my power didn't have side effects. They wanted to make sure I actually knew what I was doing."

"Doesn't your power do most of the work? I mean, I told you you should have pushed for a Thinker subrating." Her ability to fly properly deserved a Thinker subrating, but god forbid anyone listen to her about that.

"Vicky, threat ratings aren't... prizes you collect," Amy paused in the middle, trying to find the right words, rejecting at least one phrasing before settling on what she did say. "And... Yeah, for some stuff my power does most of the work, or even all of it, but - it's easier to make sure nothing goes wrong with the healing if I understand the anatomy and biology. And biology is the one class I have better grades than you."

"Because your power lets you cheat." Victoria stuck her tongue out. Her sister wasn't stupid, but she didn't get enough sleep and she didn't make an effort in class and it showed in her grades. Victoria tried to get her to take school more seriously, but Amy just... didn't. Biology really was the one class Amy did well in, though her better grade was just half a percent more than hers.

And her power really did let her cheat.

Amy rolled her eyes, shaking her head slowly. "We can't all be nerds like you, Vicky. But seriously, Vicky, it's for the best. It took a lot of practicing and training to be able to use my power to heal anything complicated."

"You are no fun, Amy." Victoria gently shoved at her sister - to no avail, thanks to the forcefield. "How many parahumans get to find out what someone else's power is like to have or use? One way or another, I am going to convince you to try flying on your own." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Amy rolled her eyes and sipped at her cocoa.

"I mean it." Victoria wagged a finger at her sister. "Flying is awesome, and you'll love it!"

"Only you could make enjoying something sound like a threat, Vicky," Amy shook her head, smiling for just a moment.

"It's my specialty." She took a sip from her own cocoa and then, "Okay, now, the aura. Hit me with it."

Amy sputtered, nearly spitting out the next sip of cocoa she'd taken. She covered her mouth with her free hand, then coughed after she swallowed. "Excuse me?"

"My aura. Or, your aura, right now. People have described it to me, and I know what it does on an academic level and all that," Victoria ignored Amy muttering 'nerd' as she went on, "but I have no idea what it actually feels like. Not really. This is a golden opportunity!"

"I don't want to experiment, I just want -" Amy cut herself off. "I don't know what I want. But this isn't just... this is fun for you."

"It can be, if you'd play along." Victoria set her mug down on her side table and clasped her hands together in front of her. "Come on Ames! We only have a week, this is - this is a golden opportunity," she said again. "Golden! This is never gonna happen again, so - come on, hit me with it! It's the same aura as always, it's not like there's any long-term side effects."

The PRT had been worried about that when she'd first triggered, but she'd always known it didn't do that, and testing had proved that soon enough.

"Vicky..." Amy said warningly, but Victoria could tell her sister was wavering, hesitating, seeing things her way.

"Look at it this way, you always complain I've hit you with it so much you're immune to it now, so here's your chance for some revenge!" Victoria stuck her tongue out at Amy.

Amy tilted her head to the side. "...Okay. Okay." She hesitated for a moment, and then. "Done. How does it feel?"

For a moment, Victoria blinked. She wasn't feeling anything? She looked at her sister, and she loved her and felt safe with her... which was normal. But as she looked at her sister, she realized she felt all that... more. She felt like she did when she hugged her after a long, disappointing day. Or when she had had her latest breakup with Dean and she was on her bed, head in Amy's lap, her sister's fingers gently threading through her hair, making supportive noises of agreement when she listed off all of the things about Dean that annoyed her - at least when she wasn't dating him.

Absolute, unconditional comfort, safety... she let out a soft sigh, unable to tear her eyes away from Amy, feeling tension she didn't know she had bleeding out of her shoulders. She sagged a little. It wasn't all that different from how she normally felt about her sister, but it was more. More deep, more intense, more overwhelming. It was hard for her to really register that, think about anything other than how nice being around her sister was...

Then everything snapped back to normal and Victoria shook her head. "Woah. That was...that wasn't really what I expected." Amy frowned, lips parting a little, and Victoria shook her head, reassuring her sister quickly. "It was good, but it was - for a second, I didn't even realize I was feeling the aura at all. I just felt safe with you, and trusted you, and thought you were the best sister ever." She laughed, "Which I already feel all the time." She smiled as she watched Amy flush and look away, then she took Amy's half-finished mug from her hands and set it on the bedside table and then pulled her sister into a tight hug.

"It was just... more. And nothing else. It was... weird, but it was nice." She smiled, feeling Amy's arms hesitantly - and very lightly - go around her as well. "Nice because I knew it was completely true. Love you, Ames."

"Love you too Vicky," Amy murmured, tightening her arms just a little more, relaxing into the hug. Victoria rested her chin on Amy's shoulder for a moment. The forcefield fell away and Victoria felt her sister's biology blossom in the 'sight' of her power. She could feel it, every cell, every fiber of her being. Her skin, or organs, her brain - she couldn't read Amy's thoughts, and the impressions her power was giving her of what Amy was feeling were vague - contentment, maybe? But there was an undercurrent of anxiety? Maybe, it was hard to tell, but her sister's heart was beating pretty fast and there was a buildup of what Victoria was, between the power-senses and her own knowledge of biology, pretty sure had to be cortisol - the stress hormone - throughout her body.

Amy... Her sister was terrible at relaxing. Always worrying about things, or getting anxious, even hyperventilating sometimes if something was really going wrong. Anytime Victoria got hurt, Amy stressed out. Amy stressed in general.

And she isn't getting enough sleep.

She felt bad for making light of Amy sneaking out to go to the hospital just a bit ago now, as she felt just how little sleep her sister was getting. Amy would just say she had it handled, or that lying in bed not getting sleep about all the people she wasn't helping wasn't any better...

But it had to be, right? At least she was comfortable in bed?

If nothing else, a week of actually getting more sleep would do wonders for her sister.

Victoria pulled back from the hug. She had to admit, now that she really took the time to really flex Amy's 'biosense', that Amy had had a point. Knowing more about biology definitely helped her interpret what the power was telling her, and experience with it would make using it a lot easier. She picked up things from Amy's brain she couldn't place, didn't recognize, same with the rest of her body.

"And here I was thinking I wasn't going to get to see what your body felt like with your power," Victoria teased.

"...that wasn't completely on purpose," Amy admitted, cheeks flushed. "I just - relaxed and -"

"Ames! Seriously? Not on purpose! Why are you so determined to keep me from being able to use your power on you?" She pouted, throat feeling just a little tight. "Are you - are you hiding something?" She reached her hand out for Amy's hand - the forcefield wasn't back up.

Victoria's breath caught. Was she sick? Had she gotten hurt and wasn't saying anything because she didn't want to be a burden? Had she caught something at the hospital and didn't want to admit it because they'd stop her from healing?

Well, no, it couldn't be that, Amy couldn't catch diseases... cancer? Could Amy still get cancer? Her sister had joked about smoking a few times, but her sister didn't actually smoke, and there was definitely no tar in her lungs or anything.

No. No cancer. Amy's... healthy. Apart from not enough sleep and maybe too much coffee? Her sister could do with more muscles, but getting Amy to exercise was like pulling teeth. Amy wasn't fat, not even close, but Victoria's various attempts to persuade her sister to come to the gym with her had always failed miserably.

"Vicky!" Amy pulled her hand out of Victoria's grasp. "I just - I don't want to know about my biology, okay? I've gone this whole time not being able to read myself and... I don't really want to find out anything." She let out a breath, slowly. "It's not like I'm worried you'll do anything to me, or anything, I just wanted to wait to let you use your power on me until I asked you to promise not to tell me anything about what you see."

Victoria stared at her sister for a moment. Amy's logic made absolutely no sense on a very basic level, because... well, why wouldn't Amy want to know more about her biology? On the other hand, it made perfect sense, because it was the kind of thing that was quintessentially Amy - absolute nonsense wrapped up in not wanting to confront or deal with issues.

Probably doesn't want to know how different her genes are compared to the rest of us? Victoria remembered one time, when her sister was... ten, she'd tried to bleach her hair the same color as the rest of the family, to fit in. And of course, Amy's hatred of her freckles - one of her best features!

"Not tell you anything? At all? What if you - what if you had cancer or something?"

"Vicky, I don't have cancer!" Amy swallowed, licked her lips and then, "I don't, right?" Then she let out a breath. "Fuck!" Amy hit her leg lightly, visibly annoyed as she let out an exasperated growl.

Victoria giggled a little, but shook her head. "No, you don't have cancer. You're -"

Amy held up a finger, "Nope. Unless I have cancer or I like - catch some sort of horrible disease or something this week, don't tell me, okay?" Amy let out a sigh and looked down at the bed. "Please?" She added, quieter, suddenly sounding exhausted. She ran a hand down her face, then looked back up at her. "You don't understand it."

"Not even a little," Victoria smiled softly, lightly hitting Amy's shoulder. "But if you really don't want to know, I won't tell you." She looked at her sister, the bags under her eyes, the way her shoulders were sagging now. "I don't need your power to know you need more sleep though."

Victoria let out a sigh of her own. She wasn't physically tired, but she did feel a little mentally drained, the experience of everything just... kind of a lot to deal with. She wasn't ready for sleep, but she did think maybe some relaxing music and a bit of light reading was in order. An issue of Parahuman Studies Monthly had arrived the other day - Dean had bought her a subscription for Christmas - and she hadn't had a chance to read it...

"Sorry... it's just..."

"A lot, I know." Victoria nodded. "Go get some sleep." She hugged her sister one more time, quickly. Amy got off the bed, moving to her door. "Oh, don't forget," Victoria said as it came to mind - habit, really, reminding Amy about these because of her habit of 'forgetting' about them. "Double date tomorrow."

Amy turned back, stared at her, eyes wide, mouth dropping open. "Seriously, Vicky?"

"Yes, seriously Ames. And you can't even use work as an excuse to leave early or anything." She smirked, "Horrible fate, but you actually have to give this date a chance."

"I always give them a chance, Vicky. You just suck at picking guys for me." Amy muttered. She didn't wait for a response, opening the door and walking out into the hall. Victoria bit her tongue, holding back the response she wanted to give which was, Well I'd do better if you'd actually talk to me about what you wanted in a guy! Amy refused to answer that question, and she didn't really even seem to have any real celebrity crushes - she'd press Amy and Amy would give some name or another but it was clear she was usually just picking a name out of a hat.

Really, was it so damn hard to work with her on this, Amy? And - she was starting to run out of viable guys to actually try to set Amy up with. Ones that were actually approaching good enough for her sister. Amy was such a good person, and when she made the effort, she could be funny - in a biting, sarcastic sort of way, but still. She was pretty when she made the effort - always at Victoria's behest - and her sister was obviously lonely.

Fine, she was an introvert, but there were limits, and Amy deserved to have someone, like she had Dean.

She just had to find her the right someone.

Hopefully this might be a step in the right direction.

---

Amy wished she could say she slept well last night.

She couldn't.

Yawning as she stood in line at the bank to withdraw money for Vicky's stupid double date (really, insisting on the double date now, of all times?), Amy did have to admit she'd had a better sleep than she did some nights, but that...

That was a low fucking bar.

Amy wasn't sure how many of Vicky's friends knew about what had happened with that Trump, that their powers had switched. Probably some of them. Dean, definitely. Maybe a few of the other Wards.

By now, with lunch halfway over, she had told some of her non-cape friends probably, but Amy had no way of knowing.

What she did know was that keeping her feet on the ground was a goddamn nightmare. She kept accidentally floating up a few inches when she wasn't paying attention, and since she wasn't dressed as Panacea, and didn't want to attract anyone's notice... she had to keep landing and had to keep trying to focus on keeping her feet on the ground.

Vicky always said it was hard not to fly, when Amy brought up how her sister kept flouting Carol's rule of not flying in the house, but Amy had always figured that was just an excuse, just like those six criminals she'd crippled weren't really because Vicky couldn't control her strength, but because she couldn't control her anger.

But clearly, with flying, it really was that Vicky couldn't help it.

I guess I owe her an apolo-

Amy was pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of something bursting through a door up by the teller counters, a bunch of people crying out at the same time something that sounded vaguely like multiple dogs barking and growling - but all wrong, too deep and too loud and just... wrong all at once -

What the fu-

She tried to look in the direction of the source of it, but people were scrambling and in her way. She reached out to push someone out of the way, but hesitated just for a few seconds, worried she might break someone by shoving too hard...

And then she saw it, darkness rolling in quickly, like smoke or thunderclouds (but low to the ground) filling the space, quickly covering her, blocking out her vision - and everything else. She couldn't hear anything but her own increasingly rapid breathing, couldn't see, couldn't -

Someone's robbing the bank. Supervillains. That had to be it. But who? Dogs and - and darkness - that rang a bell in Amy's mind but she never paid attention to the cape scene the way Vicky did. She knew the big hitters of E88 and she knew about Lung and Oni Lee and she knew about Uber and Leet, but she didn't know every cape in the city.

Darkness. Dogs. Vicky had mentioned something about that combo once but -

The bank was being robbed. Supervillains were here. If she'd had her normal power... there wouldn't have been much she could do... but she did have Vicky's power and she couldn't just - she had the ability to do something (once she could see someone, if she could see someone). She couldn't just do nothing, sit here and -

I need to text Vicky or the Wards or - She had texting Vicky down by heart, she could find her sister in her contacts without even looking. Her sister could tell Dean, or call Mom or -

Wait, fuck, isn't Mom at that event out at the country club with most of the Protectorate? Fuck. Whoever did that probably knew, because who the fuck robbed banks these days? Seriously!

She fumbled, reaching for her phone, hoping to god she didn't accidentally break it by pressing too hard - she started tapping out, not needing to see it to find Victoria in her contacts, or looking to need to type 'at bnk bng robed tell dean'. The darkness dissipated as she tapped out the last word, vanishing and she hit send.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breathing still coming fast as she closed her phone, tried to hide it in her closest hand as she got a look at who was robbing the bank -

There was a man in black, wearing a motorcycle helmet that looked like a skull. A blonde wearing a tight purple outfit - one that did look good, a small, traitorous part of Amy's brain noted - and domino mask. A guy with a renfaire-y poofy shirt, a scepter and a mask of a face, eyeholes and a mouth-hole. A girl wearing a jacket and a cheap dog-mask.

And a girl with long, curly black hair and a bug-looking mask.

Darkness, dogs, guy with a renfaire look -

Half the people in the bank were kneeling, or had fallen over, or crouched. Amy tried to keep her feet on the ground. Five villains, and three - three

Really really fucking big... Well, they looked like dogs crossbred with lizards and fed a diet of steroids for weeks or something. She wondered what her power would pick up if she'd touched them but -

That's way too many to take on. She finally placed the group though. Undersiders. Low grade criminals, get away specialists. The dog one, Hellhound, had been the one she'd been warned about the most, since she was a known killer... the rest - Vicky had mentioned them a few times. The girl with the bug mask was new, though...

Maybe, anyway. Maybe Amy just hadn't noticed her mention them.

She couldn't even remember the other ones' names offhand.

Amy looked around at the other patrons, more of whom were starting to get down, probably hoping that was the best way to avoid notice - Amy did the same. She could do something but -

Those dogs looked like they might be able to bite hard enough to break the forcefield...

Take them out first. Or maybe Hellhound? She's the master, so that might work best -

They were here to rob the bank so at some point they were going to go for the vault door, right? They might spread out a little?

The girl with the bug mask - Amy decided to just call her 'Bug' - started to speak"

"Fifteen minutes," she spoke in a calm, almost flat tone, loud enough to be heard through the bank. "We won't be here any longer than that. Stay put, stay quiet, we'll be gone before fifteen minutes are up. You'll be free to give your statement to the police and then go about your day as usual. This isn't a TV show, this isn't a movie. If you're thinking about being a hero, don't. You'll only get yourself or someone else hurt."

Cold bitch.

Hostages would make this harder - she couldn't protect them all and -

I could just wait. No one would blame me, I don't know these powers well enough, I don't - I don't - Vicky might not hesitate but she probably should...

But Amy couldn't just do nothing! She - she had to. She had to do something. She just - she just had to time it right. That was all. They'd spread out, right? And Arcadia was close, so the Wards would get here - they might even already have been on their way if an alarm got tripped, but she did text Vicky...

The bug girl held out one hand, and Amy saw a spider crawling over it. "If you are thinking about running, making a phone call or getting in our way, this is a good reason to reconsider. This little creature and her one hundred sisters that I just brought into this room are under my complete control." The spider dropped down on a thread of silk and then climbed the thread back up to her finger.

"She's a black widow spider. A single bite has been known to kill a full grown human, or put them into a coma. You move, talk, try to find or kill the spiders I just put on your bodies, in your clothes, in your hair? I'll know in a split second, and I'll tell them to bite you several times."

Bug master. Fuck. Amy looked and saw a spider on the back of the next of one of the people next to her, perfectly still. That had to mean there was a spider on her -

Fuck fuck- If she'd still her her power she could have - she could have done something to it but now she couldn't if it bit her - and if she found it and killed it and then -

Wait.

She couldn't feel it. Too little pressure from its movements for any sensation to come through the forcefield? Which meant it couldn't bite her.

...but they could bite everyone else.

Okay. Take out the bug master first.

But not yet...

Amy looked away from the Bug as she scanned over the crowd. Balling her hands into fists, she waited...

People started murmuring, one even screamed, squirming, something about 'get it off, get it off!' but the others shushed her loudly, clearly not wanting to set any of the villains off. Amy watched as the villains started to move - the one in the fancy, poofy shirt went to the front, two of the dogs alongside, the rest started going to the back, the vault.

I could take out that guy... Amy didn't know his power, and there were still two dogs, and all the spiders on everyone...

Of all the times for some stupid jackass to mess with my power... she could see the spiders on other people, in a few cases, but not all of them. She could crush them easily, and they couldn't bite her in the process, but would the master know if she started killing the spiders? And have them bite everyone she hadn't gotten to?

For the first time in a very long while, Amy found herself wishing she'd paid more attention when Vicky talked about powers and the theories of how they worked and -

Fuck.

---

Amy's power was awesome.

Victoria was still sure she wouldn't want to give up flying in exchange for it, but it was kind of a close-run thing. Her sister had an absolutely amazing power and it could do so much cool stuff.

She hadn't done anything with it yet, beyond getting a look at the biology of the people she touched, things she touched - trees were so much more interesting when you could get an intimate look at every little detail of their biology, every cell, every fiber of their being. Just touching it gave her so many cool ideas. She could have had it grow its roots out, connect to other trees nearby, and then they'd all be one organism. And then she could really be talking!

Her sister could do so many badass things with her power - she could probably make power armor out of trees, or create minions out of animals that made what Hellhound did with her dogs look like child's play.

Amy could be one of the most badass parahumans out there - with enough time and practice she could be on the Triumvirate's level! - and instead, she dedicated her life to healing people. And she didn't want people to thank her, or give her gifts or anything. No praise, she didn't want fame or the spotlight. She just wanted to help people, heal people.

God, her sister was the best, wasn't she?

And yet, Amy never believed her when Victoria called her the best member of New Wave, when she pointed out how she'd saved so much more people than the rest of them combined.

Well, now I can point out I have proof because I know exactly what her power can do. She'd known her sister could do more than just heal, that Amy could sense information about animals and plants and all that but the sheer scope of what Amy could have chosen to do was insane. She was going to have to do something with it while she had it. Something fun. Maybe some sort of multicolored, cool flower?

"It's weird, seeing your emotions so clearly," Dean said quietly, standing next to her. "Though I don't need my powers to know you're fascinated by that tree."

"You would be too if you'd never felt something's biology so completely before." Victoria countered. "It's crazy just how much is going on in a tree, or even a blade of grass." She took her hand off the tree and crouched down to touch the grass. "I bet with a bit of practice I could make this grass a whole bunch of different colors."

"Well, maybe don't do something that your sister will have to turn back once your powers switch back?" Dean offered.

"I wouldn't do that. Amy's got enough stress in her life. Though she'd better actually try to get some sleep this week." Victoria sighed. Her sister had had lunch by herself today and then hurried off to the bank. "She's not taking the time to enjoy my power at all."

"Maybe she just doesn't like it as much as you do?" Dean asked. Victoria crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her boyfriend. Dean stepped back, holding up his hands, "Your powers are awesome, Vicky, don't get me wrong, but maybe Amy just doesn't see them the same way?"

"It's flying, Dean! Don't tell me you wouldn't try if you could."

"I probably would, but I am not Amy," Dean said, lowering his hands. "Didn't you tell me once-" Before he could finish, Dean's phone went off. They were inside Arcadia's Faraday Cage, which meant that if his phone was going off, then it was his Wards phone. Dean pulled it out of his pocket quickly, looking at the text. "A silent alarm went off at Brockton Bay Central Bank. And we're the closest ones who can get there to help."

Why would that -

The Protectorate is at that fundraiser. And New Wave was there too...

Fuck. "Dean! Amy's there!" Victoria grabbed at her boyfriend's arm. "You have to let me come with you!" Who the hell robbed banks? The cops and the Protectorate would be there super quick, and it wasn't like there were ever oodles and oodles of money on sight at any given bank anyway. It was cliche and high profile and you had to deal with hostages and all it took was one civilian deciding to be a hero and then you were killing people.

Sure, plenty of villains had no qualms about murder, god knew, but it still brought extra heat most villains wouldn't want for what, a couple ten thousand dollars at most?

Amy could get hurt! It wasn't like her forcefield was invincible, and depending on who was there and -

Dean hesitated, and Victoria gritted her teeth.

"I shouldn't, there's rules about bringing people that aren't Wards on things like this-" He looked at his phone, which had another text, probably saying a PRT van was coming with their costumes.

"I'll stay back, but if Amy's hurt, or you guys get hurt or anyone else - I'll be right there!" She couldn't just stay here at school while her sister was in the middle of a bank robbery!

"...Right, okay. Come on."

And then Victoria's phone went off.

---

Amy's eyes flicked to the clock on the wall. It was only maybe ten minutes between when most of the villains went back towards the Vault that all of them started moving back towards the front, two of the dogs carrying bags that had to be full of the stolen money.

The darkness in front of those windows parted and Amy looked, seeing what they were seeing - the Wards, out front. She was far enough away she couldn't make them all out distinctly, but she recognized the costumes well enough on color scheme to pick out Aegis, Clockblocker, Gallant and Kid Win. And a fifth person she didn't recognize.

Okay. Now's the chance. Once a fight starts. Take out the bug master. Then the dogs? Hellhound seemed to be commanding her dogs with whistles and gestures and spoken commands, so maybe taking her out directly would stop her from directing her dogs? Or maybe that was just part of the mastering and then they'd go nuts without her reining them in?

The villains argued for a minute - apparently they'd known the Ward could come, but they thought there'd only three or four? Tattletale - the purple one - was the brains of the operation. Thinker?

Don't let the Thinker talk. Amy didn't get anywhere near as many lessons about cape fights as her sister and her cousins, but she had gotten the basics, and that was basically rule one for Thinkers.

Grue wanted to run, but Tattletale said there was someone on the roof. Precog? Maybe some kind of sensory power? Or just going by the fact Vista wasn't there. So running was a no. Which pretty much meant some kind of siege - they had their hostages - or a fight. Either way...

Amy felt her heart pounding in her chest, she braced herself, hands in fists...

"We can't just stay here," Grue said, "Sure, they're getting cold and wet, but our odds aren't much better if we force them to come in here after us, and if we wait too long, the Protectorate might show, too."

"We have hostages," Hellhound said, "If they come in here, we take out one of the hostages."

Amy heard someone let out a strangled, terrified moan. Hellhound was a known murderer, so it made sense she'd go to that. If she tried that... Amy would have to do something, she couldn't let one of those mutant dogs just... chow down on someone.

"We need to catch them off guard," Bug suddenly said. The rest of them all looked over at her.

"Sure, but how are we going to do that?" Grue asked.

"You guys are masters of the getaway, right? So we change gears. We fight them face to face."

You guys. Not we. The bug girl was new. First job? Well, she fit in with Hellhound, if she was siccing black widows on civilians. Amy had treated a few black widow bites. They usually didn't kill normal adults, but there were a few older people in this crowd that might die, and even for the rest, it wasn't like there weren't serious risks associated with the bites.

There was a moment, and then Tattletale turned to the hostages, gesturing to several, quickly adding up to eight, waving a pistol as she did so. "You, you, you, you, you, you, you and you, get up, over here. When Grue here tells you to, you're leaving the bank!"

One tried to protest, not wanting to be in the line of fire, but a lunge and a bark from one of Hellhound's dogs made him shut up.

Canon fodder.

Aegis and the Wards wouldn't be engaging with lethal force, and they wouldn't target the hostages, but that would do the job of distracting the Wards for the Undersiders...

The eight hostages fled out the doors, suddenly cloaked in more of Grue's darkness, and then there was more quick, hushed talking as Hellhound mounted up on one of her dogs and bounded out of the bank with them -

And then a fucking swarm of bugs - Amy couldn't even pick out individual ones - dropped down from the ceiling and went out of the bank, no doubt aiming for the Wards...

Grue and the renfair guy went out right after, to join the fight... Tattletale went back to one of the computers by the front desks, Bug went to watch the fight from a corner at the front...

Okay. Now's the time. Amy would have to be fast. She'd have to knock the bug girl out. She desperately tried to remember Uncle Neil's self-defense instructions...

Something about going for the jaw? I think? The girl's mask covered her jaw, but with Vicky's strength, that wouldn't be much of a barrier, right?

But if I'm too slow, if I -

She just had - she had to make sure she took her out and then...

Amy braced herself, shifting position, ignoring a hissed 'stay down!' from one of the other hostages.

I know how to fly. She just... knew, now, like Vicky had when she first got her powers. At least the basics...

Amy didn't even need to push herself off the ground, she just needed to will herself to not stay on the ground anymore and then she was flying across the room, her fist in front of her, trying to mimic what she'd seen of Vicky when she sparred with the rest of the family and then -

Her fist connected with the bug girl's face, not quite the jaw, but her cheek - she flew forward under the force of the blow, through the glass, which shattered apart and the bug girl landed on the pavement right in the middle of the fight.

Everything paused for one moment - Amy looked at the bugs, which didn't seem to be doing much more attacking -

But then the fighting resumed, dogs snapping, Kid Win trying to use his guns - his aim kept getting thrown off every time, the renfair guy flicking his arm. The bug girl wasn't getting up, and the Undersiders didn't really have anyone to spare to go after her -

Tattletale- the thinker had a gun, and as Amy turned back to take her out, she was met by first one, then another bullet crashing into her.

Her shield shattered at the first one, and then second hit her in the stomach, sending her spiraling back and crashing to the ground, pain exploding through her. So much pain she couldn't think, couldn't process anything -

Vicky...

Amy was in too much pain to be dead yet. And she knew a shot to the gut was a slow killer... she'd healed way too many of those to not know that.

She had... she had to get to her sister. Was she still at Arcadia? Was she -

It felt like she was surrounded by water or some sort of thick liquid, but she managed to get her hand to press down on her stomach, where she'd been shot, blood spilling through her fingers as she tried to put pressure on it, pressing down on her forcefield as it reformed, trying desperately to hold her blood in.

"....shit." She heard Tattletale's voice from somewhere nearby. "I thought it would take both bullets to fuck up your forcefield... I have no idea why Panacea suddenly has Glory Girl's powers, but I assume that means your sister has your powers? Right. Right. She's nearby. You're going to live, just stay there and don't try to move too much. Fuck, how did I miss that you were among the hostages? This is so fucked. I do not need a murder rap. Especially not for Panacea."

"...fuck you..." Amy ground out, closing her eyes, forcing herself to start floating up off the air, turning herself over quickly, blood now dripping from her stomach wound faster. What the fuck am I doing? Even Vicky would be trying to find her, get help, wouldn't be trying to fight - her eyes snapped open, looking for Tattletale, finding her just inside the bank, leveling her pistol at her.

"Jesus Christ Panpan. Just stay down. I will shoot you again. Or maybe, I could tell you about your biological father. Do you want to know all about your villainous daddy?"

Tattletale was right in front of her, but her words were still hard to make out. Amy tried to focus, but the pain was -

How does she - It wasn't like it was something anyone knew? New Wave didn't publicize - how did - Amy had only figured it out because she'd overheard Carol and Sarah and -

"I'm psychic. I know everything about you. I can tell you who he is, and you can spend the rest of your life second guessing yourself, wondering what's from you and what's from him."

Don't - don't let the Thinker talk...

"So stand the fuck down or I will-"

Rocketing forward, light-headed, Amy crashed into the blonde Thinker, sending her sprawling, skating across the floor and her head hitting the wall and then she dropped to the ground, landing on her knees, pressing onto her stomach -

Everything hurt, breathing hurt, she fell onto her side, screwing her eyes shut.

Vicky...

---

"No, no, no, Amy-" Victoria gasped, tears in her eyes as she rushed forward. She'd heard the gunshot from the truck, right after the shattering glass, she'd said she's stay back but if guns were in play than someone could be -

And gotten out, and seen her sister, on the ground, blood all over the ground, outside, inside, dripped all around and -

No, no-

Her sister couldn't be -

Victoria's heart was in her throat, she couldn't breath - she crouched by her sister's prone body - she was - was she breathing - she was? She was - her hand touched the forcefield.

"Ames, please, I need to be able to touch you, fuck, please, no, don't die -" Was this what her sister had felt, right before she triggered? Helpless? Useless? Unable to -

"You can't die you can't -" the forcefield let her through and her hand touched Amy's bare skin, blood all over her hand now but -

Get the bullet out, repair - She acted on instinct, letting Amy's power figure out how to do it - she just had to keep Amy alive, she just -

She took control of Amy's body, forcing the bullet out of her, onto the ground... her stomach was ruptured, her blood was spilling out onto the ground -

Knit the flesh back together, and - convert fat to blood? Can I do that? Of course, right -

"Come on Amy, come on, please, no, just -" she was - she could do this, she was doing this, Amy would be okay, she'd be okay, she had to be - she had to -

Flesh came back together under her hands, sealing up the gunshot wound, fat transformed into blood cells that Victoria forced back into Amy's bloodstream.... This has to work, this has to work...

Her sister suddenly let out a gasp, sucking in air, eyes snapping open.

"Vicky..."

"Amy!" Victoria flung her arms around her sister, hugging her tight. Her sister managed to get one arm around her, holding her.

"Don't do that to me again!" Victoria ignored the tears in her eyes. "You're alright, you're alright -"

"...is... what - I didn't kill anyone?" Amy finally said after a moment. "The villains-"

"Hellhound got away with Grue and Regent, but the other two are..."

"Hit them hard..." Amy struggled to sit up, but Victoria pressed a hand to her sister's chest, forcing her to go back down. "...owe you an apology -"

"I'll check them out, make sure they're alive, stay down, okay?" Her eyes flicked back to the girl who had to have been the bug master, the one Amy took down, first, and then to the blonde wearing the purple outfit...

She stood, ignoring the blood on her hands, her sleeves, going to them each in turn, checking them and healing what appeared to be the worst of their issues.

Both were fine, but her sister had hit hard. Checking the bug master proved to be difficult without taking off her mask - until she found a small part in the girl's body-covering costume that allowed her to touch her neck. And verify that it was a girl she was dealing with.

The hair seemed a giveaway, but.

The blonde had a broken collarbone and damage to her spine, the bug master had a broken cheek and jaw, missing teeth - Victoria just repaired the worst of the damage, not bothering to regrow the villain's teeth. Bitch deserved it for trying to hold up a bank and setting all those bugs on Clockblocker like that.

Victoria looked back over at the Wards. Aegis had gotten what looked to be a hole punched in his chest - though he adapted and was fine, for the moment. Kid Win seemed okay, but she'd check with him. Browbeat seemed okay too - Victoria hadn't known he'd joined the Wards, but his power should let him heal himself, from what little she'd picked up from PHO. She could check though.

Dean was holding his side, and Clockblocker - wearing Aegis's costume - was dealing with god knew how many bug bites.

"Is your sister okay?" Aegis asked, voice raspy.

"She - she's okay. Fucking Tattletale shot her, but she's fine." Victoria looked down at her bloody hands - her sister's blood. She forced herself to take a breath. "I - I'm not supposed to use Amy's power to heal because technically something could go wrong and stuff, but I - I healed Amy, so I should be able to do you guys?"

"I can manage," Aegis shook his head. "Just give me enough time and I'll recover."

"And you'll have to miss like a week of school," Dean pointed out.

"I'll take the healing if you're offering," Clockblocker cringed, "I'm about this close to scratching myself to death here. Those bugs were crawling over my eyes. My EYES!" He glared at the prone form of the bug master. "Fucking - creepy son of a bitch."

"Bug master's a girl," Victoria said absently.

"Okay, creepy bitch then," Clockblocker said, without missing a beat. "Tell me I'm wrong."

"She sicced black widow spiders on the hostages, you're not wrong," Amy said behind me. I turned to look at my sister, floating a few inches off the ground, arms wrapped around her midsection, blood stains on her shirt that would be a nightmare to get out. Not to mention the bullet damage. The whole thing was probably a lost cause.

"Fuck. Do any of them-"

"I don't think she got a chance to have any of them bite, but you should check." Amy answered, swallowing. Victoria looked back at Clockblocker, who held up a hand.

"Check the hostages first, I'll - I'll manage."

Victoria nodded and moved to the eight hostages out front, the ones who had been sent out as a distraction. Behind her, she heard Aegis:

"How are you feeling?" He asked her sister.

"...understanding Vicky just a little better. She's always hungry every time I heal her, and I'm starving."

Victoria smiled just a little, before she approached the first hostage and asked if they'd been bitten.

---

"Two villains taken down, but you got shot! If your sister hadn't been there, you could have died, Amy!"

"...What was I supposed to do, nothing?!" Amy demanded. I took down two villains, saved hostages from being bit by spiders and I still can't do anything right! "They were committing a crime right in front of me!"

"You don't have the training, the experience, the - you nearly died, Amy!" Carol repeated herself. "You shouldn't have taken the chance!"

"Because the Wards turned out to have it all well in hand, right?!" Amy snapped. Even as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. They'd all gotten pretty beaten up, and Vista especially had tried to keep them from getting away, but they had, in the end.

Echoing her thoughts, Victoria cut in: "Ames, that's not fair. They did their best. Hellhound's dogs aren't a joke."

"I know..." Amy said, voice quieter.

"And that's another reason you shouldn't have done it! If one of those... things had gotten their hands on you -" Carol cut herself off. "Amy, having powers isn't enough, you need to know what you're doing. Your sister would have known to stay aware of the other cape behind you with a gun."

"Only after I got shot the first time, Mom!" Victoria cut in. "And if Amy hadn't been there and hadn't triggered, I'd have died then!" She added. "Amy got two villains, and she nearly died, can you just..." Victoria trailed off.

"Just what?" Carol demanded, then she closed her eyes and took a breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and then turned back to Amy. "Taking down the villains was the right thing to do, yes Amy, but there - you shouldn't have taken the risk! Part of being a cape is knowing when to pick your battles, when to not fight when you're alone, without support when you don't have a choice, and when you aren't prepared to fight."

"We're glad that you're alright," Mark finally said, speaking up for the first time, putting a hand on Carol's shoulder before she could say anything else. "And proud of you, for taking them down, for being brave enough to get involved. But this is why we train and practice."

"Learning to be careful is just as important as learning when not to be. It's clear we've neglected that part of your education," Carol said. "We'll have to work on that."

"I'm not going to have Vicky's power for long." Amy muttered.

"No, but would you have done nothing if you'd had your normal powers?"

Amy opened her mouth to say no, but then let out a breath. Would she have? Maybe, if she'd had no choice, but she could have - the spiders - maybe?

"If I could have done something to the spiders, maybe." Amy said after a moment. "I couldn't just let them rob the bank! They're criminals! I've seen what a black widow bite can do to someone, and that - that cold-hearted bitch sicced them on civilians! Hellhound was talking about using her dogs on the hostages! I could have done something to one of them, maybe."

Carol opened her mouth to say something, but Mark squeezed her shoulder, and she closed her mouth, then took a breath.

Just - I do the right thing and - and I get shot and - it still doesn't matter. It wasn't as if Amy actually thought it would, that Carol would hug her and say she was proud of her and that she loved her for taking down two villains, but - it would have been nice?! It would - it would be -

At the very least, Carol could... not be her usual stern, unapproving self? For once in her fucking life, could her adoptive mother not be constantly on her back? Constantly demanding? Constantly harping about every little thing she was doing wrong?

"Then the point about needing to revisit your original training still stands," Carol finally said. She bit her lip, and for a moment, Amy almost thought she saw nervousness in her expression, and then: "It's good that your instinct is to get involved, Amy. That says a lot about you. But just - losing your Aunt Jess was bad enough, I don't want to lose any more family members anytime soon. Just - be more careful."

Amy stared at Carol, mouth open a little, but whatever she was going to say just sort of... vanished from her mind. Carol reached out and put a hand on her shoulder for a moment, just a moment, before stepping away. "We'll - we'll talk more about this after dinner." She stepped away. Mark stayed back for a moment, leaning down to give her a hug, and then hug Vicky.

"You both did good." He said quietly. He left as well, and Amy stayed on the couch for a moment. She stared blankly ahead, trying to process that last thing Carol had said. She'd never said anything quite like that before, and she - it didn't sound like Carol. At all.

"Mom's - she's-" Victoria started, but Amy stood, interrupting her sister.

"I'm - I'm going to go to - I'm going to my room. I need - I need to lie down."

"Amy-" Victoria grabbed at her hand, but Amy pulled away, lightly.

"I'm - I -" she let out a breath. "I just need to lie down."

"That's - Amy, just -" Victoria stood, following her up the stairs. Amy let out a small sigh and didn't protest when her sister followed her into her room, and Amy sat down on her bed. She wasn't still wearing her bloodstained clothes, and she'd scrubbed her hands raw at the PRT trying to get all her own blood off her hand - Vicky had done the same thing.

"I don't know why Mom can't just - You did the right thing, Amy, and you nearly died! She shouldn't - she shouldn't be so - so -"

"So her?" Nothing Carol had done or said before that last thing had surprised Amy. "That's just how Carol always is." Amy dropped her head into her hands. "Can you - can you all stop talking about the fact that I nearly died? Gut shots - they're a really slow. Even if you hadn't been there... I would have made it to the hospital and you could have healed me there."

Amy didn't want to think about it. About nearly dying. About - about - about any of it. About how much it had hurt or -

Just... no. None of it.

"Maybe if you hadn't insisted on fighting more! I felt how much blood you lost, Amy!" Victoria snapped, and Amy blinked when she realized there were tears in her eyes. "I could feel you dying right there in front of me. Maybe - maybe you weren't - maybe slowly but - Amy, you almost fucking died! I almost lost you!" She wrapped her arms tight around Amy, and after a moment, Amy returned the favor, trying to focus on comforting her sister, who started crying softly.

It took Amy several long moments to realize that some of the sobs were coming from her, no from Vicky.

She had almost died. She'd almost died and she'd have never seen Vicky again if she had and then - and then Vicky would have - she'd have left her sister alone and if she'd died...

She could see her sister losing it on Tattletale. On the rest of the Undersiders, even. And that - that wouldn't be okay. Vicky would... she didn't need - she wasn't a killer. But if she did, even by accident, or going too far...

It would destroy her.

And Amy would still be dead.

And Amy didn't want to die. Stop existing for a bit, maybe. Escape the inescapable black pit that was her life, sure. But die? No. No.

"I don't want to die," Amy said softly, after several minutes of them both crying, holding each other. She inhaled a slow, ragged breath, sniffling a little. Amy knew she was an ugly crier - but her sister, of course, managed to still look pretty even with tears streaked down her face, a fact once again reinforced when her sister pulled back, sniffling herself a little, to look at her face.

"Good. You're not allowed to. If you die, I'll - I'll break the Fairy Queen out of the Birdcage and have her bring you back from the dead and - and - kill you again." Victoria laughed, though it was a choked laugh, thick with still unshed tears.

"I don't - I don't think that's how Glastig Uaine's powers work like that?" Amy said slowly.

"Excuse me, Amy, but who's the power nerd here?" Victoria asked, laughing a little more lightly now, just for a second. "I mean it. You're not allowed to die on me. And - and - if you hadn't had my forcefield... if I didn't have your power..."

"They might not have tried to shoot me at all?" Amy said slowly.

"Maybe not, but - Mom was being... Mom, but she's not wrong that it's worth revisiting the self-defense lessons and stuff that Uncle Neil gave you after you triggered. And the other caping lessons. Once our powers return to normal... if you get hurt - there's no one that can heal you."

"I - don't want to get into fights..." Amy said slowly. The idea wasn't - the idea wasn't bad? Her sister wouldn't have made the same mistake she had, Carol was right about that. Victoria might make her own raft of mistakes, but not that one.

But... she didn't want to do any of the fighting.

"You don't want to, but what if something like that happens again? If someone tries to rob the hospital? Or - just..."

This was the Bay, though. And Amy knew it wasn't safe. Being Panacea...

Turns out... bullets didn't care who you were.

"We can - we can talk about that more later," Amy said after a moment. "Please?"

Victoria nodded slowly. They stayed there, sitting next to each other, holding hands for a moment, before Victoria chuckled for a moment.

"What?"

Victoria let out a sort of 'wet' laugh. "I just... I mean the double-date is canceled. Like, super canceled. You got what you wanted, there."

Somehow, Amy managed to roll her eyes. "I didn't get shot to stop the stupid double date." In all the chaos of the robbery and the fight and getting shot and then the PRT debriefing and then Carol and Mark and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil all arriving and then - and then Carol being Carol and...

She'd totally forgotten about the stupid double date anyway. Just another forgettable guy she didn't want to waste time with.

At least if I died, I'd never have to put up with another one of those dates. Why couldn't her sister just accept they didn't work? She didn't - she didn't need a boyfriend. She couldn't have one. And -

Why can't I just let myself be fucking happy? With having the most amazing sister in the entire world? Why did she want more? Why was she so fucked up and -

"Amy, you're stressing about something." Victoria said. Amy's heart stopped for a moment, until she realized there was no way her sister could guess what that was. Right? Please, right? She'd - she'd say something else if she - "Seriously, Amy. Take a breath and - talk to me? Please? What's upsetting you?"

"Vicky, I asked you not to - my - don't read my biology!" She managed. "Or at least don't-"

"It's hard not to!" Victoria defended herself. "And I don't really need to have your power to know when you're stressing yourself out, Amy." She let go of Amy, holding her hands up a little. "You were thinking about the double dates, right?"

"You don't need to be a fucking psychic to know that." Amy muttered, letting out a long breath, taking another one in - the inhalation was sort of ragged, shallow, but she was trying, at least. "They never work."

"Because you make finding a guy for you impossible! You won't tell me anything about what you'd like in a guy, and so I'm stuck just trying to find someone that's at least close to good enough for you, and you just reject all of them!"

"Because I don't like any of them!" Because I'd rather be on the date with you. Failing that, the stupid dates would have a better chance if they were with a woman, but if Vicky realized she was gay, then her sister would have one more piece of the puzzle and god knew how Carol would react and Aunt Sarah would try to rope her into outreach and PR and -

"Then tell me what you like in a guy!"

"Why is it so important that you set me up with someone!? I don't need a boyfriend to be happy!"

"No, and I don't need Dean to be happy, but I'm happier having him in my life. Is it so terrible that I want you to have the same sort of happiness, Amy? Besides, they're a way for us to spend time together, and for you to get out of the house and go somewhere that isn't the hospital."

Spending time together is the problem, isn't it? Her sister would dress nice and Amy would focus on her more than on her date and -

Amy looked down, swallowing, "It's not - I know - I know you mean well, Vicky." Amy finally said softly. "I just - please stop with the double dates? They'll never work."

"I mean... my track record of picking guys for you sucks, but if you could just... give me something to work with." Vicky pleaded. "You're not happy, Amy."

Amy didn't have anything to counter that with. She wasn't happy. Amy couldn't really remember clearly the last time she really had been one hundred percent, completely happy. Before her trigger, probably. Before she'd realized how she felt about her sister. Before she'd felt this crushing weight, from her powers.

Even free of them for a week like she wasn't hadn't been enough to let her get some sleep last night.

I helped people. I caught villains. I did what I could to help. And no one even needed any healing from any black widow bites, thankfully. So she had done the right thing going for the bug master first. That - that was good.

Amy had nearly died, and... she didn't want to die. She'd known that before - it wasn't like she'd hadn't had countless opportunities to kill herself in a million and one ways if she'd ever wanted to, and she didn't, the occasional thought about how she might do it aside.

(Hanging. Definitely hanging. Get the noose just right and it would be quick and painless.)

But she hadn't really felt it, until she'd faced the prospect of dying, cold and alone on that bank floor... and - and come out the other side.

She'd have died without...

Without telling Victoria how she felt (not that she ever could), died without ever -

Died without ever having had even a halfway successful date or kissed anyone or -

She'd have died alone and miserable, if that shot had gone higher, or hit somewhere else and her sister hadn't been so close. Gut shots were - she wouldn't have died from that. Not as long as Vicky could have gotten to her somewhere. But... if Tattletale had aimed for her chest, or - or the bullet had... ricocheted off a rib or something..

She'd have died.

I'm not happy. And i'd have died unhappy and - and I don't -

Amy couldn't ever have the thing she wanted most. The thing she couldn't want. The thing she didn't want to want.

But... did that - could she -

Sooner or later, her sister would suggest another double date, and they'd do the same song and dance and - and -

Could she really put up with another one of those? Did she have to?

She'd nearly died with... so little -

It wasn't like Amy wanted to be miserable. Wanted this crushing weight on her. Wanted to...

"Amy?" Vicky prompted. "Talk to me. Please."

A strange, uncharacteristic courage gripped her, and Amy inhaled slowly, a shaky breath as she looked at her hands. "I - was just... I - the gut shot - it wouldn't have killed me. But - but if Tattletale had aimed somewhere else, or... if the bullet had done different damage inside me or - I would have died and - I'd have died without..."

Without kissing you-

Amy clamped down on that disgusting thought and forced herself to focus. Or tried to. Mostly managed. Mostly?

"I- I'd have died without - without telling you or anyone or-" Amy felt the courage start to slip out of her fingers - she wanted to just -

No. No.

"I'd have died without telling you or anyone else that - I'm..." closed her eyes, inhaled, pressed her hands into fists, balled tight, clenched her knuckles almost painfully, "I'd have died without telling you that - that I'm."

"I'm gay, Vicky." She managed, finally.

---

---

Author's Note: This monstrosity of a oneshot got well away from me. I'm ending it here because... it needs to end somewhere. There's obviously a lot of places this story could go. Hopefully I made all the character beats feel... reasonably okay? I showed the ground work? This definitely could also have a sequel or two, oneshot wise, but not in the near future.

Carol - Carol did the best Carol was capable of, Mark was having one of his rare good days, or at least faked it better. Vicky was Vicky, and... Amy... had a bit of an experience and a half.

There's certain character beats I wanted to include here that I didn't end up being able to fit in without making it longer, such as Amy having a realization that as much as she didn't want to do cape fighting stuff, she sort of enjoyed it nonetheless.

A scene where Victoria talked about all the ways Amy could weaponize her power in cool ways - Amy, being Amy, if she ever thinks about weaponizing her power, probably catastrophizes only about the really super horrible ways (bioweapons and plagues and messing with brains and stuff). Victoria is a lot more creative with powers, and might actually give Amy some good ideas, if she can get Amy into the right mindset.

Carol would try a little harder in the post-dinner conversation to like... convey that she does feel some proudness in Amy for what she did and accomplished and that nearly losing Amy like that did shake her, but that would have added another 5,000 words at current pacing and I just -

I needed this oneshot to be done. I need to work on some of my non-Worm stuff for a bit, I have some original stuff I've been neglecting, and then I need to return to my longer stories. This one has been eating up basically my entire January and then some. Worm one shots and Worm in general have been eating up most of my brainspace, and while I do want to get those longer stories done and I do have more worm oneshot ideas, as I've discovered, as I've already known, mostly... I don't do one shots very well. They're always ideas that really could be, arguably should be multichapter epics of divergence, or at least noticeably longer stories.

Bloody Bliss, oddly enough, was probably the one that stood alone the best and really worked entirely as its own thing. There's more I could tell with it, but it did work on it's own in a way none of the others have, IMO. Though all work well enough as one shots. Still, I keep thinking in big premise terms, I can never just do a lighter, smaller oneshot premise, can I?

So, Worm fandom, haven't seen the last of me, god no, and not even of my one shots but I will be doing some other stuff for a bit, and then you'll see one of my long fics - Amy-centric, of course - probably getting a first chapter posted in late Feb, early March. My IRL work situation has changed and is changing right now, so that's also gonna be a factor in this. But regardless -

Like I said, not really satisfied with this oneshot, but I needed it to be done and posted and move on with my writing life. And I like large parts of it. I hope you guys all enjoyed it.

 

[Balorak146]

Well this certainly has potential for disaster.

With how awesome Vicky thinks Amy's power is and is totally willing to use it, how mad is Shaper going to be when he gets shifted back to Amy?

On the flip side, how pissed off is Fragile now that she's not connected to her Best Host?

 

[Kylia Quilor]

With how awesome Vicky thinks Amy's power is and is totally willing to use it, how mad is Shaper going to be when he gets shifted back to Amy?

Click to shrink...

Quite, but Victoria is going to be pressing Amy to do more with her power, and Amy has a bad track record of holding up against pressuring from Vicky on most things (It's impressive she managed to resist on the mark's brain injury thing), so Shaper will get some branching out.

On the flip side, how pissed off is Fragile now that she's not connected to her Best Host?

Click to shrink...

Fragile One is not happy, but having not read Ward, I don't know enough about it to know more. Also, I kind of hate the entire concept of Vicky getting a shard who loves her that much, so I prefer not to engage with the idea generally.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: Really didn't plan on working on this so soon, but the idea has been bonking me on the head repeatedly for the last week, week and a half, so here we go

This chapter was brought to you by stupid workplace training videos at my new (and second) office part-time job. Stupid workplace training videos: They're a way to make you so goddamn but with nothing else you can do but write, that you start outlining and writing fic by hand!

I hate working for a boss in an office again, but hey, if it means I am so free of all other distractions I can write more... small blessings?

By now I feel reasonably confident in my handle on Victoria and Amy. Less so my handle on Taylor, even allowing for this being an AU. Please let me know if she felt too off-base.

Also, not that much actually happens here, in a lot of ways - it's sort of building groundwork for the third installment to this little trilogy and admitted, I got the idea to do this one initially because I wanted to have a bit where Victoria reacted to Amy's kinks. Though the idea in my head was perhaps a bit more comedic.

---

---

There were many things about her sister that Victoria Dallon didn't understand: her total unwillingness to do brains, her complete lack of a desire to go to college, her absolute inability to realize that she was objectively pretty, and vehement insistence that she wasn't the best hero in New Wave. Just to name a few.

She is pretty, objectively, and she is the best hero in New Wave. Best hero in the entire city! People who didn't know Vicky, who only knew of 'Glory Girl' - or Polaris, now, since her recent rebrand - from her reputation on certain parts of PHO, or just looked at her and thought they knew her might be surprised to hear that she considered someone else a better hero than her, but...

Well, those people were wrong in general, and especially wrong when it came to her sister.

But one thing she did understand was Amy's desire to move out, away from home, away from Mom. Vicky hadn't exactly been counting down the days until she could move out, go to college and live in a dorm, not have to deal with Mom all the time...

But she hadn't not been counting down either. Amy hadn't said anything but... Victoria did have eyes. She had ears. And she knew that Mom was harder on Amy, harsher with her. Mom was...

She was Mom. And Victoria loved her mother, but she was... a lot. And she was just... more, with Amy. Victoria used to try to tell herself she was seeing things, that Amy was wrong when she would hint that Mom treated her so much differently...

She is wrong that Mom doesn't care about her, doesn't love her! Every time she talked to her mother, every time she visited home, Mom asked about Amy, how she was doing. Amy didn't like letting Mom into her place when she tried to visit, kept distancing herself from Mom...

She did understand her sister's desire for some of that distance. She didn't understand why it had to be living at her own place, why it had to be working as a consultant for the PRT - Amy was still technically a member of New Wave...

Victoria had always imagined that at least for that first year of college, she and Amy would be living together, in the same dorm room.

So much for that. But she did still try to spend time with Amy. No more double dates, though she might have to talk her sister into going back to that lesbian bar again (and try harder this time, because Amy had probably just sat in a corner and mostly ignored people) or start suggesting new double dates...

Amy doesn't deserve to be so lonely all the time. Which was one of the reasons she'd dropped by the hospital around the time of Amy's shift. Brockton Bay University was holding a LGBTQ Book Fair thing, and with her sister catching up on her reading so much more now that she wasn't doing school...

Well, it seemed right up Amy's alley.

The fact that Amy might hit it off with some cute nerdy gay girl who liked reading as much as she did was entirely immaterial to why Victoria wanted her sister to go to the fair.

Entirely.

Victoria approached the door to Amy's small apartment, thinking about what the nurses had said when she'd asked them where Panacea was. She'd been told that her sister had left two hours earlier, two hours earlier than usual. There were no emergencies, and Amy had done all the urgent cases first. Triage was nothing new for Amy, but leaving early? That hadn't sounded at all like her workaholic sister.

Victoria's confusion had been made worse by the additional fact - as revealed by a smiling nurse - that her sister had been actually happy at work. Had been all week. Checking her phone between patients, and even smiling a little when she got a text. Not just that - according to another nurse, Amy had been 'downright peppy, for her' all four days she'd been in the last week, and each day, she'd left at least a little early. And, just over a week ago, she'd canceled a day entirely.

Being 'peppy', leaving early, and cancelling? None of that sounded like Amy. Her sister was a workaholic grump, and had been for years, in one form or another. Her sister liked routines, and tried to stick to them, even when she complained about how everything was always the same, wash, rinse, repeat, it wasn't like she changed things up.

Maybe Amy had just been having a good week? It was possible - but her sister wasn't much of a smiler. And she couldn't imagine any time she'd have ever called Amy 'peppy', even in a relative statement. There could be another explanation, but... Victoria had to be sure. Plus, she still had to tell Amy about the book fair. So she knocked at the door, calling out her sister's name.

"Amy?" she knocked a second time. Nothing. No response. She knocked a third time, calling out Amy again. "It's me, Vicky. Ames?"

She looked at the time on her phone. Even if - miracle of miracles -Amy was using her extra time to catch up on her sleep... she couldn't imagine her sister would be asleep this early. She called her sister, straining to see if she could hear the phone ringing inside the apartment. She didn't hear it, but... it could be on silent? Vibrate? Just low in volume?

Victoria waited until the call went to voicemail before she hung up and pulled out her key to Amy's apartment - her sister had given her the spare, technically for emergencies, but she hadn't protested any time Victoria had used it for not-emergencies.

Plus... this could qualify.

"Amy? You here?" she stepped in, closing the door behind her. Amy's apartment consisted of a combo living-room kitchen area, a bedroom and a bathroom attached to the bedroom. There was no sign of her there, and a quick peek into the open bedroom revealed that her sister hadn't made the bed - no surprise there - and... that she wasn't there. Victoria put her phone on speaker as she dialed Amy again, poking around the apartment some more, looking for signs that anything was out of place, wasn't like it had been before.

When it finally went to voicemail again - with no sound of it anywhere in the apartment - Victoria left a message this time: "Hey Ames, it's Vicky. Just trying to figure out where you are. Give me a call back." If - if the worst was true, she couldn't - she couldn't hint she suspected, right?

At a quick glance, Amy's place was pretty much like it always was - right down to the freezer full of frozen meals and the regular fridge that didn't have much more than creamer and some expired leftover takeout. The only thing that was unusual was the presence of several boxes of black tea in Amy's coffee cupboard.

Amy didn't like tea.

I'm gonna have to drag Amy out to do some more grocery shopping. It wasn't that her sister wasn't capable of cooking, or even that she just refused to cook. She just was really bad about things like stocking up on perishables. Vicky at least had the excuse of being a college student and limited access to the dorm building's kitchen and only a minifridge to work with and all that.

Tea aside, there was nothing out of place. Beyond the fact that her sister just... wasn't there. And there was no sign where she was.

And she hadn't picked up her phone either time. Probably vainly, Victoria dialed her a third time. Unless she was sleeping, her sister was very rarely unreachable. And combine that unusual thing with what the nurses had told her...

Victoria bit her lower lip as the phone went to voicemail a third time.

The truth was that it almost certainly wasn't the worst possibility that was coming to her mind. Maybe her sister had finally found a hobby? Maybe she'd found a girlfriend on her own - she'd have thought Amy would tell her if that was true, but then until her sister had admitted she was gay, she'd have never thought Amy would spend years not telling her that she was in fact, a lesbian.

If Dean hadn't suggested it as a possibility, god knows if she'd have ever told me. She wasn't hurt, anymore, that her sister hadn't come out to her, but she felt like a shitty sister sometimes, when she realized all the obvious signs that she'd missed, in hindsight.

So... maybe it was just that Amy had found someone. Or made a friend. Neither seemed very likely, given how withdrawn her sister tended to be if left to her own devices, but...

But it was possible her worst case scenario was true. And if it was - if Amy had been Mastered or influenced by a Master or something, then - then that was a really bad one. Her sister was one of the most valuable - and whatever her protests - most powerful capes on the East coast. Any gang, any organization of villains would love to get their hands on her. And... having her wind down her presence in hospitals, cutting hours here, skipping a day there, make it seem like she was dating someone...

That would be a great way to hide them eventually taking Amy somewhere else.

Paranoid? Maybe, but people acting out of character was one of the things you had to watch for, that you had to check for when it came to M/S situations. She gave Amy a fourth call, leaving another message. "Amy, I'm really just - just give me a call back ASAP, okay?" Victoria frowned, taking a breath.

She didn't know where her sister was, but there was a way she could find her. She had to find her sister. Maybe nothing was wrong. And that meant...

She dialed a different phone number.

"...Victoria?" Chris asked slowly on the other end of the line, sounding surprised she was calling him.

"Chris, I need a favor." Victoria said quickly. "I need you to track Amy's phone and tell me where it is."

"...is she okay? Did something happen?" Chris asked quickly, sounding worried.

"I'll let you know when I find her. She's not at home, or the Hospital, and she's not answering her phone." She started floating a few inches off the ground.

Chris hesitated for a moment, then: "Vic- Victoria I can't just track someone's phone. I mean, there's laws and rules about it. Just because your sister isn't answering the phone doesn't mean you can - do you - I mean, why are you so worried?"

"Amy's been cutting her hospital visits short this last week and even skipped a visit. And the nurses say she's been acting... different?"

"Different how?"

"Smiling at her phone, being downright peppy, at least by her standards, according to the nurses. Peppy, Chris, peppy! You know Amy. Has anyone ever called her peppy?! And cutting her hours at the hospital short? Cancelling a day entirely? That's not like her!"

"So what - you think she's been mastered? Is that it?" Now Chris sounded worried, but only a little. "That's - I mean, there are protocols to report a possible mastering, especially - especially for someone like Panacea."

"I could be wrong, but even if it's not mastering, Amy's not - this isn't her! My sister isn't acting normal, and I have to find out why before I just - Just fine her phone, Chris!"

"...I'm not a Ward anymore, Vicky, I can't just - you're asking me to break a lot of rules here."

"Isn't she a contractor? Can't you guys track her if you need to?" She clenched her freehand into a fist, hitting it against her forcefield - temporarily shattering it - in lieu of crushing her phone as she inhaled sharply.

"In emergencies, yeah, but-"

"This could be one! Please, I'll owe you! Just tell me where she is, damnit!" If this wasn't a mastering, then her sister would be pissed at her. And if mom found out Amy had been mastered, then -

No. She'd find Amy, and if she had to, find the Master and punch them until they let Amy go. And if it wasn't a master, and her sister was just... having a mid-life crisis twenty years early or whatever else -

Either way, she had to find Amy. Make sure she was alright, master or no master.

"...if I don't hear back from you in a few hours, I'm reporting Amy as possibly mastered," Chris finally said after a moment. "And you too, at that point."

"Fine," Victoria replied as she heard Chris typing, and then a few moments later, he had an address, an apartment building across town, and - thanks to whatever tinkertech bullshit the PRT used for this - he even knew exactly which apartment in the building her phone was in. "Thanks. I'll call you back."

---

Victoria stared at the door, behind which Amy almost certainly was. At least, her phone was here... probably. She resisted the urge to just break it down now, go in, find Amy, demand answers -

Instead, she knocked on the door, carefully, holding back.

"Amy!" She called out. She knocked again. "Amy!" She held back after that, giving her sister a chance to - she pressed her ear to the door, but she couldn't hear anything behind it. She pulled back, hands balled into fists, floating above the ground again, inhaling and exhaling quickly. She counted the seconds. If Amy didn't answer, if someone didn't answer soon she was doing to break it -

The door opened - Amy was there, standing in the doorway, wearing a white bathrobe, her face flushed, her hair even more disheveled than usual. She was holding the bathrobe closed with one hand at her stomach, she hadn't even tied it.

Behind her, she saw a living room that seemed to be larger than Amy's entire apartment, two of the walls covered in bookshelves. There was another door off to the side.

She looked her sister over quickly, flushing as she realized she must have interrupted something...

Fuck. It really was nothing to-

"Vicky? What the - How are you - what are you doing here?!" Amy demanded, hissing. She pulled her robes even tighter around herself. Victoria noticed her sister wearing a necklace, a black-

"I'm - I - you weren't at the hospital and you weren't answering your phone!" Victoria made sure to be looking at her sister's face, wondering just how red her own cheeks were getting. "I didn't -"

Wait. That - that wasn't a necklace. That was -

That was a collar? Victoria felt her cheeks get even hotter as she realized that was definitely a collar, like you'd see on a dog. Complete with a little bit where someone could attach a leash. Why was her sister -

"How the fuck did you - did you follow me here sometime before?" Amy's question jolted Victoria away from the somewhat mortifying questions she was starting to ask herself.

That means she's been here before? How long had her sister been - who was she even - this wasn't her place so who was-

She looked past her sister, and saw someone come into the living room from the other door. A tall woman, around their age, long, black, absolutely gorgeous, curly hair. Really pale skin. Large, very green eyes. She was wearing a black robe as well - though this one was tied tightly at the waist - and her hair seemed a little mussed and out of place too, though she didn't look flushed at all.

"No! I - I... might have had your phone tracked?" Victoria admitted.

"What?!" Amy stared at her, mouth moving wordlessly.

"I'm sorry?! I was worried! They said you - who is -"

The dark haired girl approached, standing behind Amy, looking Victoria over. "This is your sister then?" She spoke in a pretty... flat tone? Not completely, but there wasn't much inflection to it.

Amy shook her head a moment, taking one breath. "Yeah. This is my - my sister. Taylor, this is Vicky. Vicky, this is Taylor." She reached her free hand down and took one of Taylor's squeezing it tightly. "My girlfriend."

Victoria stared at them, at -

Fuck.

A part of Victoria's brain told her she could still be right that this girl was messing with her sister's brain somehow - she wouldn't call Chris yet, not until she was sure - the fucking collar around her sister's neck needed some - what the fuck was that doing there?! - but -

"I'm sorry, I - I was worried! I didn't mean to -" she gestured at Amy and then her girlfriend wordlessly. She really didn't want to think about what she'd interrupted! It was her sister!

"You're here now, you might as well come in if you can," the girl - Taylor - said after a moment. The phrasing of it was weird. 'If you can'? She emphasized that part, for some reason. Taylor tugged on Amy's hand, pulling her back.

Amy shook her head again, as if to clear her mind. "Right. Right. Fuck - Vicky what the hell are you - okay. No." she took a breath. "Taylor's right, have a seat and I'll be back after I've changed into - something else." She stumbled over the words, then stepped back, hurrying into the other room - the bedroom? Where was the kitchen? Victoria didn't see one, it wasn't like Amy's combined kitchen/living room.

Taylor followed after Amy, and after a moment's hesitation, Victoria went inside, closing the door behind her.

"Oh fuck," Victoria let out a long breath, approaching one of the chairs in the living room. She dropped down into it, mind racing.

Okay. So. Girlfriend. That's why she was smiling at her phone and leaving early and - she's just - and she was - presumably - and then I come barging in and -

Her visit had probably killed whatever mood the two had had going, so that was probably why Taylor had invited her in. She was here now, so... you know, do the inevitable meet the sister thing?

Victoria was just glad she hadn't knocked the door down and then gone further and then -

She made a face.

It could still be that this girl had mastered her sister, but -

And then there was the collar.

Victoria Dallon was many things. A prude was not one of them. She had a very healthy relationship to sex, and her sex life with Dean was active. But she was not an especially kinky woman. And - and - like, she knew that -

I just - Amy's into that weird shit? Collars? What else is she into? Victoria only had a loose idea of the wide world of weird and gross kinks out there, but if Amy was into wearing a collar, like she was - what, like she was some kind of pet? Was that a thing? How did that -

Is that why Amy was so hesitant to come out? Because she didn't want to tell me like - what she wanted from a woman? Is this really what she wants? Is my sister really into - what else could she be into? Other, weird, freaky stuff?

Victoria took another breath. If this really was her sister's choice, she couldn't be judgy. Amy was allowed to like what she liked, and it wasn't like - it wasn't like they were doing... god, like, whips and chains and shit right in front of her and -

Oh fuck Amy's probably into that too. Does she have her girlfriend dress like Elvira: Mistress of the Dark or something?

The girl was probably pale enough to pull it off too...

"Right. Okay. No judging." Victoria told herself. If her sister had a girlfriend she was happy with, that was what mattered, right.

Just as long as it really is her being okay with it. And Taylor wasn't - wasn't pressuring her sister to stop going to the hospital or anything.

After a few minutes, the - bedroom? - door opened again and Amy came back out, wearing a blouse - one of the ones Amy had bought only under pressure from her - and pants. Taylor was wearing a black dress, long and kind of flowing. Between it and her pale skin, the girl had an almost ethereal air.

I'd say she's a goth but she doesn't have the black lipstick or whatever.

Amy wasn't wearing the collar anymore, but now that she had an unobstructed view of her sister's neck, she could see several hickies there, and what looked a hell of a lot like a bite mark.

Victoria pushed down her immediate reaction, once again telling herself she needed to not judge. Consenting adults.

"Okay. So." Amy said after a moment. "You had my phone tracked?! Vicky, what the fuck?"

"I was worried about you, Ames! The nurses at the hospital said you'd left early, that you'd been leaving early in general - that's not like you at all! And then they said you'd been acting differently! Like, peppy! And you weren't home and you weren't picking up and I - I overreacted."

Probably.

Amy took a breath, flushing.

"Okay. I - that - I..." she trailed off, then exhaled. "Okay. fine, I - yeah. That's... well, here's why I've been cutting my time at the hospital a little short for the last week." She gestured at Taylor.

"I can - I can see that. I - I'm really sorry for - you know - interrupting."

"You were worried about her." Taylor said, sitting down on the couch, Amy taking a place next to her, holding onto her hand again. "Thank you for not breaking down my door."

Victoria stared at Taylor for a moment, confused. Was that supposed to be a joke or - she couldn't get a read on Taylor at all. No affect. Almost no inflection. Taylor was leaning against Amy, holding her hand tightly, but she didn't - she didn't seem to have much emotion? She didn't seem bothered that Vicky had interrupted them but - she had to be, right?

"I told her about some of the times you accidentally broke doors back home," Amy said. "So... I - yeah. I get why you'd be... why you'd be worried. If you'd told me more than a week ago I'd be - I'd be cutting my time at the hospital... I wouldn't have believed you." She looked over at Taylor, smiling just a little, in a very un-Amy like way. But it felt real, more real than most smiles Victoria had seen from her.

I don't think I've ever seen Amy smile that - that sincerely apart from when she's with me, and even then... not often.

"Still probably should have waited," Victoria said after letting out a long breath. "But, anyway - so you guys have only been dating a week?" That - that -

Victoria's first instinct was to say that having sex that early in a relationship didn't sound like her sister, but she wasn't actually sure - like, she had no earthly idea if that was true, really. It wasn't really something she'd spent a lot of time thinking about.

But still. To be - cutting hospital time that quick into things?

If Taylor was trying to force Amy to -

"No!" Amy said quickly, too quickly. Then, "yes? Sorta? It's - we've - we've sorta been dating since - since we met six months ago, but-" Her sister was speaking quickly, licking her lips often, eyes darting everywhere but not looking at Victoria directly much.

Okay. So that's not suspicious at all...

"You met at the lesbian bar? You said you didn't meet anyone you were interested in there!"

"It's more like it took us a while to realize we were dating," Taylor said softly. "We were spending time together every week, but - just not really realizing it was dating, or anything like that." She looked over at Amy and actually smiled, just a little - more a curling up of her lip in one corner, a hint of brightness in her eyes. "I didn't realize Amy was as interested in me as I was in her, for a long time."

"And I didn't believe that Taylor was into me either," Amy murmured.

"So... what, you guys met in a gay bar and then danced around each other for months? What did you guys do together?" That her sister wouldn't realize how someone felt about her felt... believable. "What did you guys do? Just..." she looked around at the books on the shelves, spotting a few titles she recognized Amy reading when they were younger, or from the shelves at Amy's place, "...sit around and talk about books?"

"More or less," Taylor said quickly, as Amy started to answer. Taylor's voice was starting to have a little more inflection, more emotion in it, but the girl was still really hard to read. Amy, on the other hand, looked nervous. Worried. Eyes still not looking at her directly.

I need to get Amy away from her and work out what the hell's going on. Amy could just be worried Victoria would scare her girlfriend off or - or not approve of Taylor or -

"We have a lot of similar interests. I grew up reading the Maggie Holt books, and Amy had just started them, so that's where we started talking and then - recommendations and back and forth and all that," Taylor explained.

"Only because I spent years trying to get you to," Victoria teased her sister, watching to see her reaction. "You always insisted you wouldn't like them."

"And I was wrong. I told you that. Yes, fine, they're good," Amy said, rolling her eyes, looking and sounding like herself for a moment. She huffed, and if she wasn't holding Taylor's hand, probably would have crossed her arms in front of her.

"Didn't you call them-" Victoria kept on, smirking, but Amy interrupted.

"Vicky! You were right! Stop -" she flushed, and Victoria laughed.

"It's my right to tease you in front of your girlfriend. Sister privileges, Ames." Victoria grinned. She looked over at Taylor. "So! Taylor. Tell me about yourself. All I know about you is that you like to read, and... clearly like the color black. And you have really nice hair." She looked it over, "Like seriously, Taylor, I'm jealous. How do you keep it that good?"

"...I work hard on maintaining it," Taylor admitted. "It's - it's something my mom did for me, when I was younger, before she - before she died."

"Shit. Sorry, I didn't mean to -"

"It was years ago. It's okay," Taylor said quietly. "I... there's not much to say about me? I live alone, I work remotely, I read. I don't - I don't really go places that often."

"But you met Amy at the lesbian bar?" Had Taylor somehow known Amy would be there? Targeted her? Stop jumping to conclusions! But - something was off about Taylor and Amy was being nervous and definitely hiding something and -

"Vicky!" Amy cut in. "Yes, we met at the bar. And neither of us really were - I only went to shut you up, and Taylor -" she looked over at Taylor and after a moment, Taylor nodded, and Amy looked back to her. "And Taylor had just gotten out of a bad relationship and had to force herself to put herself out there a bit, just to say she could."

"It was just really fortunate we were both there at the same time," Taylor added.

"We talked, we hit it off," Amy was finally meeting her gaze, mostly, "And I didn't really think anything would come of it, but we ended up spending more time together and - it was..." she let out a long breath. "I mean, Vicky, I - I was living my life in this... rut. And Taylor helped break that up. And made me want to break it up."

"She makes you happy?"

"She does."

"That's the important thing." Victoria said. "I mean - I have a lot of questions, like why didn't you tell me, and - I want to know more about the girl that's gotten my sister smiling at her phone at work, but I - I've taken up too much of your time, right?" She still felt embarrassed at interrupting.

I need to know more about this girl. I could - Mom could run a background check on her, she had connections and stuff, but that would mean telling Mom about Amy's new girlfriend and Amy would hate that. And Mom would... probably demand to meet her and refuse to approve of her. It took Mom years to really be okay with Dean.

She wanted to believe that Amy was fine, that this was just... Amy being into a new relationship. But between the collar and the cutting time at the hospital short...

I've tried to get her to do that about a million times and gotten nowhere.

There was a chance that this Taylor wasn't on the up and up, and Victoria had to be sure.

She stood up. "Can I drop by your place tomorrow, Ames?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure," Amy answered.

"See you then," She let out a small sigh of relief once she left and closed the door behind her.

Amy was okay, physically. And...

Is my sister really into that?

---

A day to think had left Victoria pretty sure that Amy was fine. She'd called Chris after she left the building, letting her know Amy was fine, that it was just Amy finding a new girlfriend. She didn't mention the whole 'interrupting them having sex' thing to him, though she did tell it to Dean. As well as share the fact that she was still just a little worried about mastering.

Because she was. Less worried, but still, worried.

And even if Amy wasn't being mastered, was Taylor taking advantage of her? This was Amy's first girlfriend, and her sister wasn't exactly - what if Taylor had pressured her into something she wasn't actually into?

Dean didn't think Victoria was right to be worried at all, which led to them having a fight - a small fight, by some of their standards, but still.

But she was going to get answers. And if everything seemed okay, then she could get Dean to take a look at Taylor and make sure he didn't pick up anything bad... and then she could just be happy for Amy.

And if something was off... she'd make sure that anyone who messed with her sister paid for it.

"Amy," Vicky once again knocked on Amy's front door. "You in? And - you know - free?"

"Yeah!" She heard her sister's voice, muffled a little by the door, shout back. Then after another moment, her sister opened the door.

The Amy that answered the door this time looked a little more familiar - her hair was just its usual mess, she was wearing her preferred baggy, concealing clothing, and she didn't have a collar or anything. She did have all those bite marks and hickies on her neck though. Amy stepped aside and let her in, closing the door behind her.

"Here to interrogate me about Taylor?" Amy asked, moving over to her couch, closing up a laptop and putting it aside.

"I just have some questions, and - I mean, is it so bad that I want to know more about my sister's girlfriend?" Victoria asked, and Amy sighed.

"No, it's not. I - I -" She let out a breath. "I'm just... tired." She let out a breath. She ran a hand over one side of her neck a moment. "I really do like Taylor though. You're not allowed to try and scare her off with some sort of shovel speech." Despite her rolling her eyes as she said it, Amy's words lacked real heat though, and Victoria laughed.

"I'll try not to," Victoria promised. That sounded more like her sister too. "I just - so -" Victoria let out a breath, trying to figure out where to start. "Taylor says she works remotely. What does she do?"

"Copy editing, grant writing, a bunch of different freelance writing related things," Amy chuckled after a moment. "She can be pretty anal about writing sometimes, actually. She even texts in complete sentences and full words and with punctuation and everything." The small smile there on her sister's face was unusual, but it did feel genuine.

It wasn't that her sister never smiled, it was just rare. And if Taylor really could make her sister smile that often, that much, then maybe she was okay.

Maybe.

"Freelance writing and copyediting pays for that place of hers? The living room is bigger than your entire apartment!" Victoria didn't even try to hide her disbelief at that, eyes wide, mouth falling open a little.

"What? Are you trying to insinuate Taylor's lying to me about her job?" Amy asked, frowning. "She's not, okay? She inherited, and the apartment is rent controlled." Amy stared at Victoria, then let out a long, exasperated sigh. "Oh for - Vicky, what, you think she's a villain or something? She doesn't have powers! She can't even trigger,"

"Well, you were being all nervous when you and Taylor were telling me how you met and started dating," Victoria shot back, crossing her arms in front of her chest, not liking being on the defensive.

"Because you saw me wearing a collar." Amy flushed, "Vicky, you interrupted me and my girlfriend having sex," Victoria felt her own cheeks heat as Amy just up and said it, "and you - the last conversation I want to have with my sister is one about -" she was getting so red she resembled a freckled tomato, "my kinks."

"I didn't exactly want to know what you got up to in bed either!" Victoria looked away, making a face. "I mean, I'm not - I don't want to judge, but - you're into that?!"

Amy looked away herself, covering her face in her hands, "Yes," Amy groaned. "I am. And please, can we stop this conversation before I curl up and die?"

"Yes, please, sorry," Victoria nodded. "I was just - I was worried, okay? That she was like... taking advantage of you or something." Part of Victoria wanted to press, to be sure, to ask why her sister was into wearing a collar. And there was a sort of morbid curiosity about what else Taylor and Amy did, but Victoria really, really didn't want to know.

So... put a line through that whole conversation before it got that far and she didn't find out if Taylor... tied her sister up or God knows what other... weird kinks-

Okay, so... maybe not weird, or even if they are, it's not - it's not bad that it's weird, right? Consenting adults, and Amy was consenting and that - that was what mattered. Her sister was still her sister, whatever she got up to with her girlfriend.

"There's nothing I'm giving Taylor I don't want to," Amy said very clearly. She lowered her hands, still flushed, but not tomato-like anymore, at least. Victoria really didn't want to talk about the details of her sister's sex like, but she did also have a certain sibling obligation to tease her sister about her relationships.

She had years of not being able to do that to catch up on!

"Including the chance to bite you all over your neck?" Victoria said with a smirk, and giggled a little as Amy let out a sound that Victoria could only call an 'eep' and covered her face again.

"Yes. Including that," She said quickly. "Taylor - she likes to leave her mark."

Victoria inhaled, trying not to let her sudden spike of worry show on her face, in her voice, "Sounds possessive."

"Yes, she is. And so am I." Amy said defensively, raising her voice and lowering her hands once more. "Taylor - she... she's one of the best things that's happened to me in a long time. And it took me too long to realize how much she mattered, how much - the list of people I actually like spending time around is pretty short, Vicky. And you and Taylor are at the top."

"You've only been dating for the week, but... when did you realize you liked her?"

Amy looked away, sighing. "I... I don't know. I didn't expect it." Amy admitted, voice quiet. "She - she's just - eventually I realized how much better I felt after spending time with her than just... the normal routine of going to the hospital and coming home and..." she shook her head, "I thought moving out, away from Carol would make me feel better, and it did, but..."

Amy's voice sounded a little choked for a moment and Victoria moved over to sit by her sister, taking and squeezing her hand. For a moment, Amy looked like she was about to pull her hand away from her grip, but then she relaxed and leaned against her a little.

"I hate going to the hospital and healing people," Amy admitted softly.

"...I kind of figured that out years ago," Victoria admitted in turn. Amy turned her head a little, looking at her, eyebrow raised, and Vicky shrugged, going on, "Amy, you're never happier after going to the hospital than before. I like volunteering at children's hospitals and all that... I always feel better after taking kids flying or showing off with my strength. It's fun."

But her sister, proving that whatever she believed about herself, that she was the best hero in the family and probably in the city, kept doing it even when she hated it.

"Why do you think I was always trying to get you to come to parties with me or whatever?"

"...I always figured that it was about trying to find me a boyfriend," Amy said with a sense of weariness in her voice.

"I could have been trying to find you a girlfriend if you'd just told me you were into girls, Amy," Vicky countered. "You do remember that I still hung out with a lot of my old basketball friends through high school, right?" Amy's brow furrowed, but she nodded. "Half the team turned out to be gay or bi by the time we all graduated. I could have set you up with one of them!"

Victoria really hated how her sister had just... let her waste time on all those pointless double dates with guys. She'd just wanted Amy to be happy. She'd hated that every time she tried to find a guy for her, it hadn't worked out and it only ever seemed to make Amy more upset.

Finding out why none of the dates had gone well had at least resolved some of her 'why am I so bad at finding a guy for Amy' guilt, but still!

"I'm not sure it would have worked..." Amy murmured. "Taylor... she - she's special. I didn't - I didn't really see myself being happy with anyone," she admitted. "Just... an endless life of healing and coming home and being alone and... feeling like I could be doing more. Should be doing more."

"Amy..." Victoria pulled her sister into a tight hug. Amy returned it, just as tight after a moment. It was another thing that her sister hadn't straight up said to her, but she had guessed. Her sister always felt like she wasn't doing enough. She tried to hide it, most people wouldn't guess it, but -

Amy felt like she had to heal everyone, all the time. That she took any time for herself was kind of amazing. It was why the idea of her cutting time there was so hard to believe. Hard to believe, but good.

I just - how did Taylor manage what I couldn't?

"I don't... I don't know how or why, but... I realized that spending time with Taylor - I could... forget about things, for a little bit. I don't... I don't feel as bad for taking time for myself when I'm with Taylor."

"Then I owe her a thank you. And maybe a 'how the fuck did you pull that off'? Because it's not like I haven't been trying to convince you you're doing more than enough for years."

"No, you try to convince me that I'm some... amazing hero," Amy muttered. "I'm not. I'm just... me. And it's easier to be that with Taylor." Amy pulled back from the hug now, exhaling slowly.

Victoria let her arms fall to her sides, looking at her sister. "I'm glad you found her then." She looked at Amy, at the way her sister looked drained, exhausted. She couldn't imagine that this was anything but her sister, finally just... with someone she felt like she could feel happy with. "She has the official Victoria Dallon seal of approval."

She wanted to know more about Taylor, to be sure the girl really was good enough for Amy, but - she didn't think she was a Master anymore, at least. This was her sister, all her own. That was the most important thing.

Amy snorted a small laugh, "I... I'm glad you approve," she said in a low murmur. She pulled a hand down over her face. "I was going to order some delivery for dinner. Do you want anything? We... we haven't really spent much time together in a few weeks?"

"Sure," Victoria said after a moment. "I'll have to leave at like... 7ish. I have to meet someone to work on a group project at the campus library at 7:45. Earliest they can do it, since they have a part time job."

"Still enough time for a movie?" Amy suggested, digging her phone out of her pocket. "Chinese?"

Victoria considered for a moment, then shook her head, "Nah. Pizza?"

"Sure. Your usual on your half?"

"Duh." Victoria rolled her eyes. "What else would I pick?" Amy rolled her own eyes and started dialing. Victoria smiled and settled back on the couch, looking for the remote to Amy's TV. She still wanted to bring up the prospect of a double date - her and Dean, Amy and Taylor - but she'd let Amy have a chance to relax before suggesting it.

Maybe they could actually have a good one of those, for a change. I'd be nice.

---

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I don't have a time frame for you on when the third and (hopefully) final part of this little trilogy comes out. It's on my list, just as this was, but it's quite a ways down. But hopefully this was enjoyable, even if less focused on the toxic Yuri aspects of the first part.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: I blame the Gaylor Server for this one, and specifically, Sharpes_Tanith.

Bloody Bliss I and II were arguably a Taylor Altpower, albeit only in a loose sense. This fic is, in fact a Taylor Altpower in every sense of the word. I suppose it was inevitable, but I almost (almost) feel disappointed in myself for writing one.

Like most of the snippets here, this could conceptually serve as the first chapter to a larger work, and someday might, but for now, it's just the one chapter. Though this one is a bit different by being Taylor-centric and with Amy not really appearing much in this snippet, though she would feature more in the larger story.

Familiarity with the TV show Angel shouldn't be necessary to appreciate this crossover, as details will emerge in the story. But for a thumbnail sketch: In the show Angel, Illyria, God-King of the Primordium, is one of the 'Old Ones', unfathomably ancient demons that existed before humanity was even a twinkle in the eye of evolution. Due to reasons that as far as I am aware, were never fully explained, the Old Ones slowly lost purchase on this reality. Many of them ended up entombed in magic sarcophagi - Illyria was one such being, but so great was its power that it still had worshippers uncounted god knows how many years later. One of them arranged for Illyria's essence to infect a human - Winifred 'Fred' Burkle - to allow Illyria to be reborn.

Illyria hollowed out Fred's body and burnt her soul to nothing and took over her body, albeit without intentional malice. With Illyria's demon army proving to have faded to dust long ago, she was left to adapt to this world humans had made, for now. Illyria is violent, imperious, arrogant, impatient and hates most things and people, but is also (before losing most of her power) able to selectively alter the flow of time, be borderline invulnerable and can 'hit like a Mack Truck'. Also talk to plants, for some reason, among other powers.

I am playing around a bit with the underlying details of Illyria's basic nature here, but most of that can be justified by the nature of the way Illyria came to possess Taylor without actually killing her (which will be explained). The rest - it's an AU, and not the same Earth as the Buffyverse anyway.

This is the first time I've written something where Taylor has more than just dialogue, but has interiority. All good faith critique on how I handled her characterization is welcome. I tried to get her right, but she can be a hard character to get a handle on sometimes.

Also, a brief warning for a Nazi using a slur at the start of this.

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"-that nigger boy deserved it!" The Empire 88 thug shouted, waving his gun at her. "Don't get any closer, or I'll fucking shoot you, New Wave bitch,"

"Right, Because that'll work any better than your buddy back there trying the same thing," Victoria crossed her arms in front of her chest. She gestured to the unconscious form of the other thug she'd taken out with a swift blow to the head - a lot less powerful than it could have been, but enough to take him out like a light.

Victoria's aura wasn't going on full blast, but for any normal person, it would have been enough to have them shaking in their boots, at least. For someone that had to know how much Glory Girl didn't like them... it should have had him pissing himself (she had had plenty of criminals do that, and it was about as much fun to have happen as it sounded), but some people reacted to fear with just more anger, and this shithead was one of them.

"I fucking mean it, cunt!" He said. "You're a cape, but capes aren't unkillable! You wanna end up like your Aunt?"

Oh you didn't just-

The sound of a gunshot in the air rang out at the same time as Victoria swooped towards him and got behind him, wrenching his right hand behind him, snapping the wrist - the gun clattering uselessly to the ground, still smoking - and then bending his arm back, almost enough to break his arm. Almost.

Her other arm was around his neck, pinning him against her as she floated up in the air a few inches, just enough to leave him kicking uselessly at the air beneath him.

"I could break this arm, and then both your legs without even trying. And that's not counting just flying up and dropping you from fifty feet," Victoria growled. Ignoring the Nazi's whimpers of pain, Victoria went on. "If you want me to put you down and not break all your limbs and maybe your spine, then let's start with an apology!"

The Nazi opened his mouth, "Fu-fuck you bitch! Who do you - you can't fucking do this!"

"Really?" Vicky let go of the man, pushing him forward - he landed, stumbling, falling flat on his face, the crunch of his nose against the pavement pretty satisfying to hear. "Says who? You?" Victoria landed next to him, reaching down to roll him over and see just how badly she'd hurt him, make sure his nose was broken.

She held up short, freezing, hand halfway to him when she heard something - the sound of someone landing, and then footsteps. Out of the shadows at the far end of the alleyway came a cape she'd never seen or heard of before.

It had to be a cape. It wasn't so much the long, absolutely gorgeous curly blue hair, though that helped too, but the red, carapace-like armor that covered her body, too-form fitting to be anything but some kind of power creation? External growth? Projection? Tinkertech?

It looked a little like a bug's exoskeleton, but only vaguely. It went up her body, most of her face, leaving her nose and mouth free, and with holes for her eyes, but not much else.

Fuck. Victoria looked up - that sound. It was someone dropping down from a building, and this - this cape had probably been up there and seen this and dropped down and -

"It appears you are doing serious violence," the other cape said. From the voice, her build, Victoria guessed the other cape was a teenager, maybe around her age, tall, thin, didn't seem like she had obvious muscles, but that didn't mean much.

I'm gonna guess the armor gives her at least some sort of Brute rating, but how much?

But teenager or not, she had an imperious, judgey tone to her. It set her teeth on edge, and made her feel small, just for a moment. Like the other cape was looking down on her. Probably for- for getting so angry at this bastard and doing that... He'd killed that kid - she'd seen the body, she'd chased the guy and his buddy, and then he'd - he'd mentioned Aunt Fleur and she'd seen red and - sh did it again.

Her sister was going to be so disappointed in her. And if the PRT found out... or worse, her Mom...

Victoria braced herself, straightening up. She had to deal with this, convince the other girl not to tell anyone. As long as she wasn't a racist, that shouldn't be too hard.

Nobody liked Empire 88, except Empire 88.

"I - I can explain. He killed a-"

"It looks like fun," she added, continuing to come closer. "I wish to join you."

"What?" Victoria stared at her, floating a few inches off the air so she was just a little 'taller' than the other cape.

"The so-called Empire 88 are little more than pathetic worms barely worthy of being stepped on, let alone as superior as they claim to be," the cape said, reaching the prone, groaning body of the thug. As soon as she was close enough for it to be an issue, Victoria 'turned off' her aura. She didn't know what the other girl was capable of, or how she'd react to it - or to fear, or awe... or some of the other reactions her aura had sometimes elicited.

'Pathetic worms? Who calls people pathetic worms?' That was - Victoria stared at the girl. Up close, she could see that there was a blueish tinge to what little of her skin Victoria could see, so it wasn't just the hair. Case 53, or Changer then, probably.

"They suck, a lot," Victoria agreed, grinning a little, feeling relief. The other cape was probably not going to make an issue of what she had done, at least. "This bastard killed a kid. Him and his buddy over there," she gestured to his unconscious partner. "And then he decided to mouth off."

"I heard. It was foolish of him to not offer someone so much greater than him proper reverence," the cape said, the weird patterns of speech continuing. Affectation? Playing a character, maybe? The way Mouse Protector did, just less comedy and more... what, your lady and mistress? The thug was slowly moving, and managed to get his working hand under him, the other one hanging uselessly off the end of his arm. Before he could do more than try to push up, the cape pressed her foot to his back, pressing down on him, hard enough to make him cry out in pain.

"It would not be difficult to break your spine," she told him. "You will remain still," she phrased it like an order, one she expected to be obeyed, "or you will ensure such pain as you have never felt."

Okay, that's-

On the one hand, this son of a bitch deserved it, and she liked that the cape had no qualms about hurting Nazis, but - that was a bit far. Especially if she misjudged and killed the guy.

"Hey, let's - maybe don't break his spine, okay?" Victoria said slowly. Is this how Amy felt when she berated me the last couple times? It was surreal watching someone actively propose in apparently cold blood what she'd done in anger to people before...

"Why not? It would be little more than he deserves, Glory Girl." The cape said slowly.

"Yeah, but you might accidentally kill him-"

"I would use exactly as much force is needed to achieve my intended goal. You will mind your tongue if you seek to accuse me of sloppiness." Victoria balled one hand into a first. There was something distinctly compelling about the other girl, and the way she talked - and the way she moved, total economy of action - and her red armor was really cool, in an eerie sort of way, but the other cape obviously had a high opinion of herself - and a low opinion of everyone, including her.

The arrogant, imperious demeanor did remind her about what she'd heard of this one cape up near Boston, Damsel of Distress. The older generation of New Wave had fought her in the Boston Games, Victoria had seen video footage of her...

Shit. She's a villain, isn't she? Victoria knew nothing about this girl's powers, so fighting her was a bad idea, but if she was a villain -

Well, she hasn't attacked yet. I just have to make sure she doesn't kill this bastard or snap his spine or something.

"I haven't heard of you before. Are you new?" Victoria let herself go up a few more inches... if it came to a fight, the high ground or being out of reach was the best option all else being equal.

"It is my first night on patrol through this city, yes." She looked Victoria up and down. "You are concerned. Worried I am a villain. Do not be. This city is mine." She paused, "My home," she elaborated, and Victoria relaxed, a little. "Scum like this one," she took her foot off his back and kicked at his leg, hard enough to make him scream out in pain, though she didn't hear his leg actually break, "have turned this city into their playground. I will see that change."

She doesn't think small. I like it. The other cape said all that with the same arrogant but oddly calm inflection, but there was a steely anger underneath it all, Victoria was pretty sure. An anger Victoria recognized. Rage at the state of the city, and a need to do something.

"I like the sound of that. What should I call you?" The other cape started at her blankly for a long moment, stiffly. Oh. "Have you not-"

"You may know me as Illyria," she said finally.

"As in the Roman Province?" Victoria wasn't a into history - non-cape history anyway - but she aced all her history classes, of course.

"No." The cape - Illyria - said flatly, folding her arms in front of her chest. "It is the name I will be known as by the villains of this city when I bring them low." She crouched and rolled the Nazi over onto his back roughly, ignoring another whimper of pain from him. "Perhaps this one can put himself to use and tell us something about where to find his masters."

The Nazi's nose was absolutely wrecked, bloody and smashed up against his face. She'd seen that kind of injury - he was probably having trouble breathing. Fuck! She scrambled for her phone.

"Where are those you bow to, worm?" Illyria demanded. "I doubt one as low as you would know where to find Kaisar, but perhaps another: Hookwolf? Stormtiger?"

The Nazi didn't say anything, sucking air in through his nose, wheezing on the exhale.

"Illyria, I'm going to call my sister, Panacea. Make sure he heals this guy up before we turn him into the police." She dialed. "Sis?" she answered the second Amy picked up the phone.

"Yeah?"

"You're still at Brockton General, right? Even though you told me you'd be going home an hour ago?" Her sister had the idea that she was a good liar, because Victoria didn't constantly call her out for lying to her face about not sneaking out or that she'd be going home soon or -

But what was she supposed to do? Force herself to go home? Chain her up to the bed so she didn't sneak out at night? Amy was never happier after working at the hospital, but she wasn't happy knowing that there were people that were hurt she wasn't helping when she could either.

"Yeah... I am," She could all but see the disapproving glare on her sister's face as she went on. "And you're not calling to check on me."

"No. I - I'm in an alley between," she named the streets, "I need your help. Please."

"Vicky!"

"This is the last time, I promise I - it's not even that bad!"

"I'll be the judge of that, Vicky," Her sister let out a long, exasperated breath. "I'll be there in fifteen. Don't hurt him worse before I get there."

"I won't." Victoria promised, then hung up, looking back to Illyria, who was looking at the Nazi the way someone might a particularly gross bug before stepping on it.

"You want Panacea to heal this one." Illyria grabbed his broken wrist and pressed down on it, making him let out a gurgling scream. "Tell me something of use. Stash houses, safe houses, plans. Give me a reason to not do more to you."

"Hey! Look, I get that he's a Nazi and I'm not going to report you for that, but you can't just torture the guy!"

"But we can heal him, apparently?" Illyria dropped his hand, ignoring a cry as the broken wrist hit the ground and stood up, looking up to meet her eyes, unfazed Victoria looming a foot and a half over her now.

"Because we can't - if he tells the cops or the PRT what happened, they're going to have problems! We're heroes! We're not supposed to do this. Panacea heals him, and his word against ours, but as long as he's hurt, he's got proof!" Saying it out loud like this to someone else made Victoria feel even worse for letting her anger get the better of her.

She went out every night, trying to put an end to the bastards ruining this city - E88, ABB, drug dealers and Coil's mercenaries and everyone else - and she didn't feel like it was getting anywhere. Every time she met someone they hurt, it felt like it was her failure, for not stopping whoever did it first.

It wasn't, she knew, there were too many people, too many capes, for her to take on, but -

That didn't change how she felt. How much she hated these fuckers. Especially E88.

And here Illyria was, facing the same problem, apparently.

"The weakness of those who rule this city is as much a cause of its problems as the ones this one serves," Illyria said, kicking him again lightly. Victoria grimaced a moment at the way he cried out.

"Can you stop hurting him? My sister doesn't need more work." Victoria promised Amy the guy wouldn't be hurt any more, and he was helpless and he wasn't even mouthing off right now.

"I can. I do not wish to." Illyria remarked. "But..." she set her jaw, "I suppose for the moment, I will entertain your request."

"I appreciate it, your Majesty," Victoria said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "So, what's your power? Did you make that armor? Are you a Tinker?"

"Is it customary to ask another parahuman their powers? One should keep their abilities closer to their chest." Illyria observed. "PHO is driven by often baseless speculation.."

"I mean, people keep things hidden in case they fight someone, but you're a hero, I'm a hero - I know how the Wards powers work because I patrol with them a lot, so it's good to know how best to work together." Victoria wasn't going to share the details on how her forcefield could be broken, "You don't have to tell me everything, I'm just - I'm curious, okay? Your armor is part of your power, obviously. Did you grow it? Make it? How does it come off, because it doesn't look like it has any pieces or seams or anything."

Illyria tilted her head to the side, standing and staring at her for a moment. Her mouth twitched a few times, jaw clenched and unclenched and the hands balled into fists and then uncurled more than once, as if she was having some sort of internal confusion...

"The armor grows across this form as I will it," Illyria finally said. She held up one arm, and demonstrated, the red-carapace over her hand and upper arm flowed away, like a liquid. Less like water, and more like blood, with a thick, sluggishness, revealing a perfectly normal normal human hand and upper arm, apart from the blue tinge to her skin - it wasn't completely blue, bit it was was if the edges of her had been painted blue, sort of setting a cast to her skin.

"That's pretty cool. So the armor makes you a Brute, then?"

"I do not need the armor for strength," Illyria said. "I was not lying when I said I could have snapped this one's spine."
"I mean, a lot of brutes could snap a guy's spine," Victoria said. "Still, your power comes with a built in costume! That's pretty cool!" And it was. She wanted to ask more - what was the armor made of, did she know, did she determine the color or did it just come that way? Why the blue hair and red armor? But there was no way to know how she'd take being hit with endless questions.

"It has its uses," Illyria agreed, the armor returning to cover her hand and arm. She waved her hand, and then suddenly the cape was behind her, having moved with a blur that Victoria couldn't track - she was there, a red-blue blur, and then Victoria was looking, turning, finding him there.

"You're a Mover too?" So... the armor and probably the blue tinge her her skin could be Changer, or it could be a single-state Breaker. Brute. Mover. What else did she have?

"You say you know the powers of the Wards because you patrol with them. Did you inquire about mine because you wished to do the same?" She tilted her head to the side again, and Victoria looked over at the Nazi. There was no way he'd get anywhere without them hearing him, so she flew over to Illyria to float next to her.

"I mean, that would be pretty cool. I'm always looking to make friends with more heroes." This girl was definitely her type - of hero, her type of hero. "Trade phone numbers? Cape phones, I mean."

"I do not have a cell phone," Illyria said, sounding... disdainful. Technophobe? One of those people who hated cell phones? But her age? That was for old people. Even Victoria's mother didn't actually bemoan the popularity of cell phones... unless Vicky or Amy were using them those rare times the entire family sat down together for dinner.

"Oh. Well, you can always reach out to me through New Wave's public line. Leave a message for a place to meet up some evening or something. If you say we met out on patrol and leave your cape name, it'll get to me." Victoria offered. Maybe there's no place to have a phone in that thing? Could the armor have pockets? Or no? It looked pretty tight up against her, form-fitting. Literally, since it grew.

Wait, does that mean she's not wearing anything under -

Victoria felt her cheeks get hot a moment, and she pushed down on that thought, very hard.

"I will consider it. You seem to be a capable parahuman. Knowledgeable of powers."

"Taking college classes at BBU on Parahuman Studies," Victoria confirmed, "Most capes are weirdly incurious about powers, but like - how they work, the limits of them, how to push those limits, how they happen. Powers changed the world, and we barely understand them, but we rely on them so much now!"

"Humans often do much with what they do not understand. It is a flaw endemic to the species." Illyria murmured.

"I suppose, but still." Victoria was speaking quickly, getting more animated as she went on. "Don't you wonder why we have powers? Where they came from? Why some people just started growing Coronas and triggering? Why some people don't? There's no clear genetic component, and yet, they can run in families." New Wave was the obvious case, but it wasn't like people didn't know that Kaisar was Allfather's son, that Iron Rain had been the racist bastard's daughter. Their names may have been secret, but everyone knew their relationship.

Illyria said nothing for a moment, then nodded, slowly. "I have questions that seek answers, yes," she shook her head, "But matters of a more immediate type raise themselves." She gestured to the still groaning Nazi, who was trying to flop himself away, but getting nowhere. "He had little to say, and for the moment, I am willing to refrain from proper inducement to make him speak."

"Good." Okay. So she wants to he a hero, but she's definitely going to have to work on the whole not wanting to torture people thing... Victoria had roughly questioned a Nazi once, worked up about it in the moment, and it seemed pretty obvious to her that Illyria was pushing down a lot of anger underneath that cold, formal, weird front she was putting up, but... she was a lot more deliberate in her desire to hurt people, it seemed like.

Even if those people deserved it

"But I still must know more about this 'Empire' if I am to drive it from my city," Illyria added. "You know of their leaders? Their powers?"

"I know pretty much everything the PRT knows, yeah. They loop New Wave in on the reports about local threats, and Brandish and Lady Photon pass it all on to us." Along with admonishments not to fight any E88 cape alone, even one like Rune. Who would be easy - she was harmless as long as you could avoid her thrown stuff, and Victoria knew she could do that easily.

"Tell me. I must know my enemy."

"Then let's start from the top. The guy in charge of Empire 88 is Kaisar. He doesn't come out to fight much these days, but he's got the ability to make metal blades..."

She started running through the list, about E88's capes, breaking them down a bit into factions, or what was suspected to be their factions - Hookwolf and his buddies were one, for instance - and outlining powers. She was halfway through talking about Hookwolf when she heard her sister's voice out at the end of the alley.

"You can't keep doing this, Vicky," Amy raised her voice, sounding like she was breathing a little heavily - not like she'd run, but definitely walked fast to get here. Her robes swallowed her up entirely, just the way her sister wanted them to - every attempt to get her sister to actually wear anything flattering was a fight and a half out of costume, and no matter how much she'd pleaded, wheedled or argued, Amy has absolutely refused to wear something that flattered her as her costume.

The robes make it easier to hide in the background during photoshoots.

"I'm in costume, Panacea! And I'm not alone!" Victoria gestured to Illyria. "This is Illyria."

Amy gave Illyria a small, bored wave, and then turned back to Victoria, rolling her eyes. "Fine. You can't keep doing this Glory Girl." She made a face, "It's not like everyone doesn't know your name,"

"It's-"

"The principle of the thing, I know." Amy crouched by the Nazi. "Do I have permission to heal you, you piece of shit?"

"Panacea!" It wasn't that her sister didn't have a grumpy streak a mile wide, but she usually didn't just -

"It's past midnight, I've been healing for three hours, and this is the fifth time you've done this!" She looked at the Nazi. "Do I have your permission to heal you?" She repeated. The Nazi nodded after a moment, and she touched his broken hand.

"Panacea!" She repeated, gesturing to Illyria, "Ixnay on the ivefay imestay!"

"You have treated five of these scum as they deserve?" Illyria asked, coming up behind them as Panacea fixed the guy's nose, attaching bones together and mending skin. It was back to normal quickly enough. "Impressive... as a start."

Victoria did a double take at that, and then wondered why she was surprised.

Amy looked up at Illyria, then Victoria, then Illyria again. "...Fuck there's two of you." She muttered, and looked back down at the Nazi. "I'm not healing your messes," She said to Illyria. "I shouldn't even be healing my sister's, but..." she took a breath. "This is the last time, Glory Girl."

"Fine. Fine. Last time. Promise." Victoria held out her hand, pinkie extended. "Pinkie promise."

Amy pulled her hand away from the Nazi, wrapping her own pinkie around it. Victoria held for a few minutes, grinning at the grumpy look on her sister's face softening a bit. Amy really was just a teddy bear underneath. Really far underneath, for most people, but not for her.

Victoria pulled her hand back and let her arm fall by her side. She looked down at the Nazi. "You're fine. Unharmed. Try telling anyone what happened, and it's your word against ours. And if you try to keep insisting anyway, you'll have to deal with Brandish. Slander can be expensive." Victoria turned over to Illyria. "I'm serious about the offer to patrol together sometime. Reach out."

"I will." Illyria nodded. She waved her hand in the air again and suddenly sped off in a blur.

Twice she waved her hand before moving fast. Affectation, or weird power thing? Every power worked differently. Maybe her Mover rating was down to her somehow affecting the air around her? Reducing air resistance or something?

The Nazi had finished struggling to his feet, but Victoria grabbed him and pushed down on his shoulder, enough to hold him in place.

"You're still not going anywhere." She held him in place with one hand, and dialed with her other, reaching the line for capes to report crimes to the BBPD. "This is Glory Girl, in the alley between," she gave the streets, and a bit more, "I have a gang member here who killed a thirteen year old kid. Can you send someone to collect him?"

She got an affirmative answer, and Victoria hung up. "After they come get this jackass, we can head home," she told Amy.

"Sounds good."

"I can tell you all about Illyria on the way. She's interesting, and I have so many questions about how her power works."

---

You should not have left that slime to live.

Taylor grimaced at Illyria's voice as she returned time to its normal flow around her a block away from Glory Girl and Panacea. She had to take breaks.

You do not.

I wasn't talking to you, Taylor couldn't exactly 'glare' at the demon, but she tried to send that impression to her, it, regardless.

Taylor had thought her life had changed forever, when she got her powers. That she could use them to matter, to mean something, to help people. She hadn't spent years and years dreaming of the day she'd become a cape or anything, but she had imagined it, from time to time.

Bug control. She'd thought it was a useless power at first but at least something. Figured out ways she could make it work. She'd had a whole notebook half-full of them. Had spiders set to work on making her a costume that would be knife proof, and maybe even bullet proof.

And then, visiting Dad at the Docks on a weekend afternoon, she'd noticed that open crate, in an abandoned warehouse. And she'd checked it out, curiosity getting the better of her. Her bugs had picked up some big stone thing inside it.

She wasn't even sure why it had seemed like such a good idea, but Illyria had had her guesses, and they made sense to Taylor. Her power, the interdimensional parasite in her brain, had been curious about what it had detected and wanted her to examine it. So it had nudged her.

Which apparently, powers can do.

So she'd approached the warehouse, the crate, and then... it had opened. She'd breathed in weird dust.

And that night, she'd gotten very, very sick. Fever. Chills. Weakness.

She was afraid she was going to die.

Instead... she'd experienced something like she never could have imagined.

Taylor waved her hand in front of her again, and sped off again.

Your parasite would have led you astray. Echoes of its original intentions remain within it, passed onto me when I took control of it.

Yeah, you've said as much. But you want to use me too.

But you know my intentions. This... parasite, this piece of some larger whole, would not have let you know it's aims.

Waking up to someone else's voice in your head was not Taylor's idea of a good time, but she had. She'd lost her ability to control insects as well,but she could still at least sense through them and do so without being overwhelmed by them. It was actually easier now, to focus only on bugs she wanted, and ignore say, the cockroaches crawling all over a dumpster a block over.

A resilient form of life. Pathetic, but little more so than your own kind, Taylor.

Taylor had been devastated at losing her power - her costume wasn't eve half done. She'd had powers for less than a month and lost them.

Until Illyria had started telling her more.

Taylor wasn't sure how much she actually believed the... thing that had possessed the parasite behind her power. For all she knew, this was just... a scam, a scheme, by the same being? A different one, of the same time.

Never again imply that I am kin with this being! Illyria's voice always sounded like Taylor's own, in her head, but cold, emotionless - usually. Anger though. Anger, Illyria had, in spades. I am Illyria, God-King of the Primordium, Shaper of Things! When the world met me, it shook at my feet! I was ancient when your kind were barely the muck at our feet!

Illyria had said that many times. Taylor wasn't sure she believed it. Believed that ancient beings - ancient demons - had apparently ruled the Earth in the ancient past. Taylor had found an occult bookshop, a creepy place just off the Lord's Street Market, accessible only from an alley, stairs down, the basement under another business. In there, she'd found a book that included a list of the so-called Old Ones of the Primordium Age, and 'Illyria the Merciless' was on it.

Illyria had been offended that she was listed among some of the others on that list. Beings that were 'barely more than human themselves', with 'territories of no consequence'. Though a few she'd approved of, considered them 'worthy rivals', though she'd claimed to have killed and feasted on all of them.

Taylor sped off again, another block, another pause. Then another block.

Why did you not do more to that pathetic one, the one who claims superiority based solely on the pigment of his flesh? You have made it clear you will not kill, but he deserved maiming, at the very least.

Taylor grimaced, Yes. He does. And I really really wanted to. She hated how true it was. When she took this form, it became... harder, to hold back anger. And she wanted to hurt people in a way she never did, normally. She'd always hated Empire 88. Always considered them monsters ruining the city.

But maim them? Kill them? Break their limbs. Destroy them piece by piece? She only imagined that, planned it, wanted it so much when she was like this.

She knew this wasn't her - wasn't all her, at least.

But she couldn't stop the desire. Could barely hold back from not following through and snapping that bastard's spine.

Because it would have been wrong. And it would have had Glory Girl coming after me. And then the PRT and the Protectorate and everyone else.

Morality is a word. It holds no meaning, no power, except that which you give it. A true ruler should be -

As moral as a hurricane. I know. You're starting to repeat yourself, Illyria. Besides. I don't want to take over anything.

She had the distinct impression Illyria was sulking, because the demon said nothing more, and Taylor sped off into the night, enjoying the moment's peace.

It had been weird, meeting Glory Girl in person. And then Panacea. There weren't that many more famous capes in the bay - Armsmaster, Miss Militia, maybe. But the two sisters were the most well known of all of New Wave, even if the team had faded out of the spotlight since one of them had been killed by E88.

Glory Girl had been... a bit of a whirlwind. Charging ahead, especially when she got into talking about powers. About her questions about them. And Taylor had answers. Some, anyway.

But how could she share them? Tell Victoria Dallon that she knew that powers came from interdimensional brain parasites (whose true forms were apparently massive crystals, like, miles long) that were part of some larger whole? That they were, according to the demon that had killed and possessed her power, probably doing some sort of experiment with humans?

That was Illyria's theory, anyway.

Panacea had always had a more muted presence in New Wave photo-ops, and now Taylor could guess why. Probably kept from making too much trouble with her grumpiness.

As Taylor sped down the last block to reach her house, and then into her room, slowing the world around her this time as she moved through to make sure she didn't wake her dad up. Only once she was in her room did she still one last time, taking a breath. She closed her eyes and focused, abandoning the power. Not so much release her hold onto it, as... grabbing onto normality. Herself. She felt the armor retract across her skin, felt the strength leave her. Her shoulders sagged a little, she let out the breath.

The first time she'd done this, donned the form, she'd destroyed her clothes in the process. She'd figured how how to not do that now, and under the armor she'd had tight bike shorts - not that she owned a bike, hadn't in years, since she was a kid - and a T-shirt.

You should take that blonde one up on her offer.

I was planning on it. Why do you think so?

I approve of her violence. Taylor wasn't even sure what else she'd expected. She will make a suitable general of your armies, when the time comes.

I'm not going to have armies! I won't need generals! Taylor sat down on her bed, looking at her glasses resting there on the bedside table. Even in her 'human' form, Taylor didn't need glasses anymore. Wearing them didn't cause her any issues though, and it was easier to make her dad not ask questions if she wore them around him, but she didn't need them. Not in the field, not anywhere. She turned on the lamp on her bedside table, and lifted up the book there. It had belonged to her mother, a collection of the Conan stories by Robert E Howard.

Something Illyria had said had reminded her of a line from an Earth Aleph movie based on the stories that she'd seen a bit of, in passing. The line from the movie was Conan saying that the 'best in life' was 'To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.' So she'd gotten curious about the original stories. They were an interesting read - she could see why her mother owned a copy. They were clearly influential on fantasy fiction, and well written. Also very dated. Very.

That line wasn't in any of the stories Taylor had read yet, and it probably wouldn't be in any of them, but Conan certainly did fit the vibe.

This Conan would have been far better entertainment than most of your kind. Illyria had approved of Conan's answer, but in her view, the best answer was 'to never die, and conquer all'.

Taylor hadn't been surprised.

I don't need a general, but... it would be nice to have someone I can trust in a fight. She didn't... trust Victoria Dallon, but she did trust Glory Girl to be a hero. If she wanted to take on Empire 88, and the ABB and the drug dealers who lived out on the edges of the trainyards and elsewhere, and everyone else... she'd have to work with other heroes in the city.

New Wave at least wouldn't be trying to convince her to join the Wards and put up with even more teenage drama.

You would not have to deal with 'teenage drama' if you would just -

I'm not ripping Emma's spine out!

The ability to sense through bugs, even if she couldn't directly control them, had done a lot to help Taylor avoid the worst of the Trio's antics. Illyria's abilities let her talk to them even, give them verbal orders that they usually obeyed, to a point, even.

But avoiding the Trio was hardly enough. It had been two weeks with Illyria in her head, and every second she saw them, the urge to do something was getting harder to resist. Especially with Illyria suggesting how to do it.

Then make her submit. Prove to her that you can force her, and she will be cowed. Most prefer life to death, lack of injury to suffering.

And if I do that I get the PRT coming after me for attacking someone with my powers. It was one-way ticket to being labeled a villain, and them probably to the Birdcage, if she wasn't careful.

The one you call Sophia could easily be cowed. Prove to her you are the greater, if you will not punish her as she deserves.

Stop it. I can start singing songs you hate in my head again. Illyria couldn't escape her anymore than Taylor could escape Illyria. Repeating annoying songs over and over in her head was probably the only way she could actually hurt the demon.

Do it and I will make sure you have no rest when you try to sleep. Illyria countered, and Taylor sighed. You are my host - that makes you better than all other humans. I will not allow my host to be treated as these have done to you.

You don't have a choice!
When she'd first realized what she could do with her power, her original power, the idea of sicking swarms of bugs on the Trio had been... enticing. She'd held back, but - she didn't want to. Every day, every time they kept at it...

Illyria was every violent impulse she'd had to the Trio, but worse. So. Much. Worse.

I fight back, they just turn the school administration against me even more. I don't fight back, and they just get worse. She couldn't even try for Arcadia next year because there was no way she'd ever be able to get her grades high enough. Not when they were always sabotaging her homework, her tests, ruining her books...

She didn't want to understand why, not anymore. She didn't even want them to get expelled or punished or -

She just wanted it to stop.

It can

Taylor forced herself to concentrate on the book, trying to ignore Illyria repeating her detailed plans for how to kill and/or maim the Trio. But she couldn't focus on the words.

When in doubt, distract the demon.

Which Empire 88 cape would you want to fight first? That was something they could agree on. E88 were a bunch of pathetic, evil bastards. Illyria liked the idea of fighting them.

None of them could be dangerous to you. Defeating Hookwolf would show the Empire that you are not to be trifled with.

Hookwolf?

It is unlikely his blades would be harmful, when set against the resilience my power grants you, the more you draw on it. The passage of time is your plaything as well.

...Which meant that few of his attacks would actually hit her. If she was careful, and smart.

But how much would she have to draw on Illyria's power to be able to resist all those blades? How sharp were they, exactly? And then there was the question of how she could actually hurt him back...

Bend his blades inward. Render them all blunt. Or snap them. Illyria said, with what Taylor could swear was almost a hint of laughter in her voice. Qual'aygoros was a being of spikes across a massive bulk. Without them, it could do me no harm. I feasted on it's flesh, and built a monument from it's bones.

...I'm not eating Hookwolf.

Of course not. Human would taste disgusting. Your kind are still barely above slime and muck, the ooze that ate itself is your forbear.

And Illyria was back to calling humans muck.

We managed to take over the world just fine. What happened to your people?

Illyria didn't 'say' anything, but she got the impression of a frustrated growl and a huff, as if the demon was like, crossing its arms in front of itself. Illyria hadn't had much of an answer, because it had been betrayed and 'killed but not destroyed' before the final end of the rule of the 'Old Ones' over the earth. The text she'd found in that occult bookshop had really only said that the 'Old Ones lost their purchase on this reality', which meant very little. Though with the existence of Earth-Aleph, and possibly even more alternate Earths, maybe it meant they'd... moved? To another Earth?

Impossible to say. Taylor did want to understand Illyria better, for all that getting rid of her wasn't the goal - Taylor wasn't going to lose her chance to be a hero - but short of desperately digging through occult books of dubious accuracy... she didn't see a lot of options. She'd keep trying but only when she could, when she had time.

And money. Rare occult books were expensive, and she didn't have any of that. And legally speaking, stealing money from E88 or ABB stash houses was still theft. The kind of thing that could get the Protectorate labeling her a hero if she did.

Taylor put down the book after the third attempt to read the same sentence in a row failed, and laid back on the bed, not taking her glasses off yet, not turning off the light on the side table.

She hadn't stopped any crime, but she had... she had made contact with Glory Girl. Working with her would be safer, without dealing with all of the Wards and all that teenage drama and bullshit. And... Glory Girl seemed to get it. Sure, she recoiled from the violence once had a minute, but she got it - she got how bad Empire 88 was, how much they were ruining this city.

Common ground. Taylor could work with that.

She was going to make this work. She was going to be a hero. Demon, or no demon.

---

---

Author's Note: So I did originally have plans for this to include a 3rd scene, where Taylor (as Illyria) and Victoria go up against Hookwolf and some E88 thugs, though Hookwolf gets away. But that scene fought me a lot and I've got enough other stuff on my to-write list that I decided to just not bother right now. If I return to this AU in any sense, I'd like to start with that, but for now, I just wanted to post and go.

The first scene of this fic does sort of tease a punchbuggy (Victoria/Taylor) kinda thing, which I blame entirely on Sharpes_Tanith as well for corrupting me a bit, but the actual long-term fic Idea is pillbug (i.e. Amy/Taylor. I am nothing if not a predictable and diehard shipper). Normally I actually see Victoria as straight, but for this one, she is Bi, even if she's not going to get with Taylor.

Where the fic would go - I want to keep a lot under my hat, but the short term would be Taylyria establishing herself as a hero and exploring the pre-canon Bay (since this is set in Februaryish), and since Taylor never joins the Undersiders, things would diverge, though in what exact ways, I don't know. We would probably still hit some of the common beats from canon, like Leviathan and the S9, because I have specific plans for both, rather than just inclusion for the sake of them.

 

[Balorak146]

Still, your power comes with a built in costume! That's pretty cool!

Click to shrink...

Vicky...you of all people should know better than to comment on how 'cool' a Parahuman's power is.

Or do I need to remind you that your sister has hers because you walked up to an armed robber without any power of your own and asked "Well what are you going to do - shoot me?"

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Vicky...you of all people should know better than to comment on how 'cool' a Parahuman's power is.

Click to shrink...

Victoria is a powers nerd. She thinks her power is cool, she think's Amy's power is awesome, she eagerly wanted her power. She said something to the effect of 'but now you have awesome powers' after Crystal triggered. Victoria is not a normal parahuman.

 

[Princezilla]

The first scene of this fic does sort of tease a punchbuggy (Victoria/Taylor) kinda thing, which I blame entirely on Sharpes_Tanith as well for corrupting me a bit, but the actual long-term fic Idea is pillbug (i.e. Amy/Taylor. I am nothing if not a predictable and diehard shipper)

Click to shrink...

Why not both?

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Why not both?

Click to shrink...

Because unless the fic is explicitly Guts and Glory ship, I'm not gonna pair Amy and Vicky together. I do have G&G fic ideas, oneshot and otherwise, but if the story pairs them, the ship is gonna take over the narrative. So as fun as a 'Dallon Sandwich' premise is for smutty fics, for a fic with a longer story, it's just not something that I'd want to write.

 

[Princezilla]

Because unless the fic is explicitly Guts and Glory ship, I'm not gonna pair Amy and Vicky together. I do have G&G fic ideas, oneshot and otherwise, but if the story pairs them, the ship is gonna take over the narrative. So as fun as a 'Dallon Sandwich' premise is for smutty fics, for a fic with a longer story, it's just not something that I'd want to write.

Click to shrink...

That's fair

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Author's Note: I am not actually starting 'Her Words Burned Into My Skin' as a proper long fic yet. I am just - just - doing the Taylor & Lisa half of the 'oh shit I have a soulmate' thing. There is no ETA on when or if a proper, full fic version of this idea will happen.

Lisa is a character that is hard to get right, and, short of Carol Dallon, Lisa is the character in Worm I hate the most, barring the actual monsters that are disbarred from competition by virtue of their narrative role. (Jack Slash, Kaisar, Hookwolf, Bonesaw, etc)

I do, however, as an author, try to be fair in how I write even characters I don't like, and I tried to do that with Lisa here. YMMV on if I was fair, and/or if I got her right. Good faith critique on characterization is always welcome. Same with on how I'm doing with Taylor's voice - both what she says, and her inner monologue. Our girl Skitter is notoriously hard to pin down in that respect, and while I feel like I have a grasp on her character, it's not a feeling I'm as confident in as say, my handling of Amy or Vicky's voices.

Thanks extended to everyone in the Gaylor Server who expressed appreciation for the bits I shared that they said the liked (encouragement is a very potent drug) and special thanks to Tel, vfdavis and Prollyrpolly for reading over this oneshot before I posted it and giving a few thoughts.

This starts during Worm 4.1 and spills into 4.2, narratively. Some dialogue is directly or very close to directly lifted from 4.1 and 4.2

Her Words Burned Into My Skin II

By Kylia​

You don't need to know that.

Taylor couldn't really remember if she'd ever spent any time thinking about what her soulmate would first say to her, if she had one. If she had, it probably had been with Emma - Emma had talked about her soulmate a lot, so sure she would have one out there. But when they'd talked about Soulmates, it had mostly been about Emma, to Taylor's memory.

But if Taylor had really spent any time on the subject in the past, she would never have guessed the words she did have now, tattooed onto her shoulder.

When it had happened, when she'd felt it, the feeling of needles poking into her skin, staring at the girl she'd only moments later would realize was Panacea... she'd just... known, then, in the moment, that the other girl was her soulmate. And from the look of shock and horror that had been on Panacea's face - Amy Dallon's face - she'd had the same realization.

She probably never expected to find out her soulmate was a villain. Especially not a creepy one who controlled bugs. That Taylor wasn't really a villain, that she was only in the Undersiders to find out who their boss was... well, that wasn't something Panacea knew. It wasn't something Taylor could tell her.

Not while I'm on a team with Tattletale, a team that includes two murderers. The more she told, the more risk Tattletale would pick up on it. Taylor thought Lisa was telling the truth about the murders Rachel was wanted for, but... who was the other killer?

Taylor walked with the other Undersiders, minus Rachel, down the market, lost in thought, barely noticing Alec returning from a stall wearing a Kid Win T-shirt.

"I like it. Ironic." Lisa said with a grin.

They moved through the outskirts of the market, Brian pausing to try on sunglasses.

Taylor stayed quiet, still thinking, still...

I should be paying more attention. Asking more questions. She needed to find out more about the boss, about how the Undersiders were contacting him. About how they were getting the money to him, and then how they'd get their pay.

But she couldn't focus on that.

Because she had a soulmate.

A soulmate who was a girl.

Yesterday morning, Taylor would have said she was straight. Her parents - especially her mother - had always made it clear they would love and support her whatever her orientation - and even with how her Dad had been since Mom died...

Well, she didn't doubt that was still true, at least. If her Dad had any reaction, if he even noticed...

Noticed what? There's nothing to notice.

It felt weak even in her own mind. Her soulmate was a woman. That - that meant something. Was it even possible for soulmates to get orientation wrong? She'd heard stories about soulmates not working out, everyone knew those happened but -

"Come on," Taylor felt a hand grab her wrist, and she tensed for a moment, jolted out of her thoughts, then saw Lisa grinning, "I'm stealing you."

"Huh?" Taylor felt slow, like she was missing something, staring at Lisa.

"We're going shopping," she told me. Turning to Brian and Alec, she said, "We'll split up, meet up with you two for dinner? Unless you want to come with and stand around holding our purses while we try on clothes."

"You don't have any purses," Alec pointed out.

"Figure of speech. You want to do your own thing or not?"

"Whatever," Alec said, shrugging, unconcerned.

"You're a jerk, Lise," Brian frowned, "Hogging the new girl to yourself." Taylor felt a flash of... something? Satisfaction? Appreciation? That Brian was actually upset about not being able to spend time with her?

"You get your morning meetings with her, I want to go shopping, cope," Lisa stuck out her tongue at Brian.

"Alright," Brian shrugged as well, accepting Lisa's words, "Fugly Bob's for dinner?"

"Sounds good," Lisa agreed. She turned to Taylor, eyebrow raised.

"I'm down for Fugly Bob's," Taylor conceded, feeling a little -

What just happened?

Alec and Brian set off on their own, and Lisa threw her arm around Taylor's shoulder, starting to go off on all the things she wanted to buy - clothes, mostly, and makeup. It was... infectious. Despite the concerns, about the Undersiders, her wonderings about Panacea, her soulmate tattoo, what it meant -

Lisa's behavior, Brian's words just moments before - they brought a smile to Taylor's face, dragged along in the wake of Lisa's enthusiasm.

Of course, two thoughts quickly killed the swell of satisfaction that was gathering in her.

One of them is a murderer.

My soulmate is a hero, and right now, I'm a villain as far as she's concerned.

Suddenly, the smile on her face was forced, and fake.

---

Despite a moment's protest from Taylor, Lisa's insistence that they were going to update her wardrobe could not be stopped, and Taylor let the blonde lead her to more clothes stalls and a number of changing areas next to them - closed off with curtains.

Taylor's protests were minimal mostly because she was still - still - grappling with the much bigger problem of her soulmate.

Ignoring - gladly - the question of what having another girl as a soulmate meant for her sexuality, Taylor tried to focus on the broader question of how the hell she was supposed to handle her soulmate being Panacea. One of the most uncomplicatedly beloved parahumans in the city, volunteering at hospitals and healing kids - people were brought to the city for her healing abilities. She wasn't as photogenic or as celebrated as her sister, or even the rest of her family, or the Protectorate, but Taylor hadn't heard anyone ever say anything bad about Panacea.

Maybe she just hadn't paid close enough to people talking about capes, but Taylor wasn't sure how you could complain about someone who cured cancer and birth defects in little kids. Not and sound remotely reasonable, anyway.

Important caveat.

How would a girl like that handle finding out her soulmate was a villain? Because that's what Skitter was, to her mind. The villain who had sicced a bunch of black widows on a crowd of innocent civilians at a bank, then held a knife to her throat.

While her teammate - Tattletale - threatened to spill some secret that Panacea - Amy, her name is Amy, I should be able to think my soulmate's name - was so protective of that she'd been willing to risk having her throat cut to avoid it being spilled.

Taylor had no idea exactly what Amy thought of Skitter, but it couldn't be good.

Amy didn't know why Taylor was doing this. And Taylor couldn't tell her - Tattletale might find out, Amy might accidentally let something slip to the wrong person. Taylor had to do this, she had to figure out who was behind the Undersiders' boss. Someone with the resources to pay them to rob a bank just to rob one at a specific date and time. Someone who knew in advance that the Protectorate would be busy at that time.

That was someone who had to be caught.

And what could she even do, if Amy would even -

Lisa thrust three dresses into Taylor's hands, ushering her towards the changing 'room'.

"Like I said, I'm not going to just watch you alternate between the same two pairs of jeans when you got two thousand dollars five days ago. So try these on."

"I can't -" Taylor tried to protest, looking down at the dresses. "My dad will wonder where I got them from."

"Say you borrowed them from me, or I gave you dresses that don't fit me anymore or just keep them at the hideout." Lisa offered blithely.

"I don't want to lie to my dad." She was already lying to him about enough. His lack of attention only made it easier, but she didn't need to add more to the yawning gulf between them that was already getting worse by the day without her even trying.

Lisa chuckled a little, "I envy that about you," she pushed Taylor closer to the changing space. "Besides, don't you want something nice to wear whenever you eventually go on a date with a certain someone?" Taylor stared at Lisa, confused for a moment, wondering what Lisa thought - Taylor had been attracted to Brian but there was - was she-

Then she saw where Lisa's eyes were aimed.

Directly at her shoulder.

Taylor stumbled backwards, into the curtained off changing area, the dresses still in her hands.

Fuck. She knows.

If Lisa - if Tattletale - knew that Taylor's soulmate was Panacea, would she think Taylor was going to betray the Undersiders to her? Or -

Taylor stood there, in the changing room, just staring, trying to figure out what she was supposed to say or do or -

I have to see if I can stay. I need to stay.

The curtain shifted a little, and Lisa stepped in. "I wasn't really expecting you to actually start changing after I said that, but I did pick those dresses deliberately. They will look good on you." She lowered her voice a little, "So, I think we should have a little chat about that."

"About the fact that my soulmate is Panacea." Taylor blinked, "Amy Dallon. You figured it out." Maybe she really was psychic.

But she doesn't know I'm - Taylor tried to shut down that train of thought. No thinking about that when Lisa's green eyes were staring at her from so close and she -

"Well, I didn't know for sure until how you reacted to what I said, but yes." Taylor stiffened for a moment, then -

She's not actually psychic. She's not actually psychic. Taylor felt like she needed to repeat that thought a few times. She just picked up little clues.

"But you guessed?"

"I thought there was something odd in the way you were standing with the knife against Panacea's neck yesterday, but I just chalked that down to nerves or the fact that you'd never actually threatened someone's life. Or the fact that you weren't going to actually hurt her."

Taylor opened her mouth to protest, then closed it, wondering why she was even bothering. Only two of the Undersiders were murderers, and they'd been clear that Rachel hadn't killed anyone since joining them. The Undersiders were escape artists. They had no problem hurting the Wards, or hurting people, but - it wasn't the goal. Killing people wouldn't be something they'd want.

Too much heat, if nothing else.

"Well, no, but-" Taylor finally said, but Lisa cut her off, a smirk forming on the blonde's face more and more as she did so.

"But then I saw how distracted you were, and the way you touched your right shoulder a few times without thinking about it. That Panacea or Glory Girl was your soulmate was one of my guesses."

Did Taylor even want to know what the other guesses were.

Was I really touching my shoulder that much? Taylor hadn't even noticed she was, couldn't remember doing it at all but -

Apparently she had.

"So. Your soulmate is the girl who cures kids' cancer." Lisa chuckled. "And she's pretty, though she doesn't dress for it. Or wear makeup to accentuate her looks the right way. You two both have that in common." Lisa's eyes flicked over her body. Taylor bit her lower lip.

Right. That was another thing.

How would Amy feel about someone who looked like -

Like she did. Taylor knew what she looked like. She couldn't possibly be what someone like Amy Dallon would want.

Did she even know she was - is she surprised her soulmate is a girl?

Taylor bit her lower lip and looked down.

"Okay, none of that. You're tall, you have great legs, and amazing hair." Lisa said after making a tutting sound, interrupting Taylor's thoughts. "But seriously." The mirth vanished from Lisa's voice. "It's not every day someone meets their soulmate during a bank robbery and then holds a knife to their throat. I'm a little surprised you went that far, given that she was."

"I wasn't really - I was still trying to process that I had a soulmate and - and then I was focused on avoiding getting every bone in my body broken by Glory Girl." Taylor protested. She let out a breath. "I'm still processing."

"Obviously, yeah. Can't exactly just go and unmask to her and say 'Hey soulmate'," Lisa chuckled.

"Not just that." Taylor swallowed. "I - " she closed her mouth, then started again. "Before yesterday, I thought I was straight. I mean - I still think I am, but..." she looked down at her shoulder.

Lisa grinned, "Oh, oh... oh Taylor, no, you are not straight."

"You - your power can't just tell you someone is gay!"

"I mean, it can, but I didn't need my power to know you're not straight. You're not gay either - you're definitely bi. But the way you stare at my ass every chance you get was enough to tell me you like girls."

I haven't been- Taylor started, mouth opening to protest. She hadn't been staring at Lisa's ass. She - she knew Lisa was pretty, that was just... objective fact. She did - she did have a very nice -

Lisa's hand gently shoved against her left shoulder, nothing firm, just a light push. "Taylor, don't feel bad. I might be ace, but if I got annoyed at everyone who stared, I'd get nothing done." She grimaced. "It's a hazard of my power, knowing. I've had much worse people staring and my power has picked up much worse than 'closeted bi girl' from that staring."

"How can I be in the closet if I don't even -" Taylor wanted to protest that she was straight. Because she was. She couldn't - she wasn't attracted to girls!

But she -

"Your soulmate is a girl, Taylor." Lisa said. "Soulmates don't always get together, but as far as I know, there's never actually been an incompatible orientation."

"How did I not-" Taylor cut herself off.

"I can guess why you might be so far in the closet that you didn't think about it." Lisa mused. "The way you were dressing, carrying yourself. Only two real options. Abusive parent-" Taylor braced, gritting her teeth.

Dad isn't-

Lisa held up a hand, "Figured out that wasn't it based on how you talk about him. When Alec and Brian and I were talking about it-"

"You talked about this with me?" Taylor felt heat in her cheeks, a roiling in her gut.

"It was part of the discussions around if we should have you join. You're the new girl, you're the topic we're all thinking about. So it is something happening at school. Not really a lot of options it could be."

Taylor swallowed, throat feeling tight. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Maybe you don't, but we kind of need to. Watching you stuff yourself back in the closet isn't my idea of fun. And my guess is whatever's happening at school, a really hot girl is the ringleader?"

Two, technically.

Sophia and Emma were both attractive - Sophia all lean muscle, deadly and dangerous and lithe. Emma, curvy and pretty and -

"That kind of thing can shove anyone pretty far into the closet," Lisa noted calmly. Taylor frowned, opening then closing her mouth, completely lost for words. Emma was pretty. She was a model. She had a future in it. She knew how to use her looks. She'd always been pretty, even when they were much younger - Taylor had always known her then best friend was the pretty one.

"...especially if-" Lisa started, then cut herself off, shaking her head.

"What?" Taylor demanded, staring at her face - trying to make sure she only looked at Lisa's face, trying to be more aware of where her eyes were aimed.

"Nothing worth talking about right now." Lisa shook her head again, speaking firmly. Taylor thought about pushing, but... she looked away, eyes on the ground for a moment. "You really should reach out to her."

Reach out to Emma? Then Taylor realized Lisa had changed topic. "Right. Reach out to the hero that I held at knifepoint. The hero who thinks I'm evil enough to actually have black widows bite a bunch of innocent people. She's going to be thrilled her villain soulmate with the creepy bug powers is reaching out."

"Taylor, do you really think there's never been any heroes and villains who've gotten together?" Lisa laughed. "It's all a game of cops and robbers, like I told you. You're probably not even the first villain with a hero as a soulmate."

Taylor still didn't really agree with Lisa's position there. She'd made... reasonable points, but to all the people caught in the middle, was it really just a game? Amy hadn't seemed like she thought it was a game. Glory Girl didn't either.

But...

There were a lot of capes. There really might be a soulmate pair across the line.

"So... you think we should date despite being on opposite sides? Like in those old comic books?" Taylor had never read any of the old superhero comic books, but you pick things up, people mention stuff. "She threatened to give me cancer!" She'd had no idea Panacea could do that but she'd also somehow messed with the brains of Taylor's bugs, so Amy clearly could do more than just heal.

"She wasn't going to do anything to you anymore than you were going to cut her throat." Lisa promised her. "Panacea's got a lot of rules about using her power. I don't - I'm still sort of trying to understand the full range of what she can do, but she could be pretty dangerous in a fight if she really wanted to be."

Not very reassuring. "So she doesn't want to actually use her power to hurt people. Doesn't seem like she'd be any more inclined to - to actually want to be with someone who she thinks - you know and I know I wasn't going to hurt any of the hostages, or use my knife on her, but - she doesn't."

"You could always tell her."

"Right. I'll unmask to her and we'll have a heart to heart about it." Taylor let out a breath. "Besides, I don't even know if I want to - just because she's my soulmate doesn't mean we'd work out. I don't - I don't even know if I even want her, even if she would."

The idea of dating, of putting herself in that position... the idea of... doing anything with someone, kissing or -

She felt her heart beat faster in her chest at the thought, but also a tightness in her gut, a - the idea of it... no. No. It was a bad idea. Especially Amy. Especially now.

She could try after she'd found the Undersider's boss and turned him in. When she'd proven she really was a hero and then maybe she could have a position to reach out and she could trust Amy would hear her out.

If I even want to.

"I don't even know her!"

"That is why they invented dating."

"I can't date her. Not without unmasking. And I'm not doing that, not... not anytime soon." Lisa was right, that identities did seem to be generally sacrosanct. But New Wave didn't do secret identities. Would one of them respect hers?

"I don't even know if she - she could be having - what if she didn't know she likes girls?!" Taylor protested.

"No, no, Panacea's gay. If gay people actually gave off rainbows, the girl would be blinding with how gay she is."

"...I'm pretty sure she talked about a double date with a guy with her sister." Taylor countered.

"Because she's in the closet, and Glory Hole is too dense and self-interested to notice her sister's gay." Lisa chuckled. "I'm not sure I would have even needed my power to ping her as gay. Got it faster, but... girl's not hiding it very well."

At least she's not dealing with an orientation revelation at the same time. Has she told her sister about it? What is her sister saying to her? Was Glory Girl affectionately teasing her sister the way older siblings in books sometimes did? Urging Amy to reject her villainous soulmate?

"Okay, fine but - just because we're soulmates doesn't mean we should - who decided we'd actually be good together?!" Taylor sighed, as if Lisa would have the answer to that. Nobody understood 'who' or 'what' determined soulmates. In ages past, it would have been assumed to be God, or the Gods or whatever, but even today, when a lot less people believed that, nobody actually knew. It just... happened.

"Why are you so invested in me dating my soulmate?"

"I can't want to help my teammate out?" Lisa asked, pretending at innocence.

"No." Taylor didn't think it was that simple for an instance. Lisa was... nice, in an abrasive sort of way but this was more than that - even with the obvious fake pretense she was doing.

Lisa shrugged, "I do want to help my teammate out, that is part of it, but... my power has this thing about soulmates."

"Thing?"

"It doesn't understand them. It gets they're a thing, it helped me pick up that having Panacea as your soulmate was what was going on, but it... it doesn't get soulmates, and it -" Lisa shrugged, "My power isn't actually a separate thing with it's own will, but it sometimes helps me to think about it as that, sometimes. It doesn't like things it doesn't understand, and for some reason, trying to make sense of soulmates really 'annoys' it."

"...am I supposed to be your guinea pig?" Taylor stared at her. "I don't - I'm not interested in-"

"Like I said, not just that. I do want to help you out because you're on the team," Lisa promised her. "I can help you with this... or I can help you with those girls bothering you at school."

Taylor blinked. She could see it - Lisa coming to Winslow, eviscerating Emma and Sophia and Madison with just a few choice words. The thought of it had her blood running cold. She'd rather try facing Glory Girl again - even if Glory Girl was deciding to be overly protective about her sister while she was at it.

"No. You try that, and I walk." Taylor said firmly. "I'm willing to try on clothes. I'm willing to... you can offer unsolicited advice, but if you try to directly interfere in my business. At school, or this," she gestured to her shoulder, "then I walk."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. I'm sorry." Taylor did feel sorry, a little.

She couldn't have the Undersiders that plugged into her life. She wasn't here to be friends with them, but...

She had to draw some sort of line. A separation.

"Fine." Lisa's lips formed an obvious pout, and Taylor looked away before she could let it change her mind. "But while I'm giving unsolicited advice, I do think you really should try to reach out to her. I think you'll regret it if you don't."

"Right. Your power told you that." Taylor didn't mean to sound so sour, or sullen, but -

"It's not really how it works. My power collects information and helps draw conclusions, but I am still the one picking this up because I'm me. I am really smart even without my power, Taylor." Lisa told her, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You just know me better than I know myself."

"I knew you were bi before you did."

Taylor opened her mouth, closed it, held back an almost instinctive 'I'm not bi', because even as the words rose to her lips, she knew how stupid it would be to say that.

"How exactly do I reach out to her safely? How do I know she's even interested?" Taylor shook her head. Setting herself up for rejection seemed like a terrible idea.

"How did you find me?" Lisa countered. "If you were trying to reach out to a cape, especially quietly-"

"You think I should check Connections? Or make my own?" She would have to be subtle. Couldn't be too obvious - otherwise anyone who say Panacea out on a date with someone would assume that person was Skitter.

Getting ahead of yourself there. But the point stood.

"I think it's a good place to start. Besides, if Panacea is interested, she might have already posted something. And if you make something, ball's in her court." Lisa offered.

Taylor bit her lip. It wouldn't hurt to check, at least.

What if Amy did post, and did reach out, and Taylor didn't say anything until she was done with the Undersiders, and their boss - how long would that take, even? If she left it off too long, would she feel like it meant she wasn't interested? Feel insulted that Taylor finally reached out only weeks or months later?

I hope this doesn't take months.

The idea almost -

"You threatened Amy with revealing that secret, and with information about her biological father." Taylor asked, not sure why she was asking now, beyond maybe trying to delay thinking about this more.

"And unlike you and the knife, I would have done either, if I had to." Lisa said firmly. "No regrets. But I'm not going to be sharing her secret if I don't need to. As for her dad - if you don't want to freak her out, don't talk about it with her. Girl's got a major complex about that."

"I did kind of pick that up." Taylor had to guess that if Lisa's secret was something that Taylor should be worried about, she'd say, right? So it couldn't be that bad.

She's adopted and has issues around that...

"Her father is Marquis," Lisa explained. Taylor blinked. The name sounded familiar, but -

"He was an old school villain, in the days before the Protectorate really got situated in the city. He could control his own bones - turn them into weapons and armor. He was a one-man army, controlled a bunch of territory, challenged the Teeth and Empire 88 under Allfather." Taylor inhaled sharply. The Teeth weren't a pushover, from what little Taylor knew about local Cape history - they'd been pushed out of the city for years, but... well, they had the Butcher. The unkillable nightmare boogeyman. And Empire 88... the Nazi bastards hadn't always been led by Kaisar. Their founder had been Allfather.

And Marquis - Amy's father - had taken on both groups, solo? Probably not at the same time, but -

"As far as villains that were active at the time, he's probably the best option Panacea could hope for as her dad, but - he still killed people. Heroes, other villains, the occasional civilian that refused to pay protection." Lisa ticked it off. "But he was famous for having a code. Rules."

"Like she has rules about how she uses her power."

"I did say she'd worry about what she got from him, constantly compare herself to him." Lisa explained. "New Wave plays the All-American happy family, but they're a lot more under the surface."

"Like... abusive parents?" Taylor blinked.

"No. At least," Lisa paused, "I don't think so. But what I do know, or can guess? They're a lot less perfect than they pretend to be."

"Isn't everyone?" Taylor asked, then exhaled. So Amy's family isn't perfect and... what does that mean? Amy had issues about her biological father. Knowing your dad was a villain would probably be an issue if you were raised by heroes. She looked so different from her sister - and probably the rest of her family too.

Does she feel like she doesn't fit in? It was an easy conclusion to reach.

But what did that mean for her? Taylor was still left unsure, unthinking about what to do, if she should reach out, what she might even - how exactly would any of this work, if she did reach out?

Whatever else, she had to stay with the Undersiders. She had so much to think about, trying to figure out what to do, but... that much she was certain on.

"I'll think about checking Connections," Taylor said after a long moment.

"Good. I'll leave this off for now, then. We'll upgrade your wardrobe a bit, and - just saying, if you change your mind about what's happening at school, just say the word."

Never going to happen.

"Fine." Not talking about the soulmate thing sounded good. Lisa had poked that sore spot enough times. Taylor needed to come to some sort of conclusion, but it had to be one on her own.

---

Private Message to: Panacea_Official

I don't really know what to say in this message. But I saw your post in Connections. Or what I hope was your post. But I guess we're - we have a lot to talk about. Messaging you on PHO seems like it might be the best way to do that, for now.

I'd say I was sorry for holding a knife to your throat, but the defense 'I was trying to keep your sister from turning me into paste' feels weak. I wasn't going to hurt you with it, for what that's worth. Or actually have the Black Widows bite the hostages. I just needed to keep them under control, or else Hellhound (she prefers Bitch) might have sicced her dogs on them.

I didn't sign up for the Undersiders to hurt civilians. I don't know how much you think that's worth either.

As it stands... we're linked. We have these words essentially burned into our skin. Yours, mine.

Not really, but that's what it feels like, a little.

I don't know if this can or should go anywhere. But it's worth finding out. Like you said, we can't pretend this didn't happen, and maybe we shouldn't.

-Skitter.