Chapter Text
Talia Khalid, or Lia for short, loved the quiet hum of the machines at her lab. It was a peaceful sound: a known sound. She’d helped build most of the machines in this room in the past 5 years she’d been working at the university and had used the others often enough that she might as well have. The machines felt like home, this room felt like home, the university felt like home. She’d gone to grad school here and had met her husband here. While she’d traveled for a few years after getting her PhD, she’d still ended up returning here, and she’d been greeted with open arms and a place in a project that was sure to push society in a good direction.
Lia had been studying supers. Particularly, she’d been researching the genetics of supers as well as how powers affected people’s lives. She’d mapped genomes, considered data about physical health, and interviewed people who agreed to be a part of the study. They’d made many strides over the last few years that were sure to help with medical breakthroughs for supers and non-supers alike. She’d even been promoted to the head of this project two months ago.
She knew every noise every machine could make. She knew the squeak of the door when it opened and how footsteps echoed depending on where other people were in the labs. She could identify any of her underlings’ voices with one murmured word. Lia knew every sound in her lab. So, she knew she hadn’t heard the door open nor did she hear any footsteps. She also knew that she didn’t recognize the voice that crackled through the air suddenly from beside her. “I need to borrow something from you,” the voice said, and then there was someone next to her.
Lia knew enough about enough superpowers and she had a quick enough brain that she put together from the lack of an entrance and the way the air around the woman crackled dangerously that this person had electrokinesis. She must have come through the wires.
There were a lot of things in this room someone might want or want to destroy: a supercomputer running the latest blood tests, blood samples from various supers, chemicals and machinery, a lot of raw data, a lot of partially finished projects and tech. Lia wasn’t sure what she wanted, and she would never get a chance to know.
All she knew was that she made the choice to smack an emergency button on her desk to delete all of the personal data on every super in their computer, and in the next moment, the tendrils of electricity that had been hanging in the air coalesced and shocked her until her heart stopped.
Considering what would happen next and what could have happened next, one could argue that Lia Khalid saved the world that day, though not in any way she had been trying to. Because, if it had been anyone else, Logan Sanders would not have been there. If it had been anyone else, he would have been exactly on time to their appointment, just like he would be for any other colleague. Lia was one of the few people in the world that Logan Sanders, upon finishing his work 20 minute early, would show up at her lab before their planned lunch together at noon. Since it was Lia, Logan was comfortable having a casual conversation with her as she finished her work. They had, after all, shared an office in graduate school for 6 years.
There was no reason to blame himself when he showed up to her lab after her body had been going cool for almost 10. After all, he hadn’t even been due to be there for another 20. There was no reason to blame himself.
He still would.