Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“…you don’t know who the fuck I am, or who you’re messing with!”

“W-where’d you get that? What are you doing? Come on, put that thing down!”

“Don’t EVER tell me what to do. I’m so SICK of people trying to control me!”

“You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs-”

“Nobody would ever even miss your punk ass would they?”

“Get that gun away from me, psy-”

“CHLOE!”

A cold sweat coated Max Caulfield’s body, her vocal cords sore from the name she’d just screamed. She sat straight up in bed, panting heavily, her fingers nearly tearing through the bedsheets beneath her. After a few frozen moments, she let go and yanked her phone off her night stand.

3:56 read her phone display as it lit up her face in blue light. Irritating rays peppering her face, she sighed in frustration and tossed the phone back as she dropped back into bed.

It’s been three years.

Three years and I still miss you, Chloe.

Max felt tears well up in her eyes as she rubbed her tired face. The unique mix of reminiscence and late night drowsiness had beckoned them, and no amount of reasoned self-debate was going to remove them for long.

Come on Max. She thought to herself, trying to calm herself down. She wanted me to save Arcadia Bay, for Joyce, and all the others. Respecting her wishes is the fucking least you can do.

Max sighed. She closed her eyes. And she went back to sleep.

“... really a famous explorer, or simply an over celebrated fraudster? More on this at six...” Echoed the voice of the news reporter through her small apartment as Max ate her breakfast in the living room. After she had woken up in the dead of night, she’d eventually managed to fall asleep again about half an hour later. Not that it was any kind of rest. She’d woken up grumpy and still tired, drowsiness incarnate, only managing to drag herself out of bed after her stomach grumbled just a bit too loudly to ignore.

She cut a small piece from her waffle and lethargically forked it into her mouth. She couldn’t get the nightmare she’d had last night off her mind. It was all she could think about. It wasn’t like the dream itself was anything special, she’d get ones like this every so often, like her consciousness was trying to make her feel even more guilty for making the choices she’d made.

Like I don’t feel guilty enough. She thought to herself, as she lazily chewed on her waffle. But this time, it felt so much more vivid, so much more… real. Like I was actually back there. It was super weird.

Lost in her mind, a single thought prevailed. An almost supernatural prerogative forced her out of her chair, and before she knew it her legs were carrying her back to her bedroom. Through the thin hallway, pushing open that door that always squeaked no matter how much WD-40 you used, and eventually found herself in front of her wardrobe.

Upon arrival she immediately began digging through. And, upon eventually pulling out an old, faded grey hoodie, sat back down on her bed.

“There you are.” She mumbled to herself, wiping a thin layer of dust from the garment. “I used to wear you every day…”

With the utterance of those words, she fell silent. After a few moments, she reached into one of the hoodie’s pockets, pulling out a bruised, slightly crumpled Polaroid picture. It was a picture of a blue butterfly, resting gracefully on a yellow mop bucket.

For a second the thought of going back to the start of that week flashed through her mind again. It was a thought that invaded her brain every so often, filling her with all the regret she’d ever felt for that week all over again. A chronic sense of dread. An agonizing pain that never left.

She sighed.

I never wanna make that choice again.

Never.

She slowly rubbed a thumb over the picture, lost in the thought of that week three years ago. But in her mental absence, her ears picked up the news broadcast still playing in the living room.

“…criminal known to the French public as The Butcher of Nantes has disappeared from his max-security prison in Northern France. Images of his face and likeness have been spread through the entire region by local police forces, but sightings have yet to be reported so far.”

“In other news, following the takedown and subsequent arrest of DUP founder and head, Brooke Augustine, the organization is disbanding and halting all operations across the country. Ostensibly, a godsend for bioterrorists across the country. But what good will it truly do for our country and its denizens? For more information on this, we have our correspondent Kevin Frank down on the streets of Seattle.”

Max peeked her head out of the door of her bedroom to get a good look at the TV.

The DUP?

Hoodie in hand, Max strolled back to her living room and softly sat down on her couch. As she sat down the hosts just cut to the on-scene correspondent.

“Thank you Mary!” The short man said, flashing a smile to the camera, before the screen panned over to show another figure standing beside him. “With me I have the bioterrorist known as Delsin Rowe on the scene to talk about what happened down here in Seattle.”

“Well, firstly, I think you can understand how the name Bioterrorist sounds.” The figure on the screen explained with a polite chuckle, his mouth curled into a confident smirk. He wore a sleeveless jean jacket over a blue hoodie, a beanie of the same color draped over his head. His hands rested in his pockets as he spoke.

“We prefer the term conduit. Not to get all PC, of course.” Delsin joked, even managing to get the reporter to let out a small chuckle.

“Well, what can you tell us about… Conduits?”

“Long story short, we’re… just like you. Humans. We all walk, talk, breathe, and eat. We’re all just normal human beings, except, we have superpowers. That's really the main thing.”

“Are Conduits born with these powers?” “Most are born with the gene, just not activated yet. My powers actually awakened when I got into a… scuffle with another conduit a few months ago. At first, I—or, well, mainly my brother—saw them as a bit of a curse. But eventually I embraced them as just another part of me.” He explained.

“Very interesting, so… “

The words Delsin spoke toiled around in her brain for a few moments, and she stopped picking up whatever happened or was said next. The things he said felt like they were aimed at her, and began to combine with the nightmare still lingering in her subconscious. And before she knew it, a plan had begun irreversibly manifesting itself into her psyche.

She just needed to get a plane ticket to Seattle.

“Thank you, Delsin.”

“It’s nothing Betty,” Delsin nodded as he handed her a teacup. She smiled at him before he turned around and began walking away.

Delsin thought to himself, as he opened the door of the longhouse and took in the warm evening air. It’s been, what, a week since we took down Augustine and the DUP?

The sun was starting to set, but there was still plenty of light out. Soft, orange rays, cast a bit of their heat onto his skin, warming him up in the process. It had been a warm summer, but that was coming to an end. The colder months were coming, and winter wouldn’t be far off. He set those winter worries aside, however. He had some thoughts on his mind and needed some space to process them.

Lot’s changed since then, people kinda respect us now, which is cool. Us as in, conduits in general. Far from everyone, but I’ve seen the general attitude shift with my own eyes. He leaned against the wall next to the door, as his eyes gazed at the billboard of Reggie. His late brother’s visage stared back at him and he couldn’t help but divert his gaze. His thoughts were pointed, like he was directly talking to him.

Still wish that… I could have done more for you. He thought, letting out a small sigh. Eventually everything turned out well for everyone, except for you. You know that’s unfair for me too, right? Delsin slipped his hands into his pockets as he stared into the floor in front of him.

That’s all in the past. I should focus on the future. That sounds like something you’d say, right?

His pondering was cut short when he heard a voice speak out from the darkness.

“Are you Delsin Rowe?”

Delsin’s eyes shot towards the source of the voice. His gaze landed on a relatively short figure clad in a gray hoodie, which along with the coming darkness from the setting sun hid their facial features surprisingly well.

“Depends.” Delsin answered cautiously, as a small amount of smoke slowly trickled upwards from his hand. He knew the DUP was taken care of, but for all he knew this could be some kind of fanatic out to take revenge or something in that vein, so he wanted to be careful. “What are you doing out here? Seattle’s that-a-way, you’re off by a few miles.”

“I came here to find you.” The voice mumbled. They sounded tired, more so exhausted.

“How did you find me?”

“I saw you on the uh… news. I managed to find some stuff that traced you to this place.”

Delsin furrowed his brow, as he tried to further inspect this person. They seem way too casual to be some kind of DUP spy or fanatic, but they’re not some random person or journalist either if they put so much effort into tracking me down. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m uhh… “ They pulled down the hood of their hoodie. “… Max, Max Caulfield.”

As she pulled down her hoodie, it revealed her short brown hair, and Delsin finally managed to decipher her facial features. She looked young, probably around his age, if not a year or two younger. Her eyes gleamed tired, bags adorning the undersides of them, complimented by her somewhat slumped over stance.

“Do I know you?” Delsin asked.

“…no we’ve never met. I just heard about you on the news, and I needed to talk to you for myself.”

“Why?”

“Because… I think I might be a conduit.”

“And then, I woke up again. Back at my desk. Back in Jefferson’s class like nothing had happened. I knew what I had to do, I knew I had to go to that bathroom and…do nothing. Let it happen. So I just… “ Max cut herself off, with a slight gulp.

After their meeting outside the longhouse, Delsin had invited Max in, bringing her to the kitchen and sitting her down at a table, before telling her to explain why she was here.

“If it’s digging up too much of the past, you don’t have to tell me.” Delsin said, crossing his arms. “I think I understand the gist of what you’re trying to tell me anyway.” He continued, Max nodding in response. “But just to get this straight, you have the power to reverse time?”

“Yes. I think I can stop time as well, but that only happened once and I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I don’t want to tell you you’re lying… but could you do something to convince me?”

“Well… you’re about to be called by a ‘Fetch’.”

“What? Fetc-” He was cut off by the sudden ringing of his phone, quickly taking it out of his pocket and picking up.

“Hey, D.”

“Fetch? What’s up?”

“Not much, just wanted to check in. You’re coming back tomorrow right?”

“Yeah, totes.”

“Dope, just curious. Call me when you get home. I just… I, well, just call me okay?”

“Uh, yeah sure. Just-”

Before Delsin could inquire any further, Fetch hung up. Delsin slipped his phone back into his pocket, his eyes shifting to Max. “That was pretty convincing, I have to admit.”

“Thanks.” She chuckled. “When I told Chloe the first time, she had me play this whole guessing game with what she had in her pockets, it was really… “ A smile began forming on Max face, but she quickly wiped the memory away, a sigh escaping her lips as her smile disappeared.

“Why are you here, though?” He asked. “No offense, you seem nice, but why did you go through all the effort of tracking me down and convincing me of your powers?”

“I need your help.”

“With what?”

“I need to go back. I need to go back and save Chloe without fucking up the timeline.” She explained. “This is probably a shot in the dark, but I never had the time to properly train my powers, to really develop them. Maybe… just maybe, if you can help me, take me under your wing and train me, I can have enough control over my powers to change the timeline, and save Chloe’s life along with Arcadia Bay.”

“I’m not sure if I can do that, or if that's even pos-”

“Please. I’m desperate, this is my only chance. I’ve spent the last 3 years blaming myself for what happened, and I don’t know if this is gonna work out but I need to try.”

“I… “ Delsin let out a sigh. “… look, I can try, I can give it a shot, but I can’t promise you anything. I don’t even know what exactly I’d be doing. But… I can’t say I’ve exactly been busy, recently. And I can’t turn down someone who needs my help.”

“Are you cereal?” Max asked, the smile on her face growing. Delsin fell silent as he raised an eyebrow at her.

“… did you just say ‘are you cereal?’ or did I hear that wrong?”

Chapter Text

Warm sun rays stroked the skin of Max’s eyelids, streaking through the creaks of the blinds, and waking her up. As she slowly opened them up, her eyes set their gaze upon the wooden ceiling above her. She remembered where she was.

After managing to convince Delsin to help her, he’d told her she could sleep in the longhouse for the night.

“You look incredibly tired. Besides, we’re not gonna start your… training or whatever right now, it’s way too late for that.” She remembered him saying.

She let out a sigh as she rolled around in her bed. For all I know maybe this really can’t be changed. Maybe fate has already decided, and this’ll all just end up with me back at that lighthouse in Arcadia Bay, back in front of Chloe, having to make that choice again.

I don’t think I could handle that. I don’t think I-

Her thoughts were suddenly derailed by a dull pain in her head. Her hand immediately reached for her forehead as she slowly sat up in bed.

“Fuck, that hurts.” She mumbled to herself, her voice still coarse and raspy. As she sat up she could feel blood slowly seeping down her right nostril. With a sigh she pushed herself out of bed and carefully made her way to the bathroom.

Wherever that was.

After about ten or so minutes of searching, she managed to find the bathroom. Max shut the door behind her, immediately making her way to the sink. She looked at herself in the mirror, confirming that her nose was indeed bleeding. She let out a sigh as she wiped away the blood.

Guess that makes sense. Max thought to herself. Yesterday was the first time I’d used my powers since Arcadia Bay. Makes sense I’ve really gotten rusty. She let out a small chuckle, although that only lasted for a few seconds as her headache resurfaced.

This sucks.

“Hey! Wait! I got a new complaint!” The chorus of Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana blared through the car stereo, softly echoing through the vehicle’s interior. After Max and Delsin had gotten showered they’d stepped in the car and headed straight for Seattle. Delsin had decided that her training would be better done in the city.

Besides, he only spent the weekends at the longhouse.

His new-found powers had also gotten him the responsibility of protecting the city that took his brother, and while the downfall of the DUP signalled a dip in violence against both conduits and civilians, there were still some DUP fanatics out there who weren’t happy with what happened. Let alone the influx of gangs trying to fill the power vacuum that the DUP left behind.

Driving calmly down the highway, Delsin caught a short glimpse of Max looking at some kind of white paper. Tepidly debating within himself whether he wanted to intrude or not, he eventually just said fuck it and spoke up, his eyes still staring down the road.

“What’s that?”

Max suddenly looked up like she’d just been pulled out of a trance. “What?”

“The thing you’re looking at, what is it?”

“Oh it’s just… a picture, I guess. Old picture. I took it a few years ago, back at Blackwell.” She mumbled, rubbing her thumb over the photograph of the blue butterfly absentmindedly.

“Is that the picture you used to-”

“To go back to the start of the week?” She asked, cutting Delsin off. “No, but… I don’t have that one anymore. I-I was stupid and angry after Chloe’s funeral, I’m lucky I still have this one.” She explained with a sigh, before stuffing the photo back in her hoodie’s pocket. “I’m gonna take a nap until we get there, is that alright?”

“Oh yeah, sure. I’ll wake you up when we get there.” Delsin replied as he focused back on the road. This… is gonna take a while. He thought to himself.

After a short drive — Salmon Bay was only a few miles from Seattle — they had arrived at their destination, an apartment complex in SODO. A week or so after their final battle with Brooke, Delsin and his friends had come together and decided getting an apartment together so they could more effectively work together as a conduit-protecting… team, squad thing.

They still hadn’t settled on a name, but that was fine. Delsin’d only been away for the weekend, but it did always feel nice to be back.

For Max, it had been a lot longer since she’d been to Seattle. The last time she was in Seattle was right before she left for Blackwell all those years ago. She hadn’t been back since then, despite her parents living there. Every month they’d have a long facetime call, and her mom always loved showing her the new developments happening in their neighborhood.

Either way, they were back in the Emerald City.

Max began waking up as Delsin parked his car. “Are we there?” She asked groggily, dragging a hand across her face in an attempt to rub the sleep away.

“Yep, just arrived.” He replied as he turned off the engine and flicked his keys out.

They both got out of the car, Max following Delsin into the apartment complex. After a few stairs they arrived at the door, Delsin reaching into his pocket and unlocking the door. Delsin walked into the apartment, Max following silently behind him.

“Hey! We’re home, come say hi to our guest.” Delsin yelled, and soon enough a scrawny looking kid in a hoodie similar to Max’s came shambling out the hallway to the right.

“Oh… hey.” He mumbled, as he half-heartedly waved at the two of them. “Who’s this?” He asked, his words obviously still pointed at Delsin.

“You can just ask her, you know…” Delsin sighed.

Max let out a light chuckle. “I’m Max.” She said, flashing a weak smile at him.

“You can introduce yourself too.” Delsin said, walking up to the kid as he put a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh yeah, I’m Eugene.” He replied. “Are you a-”

“Yeah, she’s a conduit, don’t worry.” Delsin explained. “By the way, do you know where Fetch is? She told me she wanted to talk.”

“Uhm, I’m not sure. I think she said she was-” He was cut off once again, this time by a sudden flash of light and the sound of the front door slamming open. They all turned their heads to the new figure in the room.

“I’m here.” She said, standing in the doorway, arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

“I assume you’re Fetch?” Max asked.

“Who’s this chick?” Fetch asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’m Max, nice to meet you too… ”

“She’s here for our help.” Delsin explained as he stepped in front of Max.

“Help with what? We’re busy enough with our own shit.” Fetch asked. "Look, Delsin, I need you right now, okay?"

"Abby? Seriously? In front of our gu-" Before Delsin could finish, the girl disappeared in the same flash of light she appeared in, leaving a trail of purple lights behind.

Delsin sighed, before turning to Max.

"I'm sorry, I'll be back in a second. Go play Guilty Gear with Eugene, he’s been needing some fresh blood to play against anyway." He said as he was already jogging out the door.

When Delsin got outside, all he found was the residue of a recent light speed dash. It didn’t take him long to figure out where Abigail had hidden herself away.

She had only just arrived at the top of the giant billboard she used to call home, when another figure appeared in a blur of neon. As the blue and purple light dissipated and revealed Delsin, she let out a sigh, sitting down against one of the walls.

“Hey Abby. What’s got your temper all tantrum-ing?” He asked as he sat down on the spot next to her.

“D.” Fetch sighed, letting her head drop back against the billboard behind her. “You really have a way with words. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“I like to think I do.” Delsin chuckled. “So, again, what’s up?”

Fetch stayed silent for a few moments, pondering her words carefully, her eyes darting across the night sky as her brain wracked itself for a sentence. Eventually her mind settled.

“I’ve been thinking of my brother again.” She mumbled, her eyes still fixated on the far away stars. “And thinking of my brother led me to-”

“Akurans.”

“Yep.” Fetch confirmed with a sigh. “My… anger just took over. I was gonna take it out on a group of Akurans I’d been stalking all night, after watching them extort all those drug addicts and selling them blow mixed with whatever they could find up their asscracks. But…”

“But you didn’t?”

“Nope.”

“… not to awaken any belated murderous feelings, but, why?”

“Because I remembered you. And I remembered how you would think of me if I did. So I just… gave you a call, and I walked away.”

“Oh.” He replied. “Well, uh, no need to thank me.” Fetch laughed at his response.

“Wasn’t gonna do that anyway, don’t worry.” She said, rolling her eyes at his faux-arrogance. “We should go home, right?”

“Yeah, we should.” Delsin mumbled, as he rested his own back against the side of the billboard. “Just… five more minutes, right?”

Fetch chuckled. “Yep, five more minutes.”

Chapter Text

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Language, Miss Chase.”

Victoria let out a grunt. “What do you mean, Mr. Smith?” She snarked back at him. The man let out an annoyed sigh as he leaned back in his leather chair. He sat opposite Victoria, his legs beneath his desk as he held her pictures in his hand.

“Look, you’ve been working with us for a while, but the pictures you’ve been bringing us recently are just… “ Chet looked down at the pictures he held in his hand. “… this just really isn’t news material.”

“This town is a boring shithole, there’s not a lot happenin-”

“Not a lot happening? The DUP have just pulled out of Seattle, there are super humans walking around the streets, and you call that not a lot? There are stories all around this town, you just have to find them.”

“I’m not a war photographer! What do you expect me to do, go around starting fights with-”

“Victoria.” Chet cut her off, as she just resorted to a frustrated sigh. “I don’t care what you do. You either get us some pictures that are actually newsworthy, or you can keep bringing us this garbage and get paid what you deserve, got it?”

“But-”

“We don’t pay you to make excuses.”

With gritted teeth hidden behind pursed lips, Victoria stared Chet down. Yet as his stoic, uncaring face stared back at her… she realized that was going to get her nowhere. “… fine.” She conceded. Chet put the photographs down on his desk, as he handed Victoria a stack of 100 dollars.

“That’s all you get.” Chet replied, Victoria pocketing the bills as she left the man’s office. “Now get out of here. I’ll see you next week.”

“Whatever.”

Victoria was walking home from The Seattle Reporter offices, her arms crossed and anger boiling inside her at a temperature resembling that of the sun’s surface.

It’s been three years since Blackwell. Victoria thought to herself. Three shitty fucking years since my parents cut me off from… basically everything. So long Chase fortune, hello working my ass off just to afford dinner.

She’d persisted off of freelance photography work for the past three years, but the Reporter had been her main moneymaker for most of that. And now even they were blowing her off? Things were only getting worse on the Chase train, it seemed.

Her train of thought was abruptly cut off when someone bumped into her, shoulder’s hitting each other, and almost making Victoria trip. She was about to chew them out, when the sight of the person’s face caught her off guard. The figure and their companion just kept walking, almost like they didn’t even register her existence. But the medium long brown hair and freckled face that just crossed her path made Victoria freeze right where she stood.

Is that…

Max Caulfield?

Victoria didn’t dare to let her gaze linger on the girl. She was terrified of those doe eyes staring back at her if she tried to sneak another peek. She wasn’t even sure which part would freak her out more. If it wasn’t her it would just be an awkward moment, but if it was… she didn’t wanna think about it. As she heard the two pairs of feet round the corner of the street, she could finally breathe again.

What the fuck is Max Caulfield doing in Seattle?

That twee,

fake deep,

bitch.

Victoria’s right hand balled up into a fist as she pictured Max’s face. Burning feelings still lasting after so many years, almost taking control of her. She resisted the urge to embed her fist into the nearest wall, and managed to persuade her legs to take her forward again.

What is she even doing here? She pondered. Last I heard she moved to Portland for… whatever bullshit thing she was studying. I haven’t heard anything about her since… Victoria took notice of what she was doing, seething at the thought of someone she hadn’t seen in ages, stopped in her tracks by someone she used to hate.

This is so pathetic. She scolded herself. Get a fucking move on.

After getting home and hanging her thin cardigan on the coat rack perpendicular to her door, Victoria crashed down onto her small apartment’s one and only couch. She let out a sigh of exhaustion and slipped her camera out of her bag, holding onto it as she sat.

“Not newsworthy.” Victoria mumbled in mocking tones, letting out a frustrated groan as she sank deeper into her couch. Her mind wandered back to the encounter she’d just had. She couldn’t really explain the emotional outburst it gave her. She wasn’t even sure if that was really Max, or just a random girl with brown hair.

As if anyone else would willingly wear that ridiculous haircut. She weakly justified herself. A memory in her head resurfaced, and she got up from the couch to go to her room. She pulled her unwilling legs forward, past the sofa, down to the corner of the living room and into her bedroom.

She dug through her wardrobe to find her old yearbook from her final year at Blackwell. She’d stuffed it all the way in the back of her closet when she’d moved into this apartment, and pretty much forgotten it even existed. Upon eventually find it, she blew the dust off the cover and went to sit down on the edge of her single bed.

Flipping through the pages of the mementos of a life that she felt she’d lived ages ago, she managed to remember most of the faces she came across.

Taylor, Dana, Brooke, that Graham nerd, N-

Her finger stopped as it hovered over Nathan Prescott’s picture. She hadn’t per se forgotten about him, more like… consciously subdued his memory, pushed him to the back of her psyche. Wanting to forget about him after what he did to that blue-haired girl, and all the shit that came out about him and Jefferson. Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was something else.

Chloe… that was her name. Victoria recalled, as her mind wandered to the blue haired girl. Before she could let her thoughts trail off more, she moved on again, searching for a specific picture.

There she is.

Her eyes landed on the image of Max Caulfield. This settled it. That girl had to have been Max Caulfield. She didn’t manage to get a very good look, but she looked almost identical to this picture, if a little older. More than that, though, she just felt that it had to have been Max. It was a weird feeling, but it was the feeling Max had always given off to everyone. She wouldn’t ever ask anyone directly, at risk of making it apparent that she did think of Max outside of their occasional mouth battles, but she just knew everyone got that vibe.

Arguments. Victoria thought. They’re called arguments.

But it was obvious. Max was special. Not that Victoria would ever call her that.

Not in a positive light, anyway.

Everyone knew there was something going on with her. She was way too nice, she was brave, she was smart, she was-

She was miss fucking perfect. Victoria thought, as she fingered the bottom of the page with her thumb, the very real option of tearing it right out of the book creeping into her mind. She decided against the idea, letting go of the paper. She didn’t really dig up this book just to confirm what she already knew, though. There was somethin-

Her attention was suddenly diverted by a bright flash of light outside her apartment. For a moment, light filled her room. Her eyes shot towards her window, and she caught a glimpse of light beams flying into the air along with the sound of gunshots a few blocks away.

“I’m not a war photographer… “ Her past self—as much as you can call a few hours ago the past—had said. With a sigh, she snatched her camera off the table she’d placed it on.

You’re gonna love this one, Chet.

Chapter Text

“Why are we on the roof again?” Max asked, staring at Delsin as he stood at the edge of the roof. She never really liked being on top of rooftops ever since… that week that never happened. Admittedly, it wasn’t like they were on top of a skyscraper or anything, but Jesus Christ if it wasn’t still terrifying.

“It’s a prime place to train your abilities. No one to interrupt us, lots of open space to fight and train in, I could go on but it’d bore you to death.” Delsin explained as he leaned over the edge to look down, almost giving Max a heart attack. “Like I said, perfect.” He continued, still looking over the edge with his hands in his pockets.

“Could you maybe… step back a bit?” Max asked cautiously.

“Why?”

“I don’t want you to fall?”

“You can rewind, right? Just save me. Besides, even if I fall, I’ll be fin-”

Jinx

Almost like he was tempting fate, Delsin slipped-

Almost like he was tempting fate, Delsin slipped. But before he could fall down and hit the pavement, Max caught him by his collar. She pulled him back onto the roof and away from the edge.

“Thanks for that one.” Delsin said as he brushed his collar straight again.

“Was that on purpose?”

“What?”

“Like…a test?”

“Well… no, it wasn’t, but that does make me sound super smart, so please go ahead and assume it was.” Delsin replied with a chuckle. “Your real training begins now.”

“Finally.” Max mumbled.

“It’s obvious that you haven’t used your powers in a while, and that you’re kinda… rusty.” He began explaining, pacing side to side in front of Max with his hands behind his back.

Understatement of the century.

“So before we get into improving your abilities, let’s get you more in control of what you have at the moment.”

“Yeah, that sounds reasonable.” Max replied. “What’s the plan?”

“I’ve got some ideas.” Delsin said, smoke plumes beginning to rise up from the creases between his fingers. “You ever play dodgeball?”

“That went well.” Delsin mumbled, his mouth stuffed with a burger from a place downtown from their training area. Max and Him sat at a small table outside of the place as they ate their lunch.

“You think so?” Max said, her headache spiking again as she pressed her hand against her forehead.

“I didn’t say it went perfectly.” He replied as he swallowed down a bite. “I think I might have pushed you a little far for the first time.”

“You think?” She retorted, refraining from yelling so as to not worsen her headache. She took a few fries off her plate as Delsin began speaking again.

“You showed a little bit of skill, and you were slowly getting better. Once you really have your powers under control again, we can start training them further.”

“And I assume that’s not yet?”

“Yep.” Delsin replied, Max sighing in response. “You just need to get back in the swing of things, that’s all. Which shouldn’t take too long, I reckon.”

After they finished their lunch, they decided to head back to the apartment. On the way back, Delsin and Max talked non-stop.

“Even after we chased the DUP out of here and got Augustine locked up, things haven’t magically become perfect in this town.” Delsin explained to Max. “We’re not being actively hunted any more by a pseudo-government agency with the funding of the U.S. Army, which is great. But being a conduit in public is still… not great. Not everyone’s an asshole, but people can be cruel, especially here in Seattle.”

“That’s… jeez.” Max replied.

“Jeez?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Max replied with a chuckle. “It’s just… back in Arcadia Bay, when I first discovered my powers… I tried to keep them hidden,. sure. But I never knew all this… shit could’ve been going on. It just feels crazy to me.”

“Makes sense. It wasn’t like they were raiding every little town in the country, even nearing the end of their tenure. Not that they tried to work in the shadows or anything, but they had a pretty good standing with a bunch of major organizations in the country. And if I remember your story correctly, there wasn’t even anything that would’ve set them off to you being a conduit. Pretty much everything you did erased itself.”

“Yeah, that checks out.” Max admitted, as she put her hands in her hoodie pockets. “It’s just, I-”

Max cut herself off when someone bumped into her. For a second their eyes crossed, and they seemed to be… well, no better way to describe it other than pissed. The other person quickly looked away, and only a split second later, they seemed to be speeding around the corner as fast they could without outright running away.

Huh,

weird.

Max sighed as she fell down onto her new bed, the tiredness from her training finally getting to her.

The apartment wasn’t huge, but they were lucky to all have separate bedrooms. She put her hands under her head. Her headache had subsided, but she could still kind of feel it. She really just needed some rest after today.

This is gonna be hard. She thought to herself. But I have to do this.

For Chloe.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, planning to watch a few YouTube videos before going to bed. A ritual she'd developed on sleepless nights in the past three years. As she opened her YouTube app, she suddenly got a text.

heartshapedbox: Are you still up?

catcherinthewhy: yeah?

heartshapedbox: I need you outside real quick.

catcherinthewhy: whoops i just fell asleep

heartshapedbox: Haha, funny.

heartshapedbox: Come ooooon, this is pretty important. This could seriously help you improve your powers much quicker.

catcherinthewhy: hmmmmmm

catcherinthewhy: fine

catcherinthewhy: let me put on some pants

She let out an annoyed groan, as she closed her eyes.

Five more minutes.

“So what are we doing here?”

“Just a little exercise in your powers. Fetch and I go on alternating patrols around the city, break up fights between Conduits and other people, help out people getting robbed, that kind of thing.”

“Superhero stuff?”

“Yeah, superhero stuff.”

“Sounds… fun.” Max replied.

As they kept walking, Max could hear a flurry of voices coming from a nearby alley.

“Can you hear th-” Delsin shushed her, before nodding in agreement.

“Follow me.” He whispered, as the two of them ventured into the darkness of the alleyway. They snuck through the shadows, and as they went further, the voices came closer, until Max could just about make out a few sentences.

“Why’s the boss here with us tonight, anyway?”

“I don’t know man, something about ensuring quality for himself. Why do you care so much, anyway…”

Once they got close enough they could make out the silhouettes in the darkness of the alley. There were four figures standing in a semi-circle around someone on their knees, arms behind their back like they’d been tied up.

Suddenly, Delsin snapped his fingers, and his hand lit up in neon light, lighting up the whole alley. Max watched as he confidently carried himself to the center of the space. The four—now revealed to be wearing some type of paramilitary uniform—all looked his way.

“I figured the Raven would grace us with his presence sooner or later.” One of the figures exclaimed, as they stepped forward. The figure was significantly taller than the other 3, standing wider as well. But the armor plating on his outfit was noticeably sparser, as if he saw himself above the need for protection.

“Seems like my nickname’s picking up some steam, cool.” Delsin replied with a chuckle. “I gues you guys are finally understanding that you need to be scared of me, whoever you are.”

The figure in front chuckled along.

“I’m not scared of you, Rowe.”

“Guess you have a worse survival instinct than the assholes I usually fight.” Delsin retorted, before turning back to Max. “Just stay back and focus on getting their prisoner to safety, got tha-” He was cut off by the impact of a fist striking him across the face, his body slamming to the ground.

“Guess you have a worse survival instinct than the assholes I usually fight.” Delsin retorted, before turning back to Max. “Just stay back, and-”

“Yeah I got it!” Max shouted at him. “Watch out!”

“For what?” He asked as he turned back, just being able to dodge the punch headed right for his face.

“Uh, thanks for that one!”

“No problem!” Max yelled. “Now go!”

Chapter Text

Why didn’t I grab something thicker?

That was the thought that dominated Victoria’s mind as she dashed across dark streets illuminated by weak lights. Her thin blouse wasn’t enough to keep her warm on such a cold night, not even the adrenaline from the situation she was in could keep her adequately heated. She pushed those thoughts away, however, turning her camera on as she slipped into the alley that contained all the action.

She was lucky that, somehow, she hadn’t been spotted yet. Maybe she was just that good at hiding behind a dumpster and taking pictures, or perhaps they were preoccupied with… beating each other to death’s door. That was the least of her concern, however. She was just trying to get a grip on the situation. After a while she recognized one of the combatants as Delsin Rowe.

The “Raven of Seattle”, or something like that. She really didn’t get this whole conduit thing, but the DUP was really annoying so she was at least glad he had gotten them out of there. All those checkpoints, my god, they had made her miserable.

Two bodies had already been laid out, while Delsin was still keeping busy with another two of the individuals. They were some kind of paramilitary squad, distinctly not DUP but unidentifiable otherwise, though Victoria couldn’t place who or what organization they belonged to. All she could tell is that they were definitely well-equipped.

Some more seconds later she realized Rowe wasn’t fighting alone, there was someone else helping him. Whoever they were, they were really well cloaked by the shadows and didn’t seem to be helping very much with the battle itself. They didn’t even seem to be getting hit by anything at all, like they were weaving between stray bullets and missed punches.

She needed to get closer. One part because she needed to to get better pictures, but her curiosity was also getting the better of her. This was the most exciting thing she’d probably ever done, or ever would get to do. Definitely the most dangerous, if anything. Doubt itched away at her brain for a moment, but after some not-so-careful deliberation, she pushed those thoughts aside.

Let’s just fucking do it.

“Come on, get out of here!” Max assured the conduit as she loosened their binds. In the commotion of Delsin holding off their kidnappers, Max had managed to free the two people the soldiers had kidnapped. Although the reason why they were doing it alluded her for the moment, she pushed the thoughts aside as she focused on the moment.

“Thank you so much!” The conduit exclaimed as they ran away. Max quickly got up from her knees as she focused her attention back on the alleyway. Max just dodged out of the way of a stray neon beam as Delsin knocked out one of the soldiers, his body slamming against the wall and cracking it in the process. At least, that’s what she thought that sound was.

That’s two left. Max counted to herself as she rushed back into the alleyway to help Delsin.

Delsin dodged under a punch from one of the paramilitaries, taking the opportunity and blasting the soldier in the chest with a blast of neon. As his opponent flew back and slammed down on the ground, his gun fired a shot, whistling past Max’s head.

Delsin turned his head to see if Max was fine, as she threw a thumbs up to signal that she was indeed fine. Suddenly, Max heard a high-pitched scream behind her, turning her head to see who or what it was. As she did, she could see a figure just a bit behind her dropping to the floor. She had no idea who they were, or why they were here, but she knew one thing.

They just got shot.

Without thinking any further, Max knew what she needed to-

Delsin dodged under a punch from one of the paramilitaries, and as he was doing that, Max turned around and managed to make out the figure in the shadows, crouched beside a dumpster. Not knowing what to really do, she tackled the figure before the gun fired. They both fell down to the floor, and Max could hear the bullet that previously hit them tearing a hole through the air where they had previously stood, hitting a wall a few feet away and sputtering to a halt.

As her breathing slowly returned from its adrenaline-fueled state, Max finally looked down at the civilian she’d just saved from a bullet. As she crossed the gaze of their blue eyes and caught a glimpse of the figure’s short blonde hair, it felt like a lump got stuck in Max’s throat. Her breath hitched as she realized who the person beneath her was.

The person that she just saved from a bullet.

The same person that bumped into her earlier that day.

The person she’d been trapped in Jefferson’s red room with all those years ago, although in a reality that never came to fruition. A reality that never really happened. It was-

“Victoria?”

“M-Max?”

These were the first words that stumbled out of Victoria’s mouth after the ordeal that just happened. After getting slammed down to the floor, after almost getting hit by a bullet, after feeling the back of her head hit the hard floor. All she could think about was the person that just slammed her to the ground to save her. All she could think about were those doe eyes and those stupid freckles.

Her mouth opened slightly to say something. Probably something snarky, “You still have that dork ass hair cut? Couldn’t you just let me get shot instead of having to see that again.” Something like that, probably.

But she didn’t say anything. Not that she had much time to do much of anything. Nor the energy. She might not have died, but she still hit the floor hard enough to give her a nasty headache. As her lips closed again, Max turned her head at a sound behind her. Victoria focused her gaze on the same thing Max was looking at. The scene she laid her eyes upon was… seemingly not good.

Delsin was on the floor against the alley wall, the leader of the paramilitary squad standing over him.

“Worse survival instincts, right?” He said, letting out a soft chuckle as he raised his pistol to Delsin’s head.

“How… “ He raised his head, staring down the barrel of the gun. “… did you do that?”

“It’s a secret, and I’m sure you’d just love knowing it.” The man replied, as Delsin raised his right arm at the man. “Oh yes, try it again!” He cheered Delsin on. The blue and purple shine lit up around the silhouette of his hand… and dimmed again almost immediately. His powers had been zapped. For the first time in a good while, Delsin felt completely and utterly powerless.

“That was fun.” The man said. “But let’s get this over with, I don’t need you or your friends in my way.” He continued, cocking the hammer on his revolver back as he aimed the weapon at Delsin’s forehead.

At that moment, Victoria had no idea why she did it. She didn’t even know what exactly she did. But the instant Victoria saw the man pull back the hammer of his revolver, she raised her hand in his direction, her movements happening on their own like a woman possessed.

And like butter in a hot pan, the metal revolver melted into a puddle of hot steel.

“You piece of shit...” The man groaned through gritted teeth in painful anguish as he stepped back from Delsin. She could see the molten metal searing the flesh of his hand, smoke rising into the sky as the bright orange glow lit up the alley.

And as Victoria saw this whole scene unfold, she also noticed something else. She noticed her vision become blurry and unfocused. She raised her hand up to her face to confirm her suspicions, and as her vision became even less decipherable, her consciousness slowly started checking out. As she lowered her hand, the last image her eyes captured was the vague outline of a worried look on Max’s face.

And then everything turned black.

Chapter Text

“Fuuuuck.” Max huffed as she sat down on the concrete roof her and Delsin were training on. They’d been at it for the past 2 hours or so, and Max was both physically and chronologically exhausted. Her head was pounding out of her skull, and she felt like a nosebleed was on the horizon if she were to go any further.

Her self-proclaimed coach sat down next to her, handing her a cold water bottle.

“Bringing that ice box was a good idea.” Max complimented him, taking a sip of her water as they stared at the 4 O'clock skyline.

“I’m pretty good at having good ideas,” Delsin replied as he opened his own bottle. They both sat there, resting in silence for a good few moments. Eventually, though, Delsin broke the silence.

“Say… who was that girl last night?”

“What girl?”

“The one you tackled to the floor, you know, the one that melted the gun in that guy’s hand before passing out? That girl? You said her name.”

Max let out a sigh. She already knew who he was talking about, Victoria Chase. The same girl she’d bumped into earlier last night, and the same girl that would probably make her life a living hell again if she had the power to.

“That was… Victoria.” It wasn’t like Max struggled to remember her name, she just wasn’t sure if this was a path she wanted to go down.

“Victoria?”

“Victoria Chase.”

“Wait, Chase as in… Chase Space? As in, the biggest art gallery in town? As in, the super rich family?” He asked incredulously.

“Yep, that Chase, also as in the biggest bully at Blackwell Academy.” She replied. “I haven’t seen her in years.”

“And you just… happened to know her address?”

“I just looked at her Instagram to check if she tagged one of her posts with her address, I’m not a creep.” She replied, disregarding the fact that she had low-key been social media stalking a few of her Blackwell alumni. Nothing super creepy, though. And never Victoria.

“Whatever you said.” Delsin teased. Max rolled her eyes.

“She wasn’t like this last time I saw her, though.”

“She wasn’t a conduit?”

“Yeah. She never showed anything like that back at Blackwell, as far as I knew I was the only person in town with any superpowers. Not that that was really a thing I could’ve really asked anyone.”

“Well, obviously that wasn’t the case. I don’t know what her power was exactly, but the fact that she basically melted that guy’s gun is enough to tell me that it wasn’t some weak sauce stuff. How can a conduit that powerful just stay hidden like that?”

“Talking about that guy,” Max started. “How did he get you? Was he a conduit too?”

“That’s the weirdest part.” He said, his tone laced with a sense of genuine confusion. “He did some kind of crazy magic move and disabled my powers when he touched me. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Wait, like, seriously?”

“I was basically defenseless, he probably would’ve killed me if that Chase girl didn’t eviscerate his gun and burn his hand.” He said with a chuckle. “It’s kind of lucky, now that I’m thinking back. Only unfortunate part is that he got away.”

“Really is.” Max said. “Do you think we’ll run into them again?”

“I don’t really know. We might, but taking them on isn’t your responsibility. It’s mine.”

“Well… as long as I am here, there’s no hurt in helping you guys out, right?”

“That’s true.” Delsin said, a smile on his face. “But we don’t have to focus on that right now, let’s get back to your training.”

“Wait, we’re not done yet?”

“We were taking a break!” Delsin said, as he jumped up to his feet. Max let out a groan as she got up.

“How much longer?”

“Another hour.”

“Ugh…”

“Or two…”

“UGH!”

“Oh come on!” Eugene shouted at his monitor, as his screen lit up with the words Counterterrorists Win.

Eugene was generally more of an MMO guy, but after a while you get sick of farming trash mobs and running around the same open world waiting for the next content drop. And trying out other games is fun in that meantime. So far, CS:GO seemed fun, despite him being terrible at it and having no friends to play it with.

Not that he had much to do otherwise.

In the team that consisted of him, Del, and Fetch, he was really not that much of a ground unit. He was more of an intel guy, collecting info and data for his team. It wasn’t like his powers were useless out in the field. Quite the opposite, in fact. It just wasn’t his forté. He could get rough when it came to it, but he much preferred staying inside without the stress of fighting in person. If push came to shove, he could send a platoon of angels to help, but he wasn’t really one for patrolling.

As the match ended, the door of his room opened. Footsteps quickly approached from behind, and a voice spoke up before he could turn around to see who it was.

“What’s up, E?” Fetch said, putting her hands on the headrest of his chair. He pulled the headset off his head, although his eyes wouldn’t dare leave the screen in front of him.

“Not much.”

“Are you busy right now?”

“What’s it look like?”

“Don’t get smart with me.” She said, ruffling his hair. “I need your research skills. Gotta look into some suspicions of mine.”

“What kinda stuff?” He asked, alt-tabbing out of the game to open his web browser of choice.

“Hmmm.” She mumbled, trying to think of a good way to phrase what she was looking for. “Paramilitaries attacking conduits in or around the Seattle area, something like that.”

“Is this about the guys that attacked Delsin and Max?”

“I… yeah. I need to know more about them.”

“Why?”

“That’s none of your business, now get to googling, E.” Eugene rolled his eyes, as his fingers got to work. He opened a few tabs and dragged them onto his other screen, looking at different posts and reports that mentioned conduit attacks or conduits going missing. There really wasn’t a lot to go off, mostly social media posts and blog posts from worried relatives and friends of conduits, but nothing concrete.

“Find anything?”

“Not really. People around the city have seen things close to your description, but only glimpses, and no one knows anything about them. It’s weird, you’d think a paramilitary force kidnapping people would get more attention, but I guess they’re working more covertly than we thought.”

“No names?”

“Well, I found one name.” He said, as he highlighted a specific tab containing a missing person's report.

“What’s his deal?”

“Apparently, this guy was kidnapped by these PMCs. They just dragged him into an alley, straight off the street. For some reason they thought he was a conduit, and they started interrogating him, or just explaining their plan around him. It’s hard to tell, it wasn’t written very well.”

“Ok, and then?”

“Well, they started talking about where they were supposed to take him, when this guy told them he wasn’t even a conduit. Of course, they didn’t believe him, so they scanned him with some device. When they started arguing with each other, he managed to get away.”

“Really? Like that? Dude must’ve been kidnapped by the F-team or something.” She remarked, backing off from Eugene’s chair as he himself spun around to face her.

“Do you need me to send all of this to your phone?”

“That would be dope, I don’t know if I can remember all of that.” She replied, putting an earbud in her ear as her legs started glowing a faint purple. “I got somewhere to go, ring me for dinner, aight?”

“Wait before you g-” She’d already disappeared, only leaving behind a rapidly disappearing trail of purple and blue neon. He let out a sigh, before hearing the sound of CS:GO telling him it’d found a new match. “Whatever.” He mumbled, putting his headset back on.

Chapter Text

“I need another fucking aspirin.” Victoria mumbled, her hand on her forehead as she laid back down in her bed. She’d woken up about 20 minutes earlier with a pounding headache and a nosebleed. When she had made her way to the bathroom she took an aspirin and waited for her nosebleed to stop, which took about 10 minutes. Afterwards she’d gone back to bed, her headache not gone, but at least subsided.

She hadn’t realized before just how hard it was to fall back asleep at 4 AM, when it feels like your brain is trying to kill you. And worst of all, she couldn’t stop thinking about last night. Not like much of it had stuck around. Her memories were like swiss cheese, she could remember a few things, but the visages were riddled with holes. Only a few key things remained.

I remember taking pictures. She thought to herself, turning her head to her nightstand to look at her camera. That’ll probably be good enough for Chet. Probably better than any of the shit the other photographers get him. She boasted to herself. She pulled the camera off her nightstand to take a quick look at the pictures.

“Fuck…” Victoria groaned as she scrolled past the first few pictures. “The exposure is all fucked. And it’s so shaky, you can barely tell what’s going on.” She said, clicking through to the next few pictures. “I guess they’re not all bad, though. This one is great.”

The picture was of Delsin, in the middle of fighting off two of the soldiers at the same time. The lighting was perfect, the focus was on point, and the framing seemed almost poetic, displaying Delsin as a benevolent being raining light down on the forces of darkness portrayed by the militaristic outfits of his opponents. One could almost call it artistic if it wasn’t taken for a stupid paper. She dropped her camera on the pillow next to her head as she stared back at the ceiling.

Just then, another memory from the preceding night returned to the front of her mind.

Max fucking Caulfield. I thought I saw her earlier that day, but the girl that tackled me in that alley, the girl that saved me from a bullet for whatever reason. That was really her. Another thing struck her. Something about the girl was off. She had no idea why, but for some reason her brain told her it had to be true.

Max Caulfield was a conduit. She had no proof, she had no evidence to even decide this, but it explained everything. It explained the weird aura around her, how EVERYONE thought there was something off about that girl.

It explains how she was able to tackle me out of the trajectory of a fucking bullet, at least. She thought to herself. Victoria let her thoughts simmer for a few moments as she stared at the ceiling. She still wasn’t any closer to actually falling asleep, and it was looking like that wasn’t gonna happen any time soon. She tried racking her brain for more memories from the night before, but they didn’t come easy. Everything around the moment she actually passed out was very fuzzy, she only remembered the vague feeling of the pressure of Max’s body pushing her against the floor.

She rubbed the skin of her forehead, closing her eyes to try and focus a little bit more. A tired groan escaped her mouth. Her brain was working overtime. She knew she was forgetting something, something important at that. All her neurons were firing at max capacity.

And she found nothing. She let out an annoyed sigh, as she flipped over on her side. I’m way too fucking tired for this.

I'm glad he actually liked these pictures. She thought to herself, sitting on a chair at her kitchen table as she waited for her coffee machine to finish. I did not have enough caffeine in me to handle rejection like that, and especially so early.

Mid-thought her coffee machine stopped rumbling, and she pushed herself out of her chair and wandered over to the kitchen counter.

Victoria grabbed her now filled coffee mug, taking a big swig to wake herself up. She flinched a bit, letting out a sigh. It’s lukewarm. Stupid coffee machine. She was frustrated, having to refrain from slamming her mug down on the counter. Instead, she slowly lowered the mug onto the counter, consciously holding back any angry tendencies that still lingered.

Despite it being lukewarm, the caffeine at least woke her up a bit, and allowed her to think a bit clearer. She stared a hole into the living room, her thoughts wandering through the front door and back into that alley from last night.

It wasn’t nearly a crystal ball, but her brain was a lot clearer than it had been when she’d woken up from her headache. She remembered taking the pictures more clearly, getting slammed to the floor. She remembered seeing Delsin Rowe fighting those guys.

She remembered seeing him down on the floor, a gun pointed at his head.

She remembered his gun melting in his hand, scorching his skin to a crisp.

I did that. She thought to herself. Victoria’d subconsciously raised her hand, her eyes fixating on it. In her mind’s eye, she pictured herself using some kind of latent superpower to melt a gun to liquid.

There’s no way, you’ve finally lost your mind, Tori. Then, an idea formed itself within her mind, and her eyes moved to the coffee mug on the counter.

She slowly moved her hand towards it, wrapping her digits around the ceramic. She didn’t really have an idea what she was doing exactly, but she knew what she wanted to do. She knew what she needed to prove to herself. To prove that she might be a conduit.

And to heat up my shitty coffee.

Her mind focused on the coffee, almost certainly convinced of the futility of her attempt to heat up a cup of coffee with her mind or superpowers or whatever. After a few moments, her fingers unwrapped themselves from the ceramic. She looked at the mug with bated breath.

As the coffee vapor rose from the mug.

Holy shit. She thought to herself, taking a big swig from the now warm mug. Finally, some good fucking coffee.

You know. Victoria thought, taking a sip of her Starbucks coffee, staring at her phone as she circled the Green Lake Park’s eponymous body of water. For apparently being a big enough threat to warrant a paramilitary force, researching these conduits is incredibly fucking tedious. She was frustrated, annoyed, overworked, tired, more adjectives that apply to the current situation, really I could keep going.

After awakening her apparent powers 2 nights ago, she’d spent the following day lounging off the headache she’d gotten and googling around. She hadn’t gotten much further than the information Rowe had given on the news a few weeks ago after the DUP’s defeat. And speaking of that name, she was getting sick of it. Pretty much every source she found was bound to mention him in some way, positively or negatively, it didn’t matter, it was getting boring.

I haven’t googled this hard since Blackwell. She thought with a small chuckle, taking another sip of her coffee.

The preceding day, she’d also done a little bit of practice with her powers. Nothing much, stuff like heating up her food instead of using the microwave. But it definitely granted her a bit more control over them, and she didn’t mind saving on the electric bill.

That morning, she was almost tempted to stay inside all day again, until she remembered she had an assignment as a wedding photographer. After taking care of that job, she figured getting a coffee and some fresh air might help her figure some stuff out.

No luck so far. She thought with a sigh. Taking the last sip of her coffee, she tossed the empty cup into a nearby trash can, before sitting down at an adjacent bench at the periphery of the lake.

What am I even trying to figure out? Victoria slid her phone back into her pocket, and let her eyes take in the lake that stretched out before her. I know I have these powers now, she thought, looking down at her right hand. So what else am I really looking for? Memories of that news report from a week or so ago resurfaced to the forefront of her consciousness.

“Are Conduits born with these powers?” “Some are born with their powers, but my powers actually awakened when I got into a… scuffle with another conduit… “

She realized that seeing the conduits fight so close to her might have awakened her powers, but she still felt like she was missing something. Her eyes wandering past the small waves and gatherings of different types of birds along the surface of the waters, her thoughts continued to simmer.

I can heat stuff up with my hands, amazing. What else am I really trying to find? I can just forget about this. Go back to taking pictures for whoever will give me the biggest paycheck, spend all day alone envying all my old classmates on Instagram, living for no one but myself and for nothing at all. Just living because it’s what I’ve always been told to do. Living a dead-end life for the sake of it all.

She thought back to Delsin… and Max as well. The two of them fighting off whoever those guys were. Really living, putting their lives on the line for… whatever it was they were fighting for.

But is that really what I want?

Victoria let out a sigh as she leaned back into the backrest of the wooden bench. Her thoughts were leading her down a path she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow. She closed her eyes, conjuring up an image of the brown haired girl she hated all those years ago.

The one who apparently turned out to be a conduit all those years ago. The one who always had to one up her in some way, and always did. And always acted like she had no clue she was doing it. Always acting like a shy, nonchalant, hipster loser.

She opened her eyes again to stare at the blue sky above her. The horizon colored a beautiful light blue, as a faint orange was starting to crawl its way through the cracks. She never liked still life much, and Caulfield’s apparent affinity for it almost made her hate it. But even she had to admit that there was a beautiful shot right in front of her. The way the rays of the sun were reflecting on the lake in front of her, the cloudless sky above her. It shaped a heavenly image of her current surroundings.

Despite that, she didn’t even think about opening her camera bag. She felt listless. Lifeless.

Her mind wandered back again, to the prospect of using her powers, for… good. For something. For anything. Practicing with them, training them, learning a new skill again. Finding some kind of road off of the one she was on right now. Finding anything else.

I just wouldn’t know where to start. She thought. Or do I? She slid the phone back out of her pocket. Oh, Victoria, you’re so smart.

Thanks, Tayl- thanks… me.

She let out a sigh and scrolled to her Instagram app.

That was depressing.

Chapter Text

“Where’s Delsin gone, anyway?” Max asked Fetch. Normally, her and Delsin’s training sessions took place on top of a rooftop close to their apartment complex. But the purple-haired speedster had taken her to what seemed like an abandoned swimming pool just outside the city.

“He’s taking my patrols tomorrow… and the day after that.” Fetch replied with a grunt as she placed her backpack down against a shoddy-looking ladder. “So I told him I’d help you practice for today in exchange.”

“And why are we… here?” She asked, gesturing at the entire area around her.

“Because Delsin is fucking stupid and thinks he’s being sneaky, but everyone sees him doing his shit up on those rooftops.” She answered, still crouched down and grabbing a few things out of her backpack. “Especially whenever he falls off and embeds himself into the curb.”

“That happens?”

Fetch turned her head with a smirk on her face. “He hasn’t done it around you? He got a fence stuck in his chest once. Spent all morning trying to get it out, eventually me and Eugene had to pull it out of him. Very gory, but also kinda funny.”

Max chuckled as Fetch stood back up to her feet. “So… what are we doing?”

“Well, Delsin had you dodging a lot of his smoke balls, and while that’s probably helping your reaction time, it’s not gonna do you much in a fight. I’m gonna assume you noticed a bit of that in your encounter with those soldiers.”

Max wasn’t entirely willing to admit her combat shortcomings, but… “Yeah, kinda.”

“So, you’ve gotta learn how to go on the offense. How to attack., to go on the offensive.” Fetch explained, disengaging from the crossed-arms stance she’d been in until then and letting her arms drop to her sides. “Now if I wanted to make it boring, I’d teach you how to punch a dummy or some shit. But you and I both know your enemies aren’t gonna be standing still, and they certainly won’t be waiting for you to get all up in their face.”

“So…?”

“So…” A devious smirk returned to Fetch’s face. “Catch me.”

Before Max could inquire as to what she meant with that, Fetch displayed the same thing she did back when they first met, and her entire body enveloped itself in a bright purple neon and she vanished in an instantaneous flash of light.

And barely a second later, a fist materialized out of a cloud of the same-colored light and struck Max right in the face. As she went flying, she raised her hand an-

And barely a second later, a fist materialized out of a cloud of the same-colored light and sailed towards Max’s face at an immense speed. But before it could hit her, she sidestepped the attack.

She turned to face where her attacker should’ve been after, only to spot a vaguely Fetch-shaped neon purple blob that quickly dissipated. Fetch was fast. Much faster than Max was expecting, and certainly a lot faster than Delsin had been with his neon powers.

And Max was expected to catch her.

“Cool”.

Fetch’s barrage continued nigh-instantly, as Max was on the backfoot, forced to dodge every consecutive attack. Luckily, her almost precognition-like time reverse moves allowed her to keep up, but there was no denying that Fetch had been right. She was only dodging, moving out of the way, she wasn’t making her own moves. And eventually, she was gonna get tired enough to slip up.

Probably before Fetch would be.

Another punch, another dodge, and another short breath. The routine was going to run out of effectiveness, but Max didn’t see an alternate path forward. She couldn’t exactly chase after Fetch, seeing as she was much too fast. And whenever she was running, she was incorporeal. Max had tried to grab her in that state, only for her fingers to phase right through the wisps of where Fetch had been a mere moment ago.

Max sidestepped another punch, whereupon she noticed something. Every time Fetch went for an attack, the moment her fist became corporeal, so did her entire body for a split second. Theoretically, she could go for… some kind of attack in that window. She just had to see it coming.

If only she could repeat moments in time at will, huh?

Max saw Fetch’s attack coming this time, and as the fist aimed to knock her face right off, she sidestepped to a smaller degree than she previously had. Quickly, Max’s opportunity arose, and before Fetch could become wholly incorporeal once again, she leapt forward in an attempt to grapple the girl.

Her arms wrapped around Fetch’s upper torso, and they both tumbled into the hard concrete of the pool floor with a communal grunt. Fetch hit the floor back-first, and as she recovered, she found Max sitting on top of her holding her down.

“That was pretty good.” Fetch complimented with a chuckle.

“Was it?”

“You took advantage of my moments of weakness, exploited the opportunities I was trying to take.” Fetch explained. “I mean, your enemies aren’t always gonna be doing the same shit on repeat waiting for you to realize what they’re doing, but it’s a good start.”

Max groaned as she dropped her head down. “A start… “

Fetch laughed. “You thought we were done already?”

“Maybe… “

“And then you did what?” Fetch laughed with a mouth full of cheeseburger.

“We blew up the door!” Max explained with a gleeful smile from the other side of the table outside a small restaurant. “With a homemade bomb. Or, well, lab made I guess.”

Max and Delsin had made it a habit to come to this particular burger joint after every training session, a ritual she had now introduced Fetch to.

“Small town kids do some crazy shit, huh?” Fetch asked.

“Guess Seattle never really changed me that much.” Max chuckled, taking a sip from her chocolate milkshake. Putting her shake down, she began feeling egotistical for making her focus on her own stories for the past fifteen minutes, and blurted out an attempt to change the topic without much thought. “What’s your, uh… story, then?”

Smooth, Max. Super smooth.

Fetch cleared her throat as she leaned back in the slightly uncomfortable steel chair. “It’s not the most fun story, I can tell you that.” She sighed.

“Well, if you wanna tell me… “ Max assured her as she leaned forward. “… I’ll listen. And if you don’t, you don’t have to say anything.”

“I’d rather not.” Fetch sighed as she swiped her soda off the table and took a sip. “But it’s only fair after your whole exposition dump, huh?”

Max chuckled. “Touché.”

“So… I was still a teen when I killed my brother.” Fetch said in a voice unnaturally nonchalant for the words that had just left her mouth. “And right after that, I was locked up for… seven years?”

Max could only really gulp at Fetch’s words. Sure, discomfort played a part in her reaction, but not in a judgmental way. It was more like… she just wasn’t sure what to say. Fetch pulled her out of that awkwardness before she had to come up with any words, speaking again, although this time with an amused smile and a chuckle.

“It’s a bit much for lunch, right?”

“True that.” Max replied with another chug of her milkshake. “All of my stuff’s a nothingburger compared to the two sentences you just said.”

“Eh, we’ve all got our own shit. No point in a trauma-dick measuring contest. Besides, watching your girlfriend die over and over again is still pretty fucked up.” Fetch replied. “I guess… the important thing is that you go on, learn from all that shit, and live on in spite of it, right?”

In her innermost, Max knew Fetch was right. That was what she was trying to do, right? Move on from the bad hand life dealt her, and turn destiny back in her favor. Go above and beyond to learn from her mistakes and also fix them.

“You’re right.” Max mumbled as her tongue absentmindedly played with the straw in her mouth. “Easier said than done, huh?”

Fetch chuckled.

“Sure is.”

“I think I’m kinda starting to like this place.” Max mumbled to herself, before taking a spoon of cereal into her mouth. She was spending her morning in the kitchen of their apartment with nothing to do but eat breakfast. She would have to get a part time job soon if she was gonna stay much longer, Delsin had told her that. They all had one they worked at outside of their patrol routes and other superhero shit, the apartment didn’t pay for itself. But she’d look for one later, she had other stuff to deal with.

She scrolled through her Instagram feed. Vignettes of friends she hadn’t spoken to in ages, Warren, Brooke. They all looked happy, fulfilled in some way Max hadn’t in a long time. In a way she certainly wasn’t feeling while slaving away for her psychology degree in Portland. For a second, she wondered what Victoria had been up to during that time. She tried to dampen her curiosity, not let it get to her head. But it was way too early for that.

She hadn’t even had any coffee yet.

Eventually Max cracked, and typed Victoria’s username into the Instagram search bar. queenchase, of course. She thought to herself with a chuckle.

Her page contained … well, mostly selfies. Hypocrite. She thought to herself, contemplating the idea of commenting ‘go fuck your selfie’ under one of them. Forgive and forget, Max. Forgive and forget.

Max absent-mindedly kept scrolling through Victoria’s page, picture after picture and post after post showing off how well she was doing. Who fucking cares. She caught herself thinking. Although the thought didn’t exactly stop her from scrolling further. If anything, she kept going for quite a while.

Eventually, she clicked on one specific picture. The date revealed the pic to be from one year ago, almost on the dot. It was a selfie of Victoria making some kissy lips towards the camera, while another girl sat beside her. The other girl wore her pitch black hair longer on one side with a side buzz on the other, and a piercing through her bottom lip. An aesthetic that highly contrasted Victoria’s. She sported a more casual smile, her head rested on Victoria’s shoulder as she threw up a lazy peace sign.

Swiping the picture to the right, a new image showed itself like the next frame in a video sequence. The black haired girl now had her lips pressed against Victoria’s cheek, as Victoria looked at the camera with an expression of faux-shock. They looked, as much as Max regretted saying it, very cute.

She has a girlfriend? Were the first thoughts that crossed through Max’s mind, but she quickly shook her head at them.

Why do I care?

She quickly pushed the thought away, and she was about to do the same to Victoria’s page. But as her thumb went for the top left corner of her screen, it lightly brushed the like icon, and before she knew it-

Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, oh shit, oh fuck. Max panicked, sitting up in her chair as she quickly undid the damage. I just liked her fucking post, oh my god- Her thoughts were interrupted by a notification. More specifically, a DM, from Victoria herself. She quickly opened it, hoping she could explain the situation without coming off as weird.

queenchase: Max? Is this your account?

catcherinthewhy: uh

catcherinthewhy: who’s askin

catcherinthewhy: ?

queenchase: What?

queenchase: I know this is you, I was just trying to be polite.

queenchase: Firstly, I wanted to

queenchase: How do I say this?

queenchase: This is harder than I thought it’d be.

queenchase: Hmph.

catcherinthewhy: take your time cowboy

catcherinthewhy: yeehaw

queenchase: Are you making fun of me?

catcherinthewhy: uh

catcherinthewhy: no i just

queenchase: Look, I just wanted to say… thanks for helping me get home the other day and not like, doing weird shit to me while I was out.

queenchase: I… appreciate it.

catcherinthewhy: oh uh

catcherinthewhy: no problem, seriously (:

catcherinthewhy: also i wasnt making fun of you

queenchase: That’s good.

queenchase: There’s also something else I wanted to say.

queenchase: Or ask, rather.

queenchase: You probably already know that I’m a conduit.

queenchase: Figured it out at the same time that I did.

queenchase: So I wanted to make a request.

catcherinthewhy: what?

queenchase: Can you train me?

catcherinthewhy: huh

Chapter Text

It would be an hour later when Max finally had the reasonable thought to… say anything back to Victoria. It was a pretty benign confirmation that Max would love to help Victoria figure out her abilities, not much more, not much less.

Because saying ‘no, sorry, i’m busy!’ would’ve been too hard, right?

Max let out a sigh as she fell back onto her bed. In a bit, Victoria would be here to… do something. Ostensibly, she’d have to introduce her to Delsin and convince him to help train her. For… what reason, exactly? She wasn’t sure. Not that she’d had much time to mull it over; Victoria was coming soon.

It was about half an hour later when she could hear the front door bell ring from all the way in her bed. With a sigh she slipped off her bed, soft socks making no noise as she stepped across the triplex flooring. And as she began making her way to the door, she could spot Eugene opening the front door and hid behind her bedroom’s half-open door for a bit to watch Victoria before she saw her.

The girl slowly turned her head, ignoring the person who had just opened the door for her, inspecting her surroundings like she was on some kind of alien planet. Her eyes—hidden behind a pair of black-out Ray Ban sunglasses—dragged themselves over every square inch of the place, her face making a multitude of expressions in accordance with how much she did or did not enjoy the thing she was looking at. Eventually, however, from the periphery of her vision, she spotted Max peeking out from behind the door.

As their gazes crossed, Max’s breath hitched. She tried to sweep the involuntary reaction under the rug, deciding to try to play off her totally-not-awkward hiding behind a door by acting as if she’d been walking the whole time.

Max only slightly bumped her arm against the door frame as she stepped into the room.

“There you are!” Max said with a smile that seemed only slightly too forced, and a tone of voice that seemed only slightly too happy.

Victoria seemed confused at the sentiment for only a moment. “Glad to… be here, I guess. Where's Rowe?”

“He’s right here.” Delsin’s voice said as he calmly strode through the front door from behind Victoria. His eyes scanned Victoria for a short period, before turning to Max. “I thought I saw someone knocking on our door from the car. Did you bring her here?”

“She brought herself here, thank you very much.” Victoria snarked back as she turned to face him. “I want you to train me in conduit… stuff.”

Delsin raised an eyebrow. “And your first instinct was to insult me? Not the best plan.” He said, having just a bit too much fun with the mentorly role that had been oh so suddenly thrust upon him.

“You’re rejecting me?” Victoria asked, only causing Delsin to reply with a chuckle.

“It’s not a yes yet.” Delsin corrected her. “Max and I have a mission to go on.”

“We do?”

“Yes we do.” He repeated, turning to face Victoria again. “But, if you’re so hyped to become a stronger conduit, why don’t you come with us?”

Victoria pursed her lips, her eyes scrunching scrutiny before letting out a sigh. “Fine.” She pulled her purse higher up on her shoulder. “When do you guys leave?”

Max wasn’t sure how to feel about Victoria’s sudden intrusion into her plans. On the one hand, more hands on deck was supposed to be a good thing. Especially a pair of hands that could melt metal to a puddle in less than a second.

On the other hand, Victoria was the last person Max wanted to work with, and her sudden eagerness to work with Max was unnerving. It felt like Victoria was playing a prank on her, setting her up only to pull the curtain out from under her again once Max began to trust her.

There was still palpable tension between the two girls as they sat in the backseat of Delsin’s 2003 Chevy Malibu as they drove to the location of their first ever mission. Or, well, Max’s first mission.

The sitch; Delsin and Fetch had, on their patrols in the weeks since Max’d come to Seattle, been coming across an increasing amount of PMCs. And apparently, they had heard one thing repeated over and over again from their encounters with the soldiers all around the city.

They were looking for something called a blast relay shard, and they were coming closer than Delsin and the gang had. But one particular encounter had tipped them off as to where they had been searching.

“Tacoma.” Delsin mumbled. “How did a shard even get all the way over there?”

“Blast relay shards, right?” Victoria asked. “Didn’t the DUP use those in their scanners?”

“Yeah… and pretty much all their tech.” Delsin mumbled, checking his rear view mirror for a second before continuing. “I was pretty sure they hadn’t expanded beyond Seattle’s borders yet, so a shard here is either a mistake or something we missed.”

“Either way, we have to get it first.” Max added on as she stared out the car window. “That’s all that matters.”

Victoria looked over at the brunette for a moment, a confused expression coloring her face. Max had always looked disheveled, meek, hipster-ly. But at that moment she showed a level of determination that Victoria’d never seen the girl display before. And decidedly, not a lick of confusion within her.

“What does it… do? Like, for us?” Victoria asked.

“Upgrade our powers, basically.” Delsin explained from behind the wheel, as Victoria remembered reading something like that the day before. “Used a shit ton of them during my crusade against the DUP, but I’m pretty sure if we can find an intact one we could jump start Max’s powers into super mega overdrive and get her to unlock the next level of her powers.”

Max ignored what the two were talking about and quickly slid her left earbud back into her ear again, once again isolated from the rest of the car. She knew what the plan was, and she wasn’t entirely intent on listening to Victoria blabbering on for the rest of the way to Tacoma.

Once she got her hands on the shard she would, hopefully, never have to talk to Victoria again. Although that was probably wishful thinking. Either way, it seemed to Max that her goal was finally coming within reach. It barely felt like a second later—although it had technically been one whole play of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix later—when Max felt the car sputter to a halt.

She pulled one of the buds out of her ear as Victoria and Delsin were already stepping out of the vehicle. Max quickly followed suit, stuffing her earbuds into her pockets before opening her door and stepping out onto the damp grass. Once she stood fully straight, she began to see where Delsin had taken them.

Surrounded by trees, one of the only landmarks Max could recognize was the infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge, rising up tall behind the treeline. They had parked in a small clearing in a forest adjacent to the bridge, the viridian trees seeming even darker due to the shade provided by night.

“Where are we exactly?” Victoria asked, her tone snobbier than it had been before, although Max still missed some of the venom that used to drip from her voice back at Blackwell.

“Just outside of Tacoma Narrows airport.” Delsin answered as he closed his own car door. He’d cut the lights at some point earlier when they began driving into the woods, and now without the noise of the engine Max felt somewhat… lost.

This place is like a horror movie. She thought. Before she could get more lost, however, Delsin spoke again.

“I’m gonna scout ahead and see if I can find where those PMCs are digging around for the shard. You guys stay here, alright? I’ll call for help when I need you, but I’d rather you guys stay safe for now.”

Victoria wanted to protest at first, but Max figured Delsin knew what he was doing and cut her off before she could.

“Sure.” She mumbled as she zipped her gray hoodie up to her neck to stave off the cold. Delsin nodded back at her, before disappearing into the trees in a puff of dark grey smoke.

For a solid five minutes, the two girls stood there, leaning on opposite sides of Delsin’s red 2003 Chevy Malibu. The silence mixed together with the cold and created an arid and dead environment in the air. Earth felt as if it stood still, and especially for Victoria, it felt weird. Eventually, Victoria found the confidence to speak up, however.

“So, what’s Maxine Caulfield been up to-”

“Max.” Max cut her off. “Never Maxine.”

Victoria dropped her head with a sigh, before shaking it off. “So…what has Max Caulfield been up to?”

A smell of suspicion welled up in Max’s nose as she wondered why Victoria even cared at all about what had happened in the three years since Blackwell. It’s not like they’d ever been friends, at least not in this timeline. But Max obliged her request and mumbled out an answer.

“Psych major. Portland Uni.”

“Huh.” Victoria said. “Not very…. artistic.” She commented.

Max grunted at Victoria’s snooty comment. Jefferson had killed much of her interest in photography, and Victoria’s rubbing in of that fact was not doing much for her mood. Before Max could say anything back, though, Victoria spoke again.

“I had to… drop out a few years ago.”

Now that got Max’s interest. She turned her head towards Victoria, her lips separated in a questioning expression.

“You… dropped out of college?”

Victoria nodded as she pursed her lips, her eyes locked onto the darkness of the woods. “My parents cut me off after Blackwell. Didn’t want me to “leech off their wealth” anymore, that’s what they told me. Said that they wanted me to become more independent.”

Max was… honestly flabbergasted at the blonde’s sudden sensitivity. “That’s… jeez.”

Victoria turned her head to Max, an eyebrow raised as she spoke again. “Did you just say jeez?”

Chapter Text

Delsin’s search for the PMC dig site wasn’t going as well as he wanted. He hadn’t been keeping time per se, but he’d been dashing through the woods in search of clues for at least five minutes. It would’ve been… easier if he’d gotten better intel, but he’d heard through the grapevine (aka, confessions from PMCs before he’d knocked them out) that they were searching for the shard somewhere close.

He just didn’t know where exactly.

Just when he was about to head back to the car, he caught a whiff of something. The sound of a rumbling truck was paired with its headlights cutting a swathe through the trees, fledglings of the light reaching all the way over to him. Delsin stealthily smoke-dashed up a tree, and perched onto one of the thicker branches to watch over the clearing the truck was parked in.

At the edges of the clearing, squads of PMCs were digging holes with shovels, looking for—presumably—the shard. He had no clue how they’d tracked it all the way to here, but Delsin could sense that the shard was somewhere close, which meant they weren’t at the wrong place. After a few minutes of watching, another car came driving into the clearing. Its headlights lit up the clearing, although Delsin managed to remain hidden in the leaves.

The armored car came to a halt in the center of the roughly circle-shaped clearing, and as the doors started opening, Delsin's eyes and ears perked up. Four more PMCs stepped out, but most noticeable was the man that exited from the driver’s side. Gloves covered both his hands, but the back of his helmet-less head was enough for Delsin to recognize him.

It was the same man that he had fought back in the alley.

He closed the door as he walked towards one of the soldiers who was standing there with a tablet. The soldier started talking to him, and Delsin did his best to listen in. Not many of the words made it all the way over to him, but the ones that he did manage to parse were enough.

“… and we’ve almost cleared the entire area, Commander Augustine.”

“So why haven’t we found it yet? Why has no progress been made in four days?” He asked with arms crossed. “Am I in charge of the world’s most incompetent group of…”

Delsin tuned out the rest of his scolding and focused on the name the foot soldier had called him. Augustine… like Brooke Augustine? The DUP Director? The connection didn’t seem entirely unrealistic to Delsin, especially with the actions this new Private Military Company was taking under this new Augustine’s command. Whoever this guy was, if he was related to Brooke he was a bigger deal than Delsin had thought him to be before.

And if Brooke was a conduit, he’s probably one as well. Delsin reasoned. But if he can do that as a conduit… does he not have her concrete shit? Is that how conduits work? Whatever, it doesn’t matter.

Delsin began listening to the Commander’s conversation once again, and his timing was seemingly perfect.

“Ah, so we have made a discovery, have we?” Augustine said in a tone much calmer than he had sounded before. The private opposite Augustine seemed… confused at his superior’s statement, and Delsin himself reflected his sentiment. The flow of the conversation didn’t seem to make any sense, as if Augustine was talking to someone else entirel-

Oh.

He was looking at him.

Max knew something was up when she heard the first gunshot. And then the cacophony of gunshots that followed really made the conclusion easy.

Her head shot up from looking at the ground, before turning to Victoria to see if she had noticed the sudden commotion. Her face spoke volumes of fear, her posture visibly taken aback as her right hand gripped onto the handle of the door she had been standing next to.

“I think that’s our sign.” Max said, as Victoria turned to look back at her.

“We have to go towards the gunshots?!”

Max had to admit, it did sound somewhat, well, insane. But they’d both been in a situation like this before, back in the alleyway with Delsin. And he needed their help now, this is what Victoria came for, wasn’t it?

“Come on, just… follow me.” Max said as she began moving towards the sound, trying to imbue her tone with some sense of confidence. Victoria hesitated for a moment, looking like she wanted to say something, before simply nodding and following behind the brunette. They strode through the woods carefully, as the fighting sounds only became louder and more plural. Max’s own fears were also beginning to increase.

Last time they had managed to fight off a group of four PMCs, and Delsin would’ve probably gotten killed if it weren’t for Victoria. And judging by the sound, it seemed like Delsin was fighting off an army the size of Bulgaria's military. Or a similar country, Max wasn’t exactly an expert on countries and the sizes of their military.

But when the two girls arrived at the clearing Delsin was fighting in, he was doing… slightly better than they had expected him to. Easily two dozen unconscious bodies were restrained by Delsin’s smoke and strewn around the grassy underfloor, as he was handling a few more of the PMCs.

Still hidden behind the trees, Victoria whispered something to Max.

“He looks like he’s got this handled, right?” As they spectated the fight from the non-existent bleachers. Delsin handled himself pretty well against the grunts, but something about the expression on his face ticked Max off.

“No, we can’t just leave him alon-'' Max cut herself off as she finally noticed what had been bugging her about the fight. Piles of unconscious bodies fell to Delsin’s hands, but one had been standing throughout the whole thing, orbiting around the battle like some kind of satellite. The man from back-

“Is that the guy from the alleyway?” Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “What the hell… how is he back? And fighting, on top of that?”

“I… don’t know.” Max gulped, looking at his hand from a distance, only to find no remains of a wound or a burn mark. His hand, it had healed up completely in the span of about a week. That could only mean one thing. “But I think he’s a conduit as well.”

Victoria turned her head to Max again. Her face spelled out a feeling of fear mixed with confusion. She was in over her head, that was what Max was able to read from it. “We don’t have to worry about that guy, Delsin’s got him. Stay close to me, alright?”

Victoria looked at Max like she wanted to say something, but instead of the insult Max was preparing herself for, she just nodded and mumbled a quiet ‘okay’.

With a quiet resolve, Max stepped out of the trees and into the fray. And was immediately met by a punch to the jaw-

With a quiet resolve, Max stepped out of the trees and into the fray. And was immediately met by a punch to the jaw, which she diligently sidestepped. She tried to orient herself to her attacker, only for her to… not find anyone.

Deja vu.

“What are you doing?” Victoria asked.

“I swear I just-” Max suddenly felt herself being swept to the floor. As her back hit the floor, she rolled onto her side, only for her to spot a soldier strolling in her and Victoria’s direction.

“’Nuff playing around!” The man said in an obviously Australian accent as he just stared at Victoria helping Max back up to her feet. “The boss wants me to take care of you lot, and I kinda wanna get back to the main course.”

“What’s wrong with all these people?” Victoria mumbled, trying to stand tall behind Max. As Max stared down their slowly approaching enemy, Victoria tried to build resolve. Max had interrogated her earlier, which had made her question her own motives too. Why was she really here? In a sense, there was something exciting improving these new abilities… but deep down, she knew there was something more there. She wanted to change, yes, she wanted to become someone new.

A protector, no longer a destroyer.

As Victoria looked over at Max, awkwardly raising her fists at the new threat, she knew what she needed to do. Before Max could act, Victoria took a sprint toward her enemy. She reached down to the floor mid-run and snatched a patch of grass from the floor. She drained the heat energy from the patch instinctively, turning it into a makeshift dagger or shiv from frozen grass. But before she reached her target, she was smashed off course by a phantom force hitting her in the side of the face.

Max saw her body getting flung to the side, and quickly focused on her opponent again. What the hell is this guy’s power? She frantically thought to herself. I can’t even see what his attacks are, he’s like a shadow-

A shadow, of course.

Here, in the cloak of night, they were covered in shadows. And presumably, this man’s ability was to take control of those shadows. She saw the man still looking in Victoria’s direction, and decided to take action before he could try to finish her off. Charging in, she slipped her phone out of her pocket and into her hand.

Her first step already alerted her opponent, and as he turned to her, he raised an arm towards her. Max reasoned this probably meant he was invoking his shadow abilities, and set her plan into motion as she turned the flashlight on her phone on. The light flash in her own face caught her off guard for a second, but as soon as she recovered, she could see a shadow-y hand sailing towards her face.

Max sidestepped to dodge the attack, seeing the arm flunk its move and soar past her. Bingo. She quickly began rushing forward again, swerving between punches she was now able to see. A smile began growing on her face as she began to get close, the rush of adventure spurring up within her guts once again. And then those hopes were quickly dashed once a shadow tripped her over and she soared face first into the wet grass.

The impact rattled her skull, and it took her a few seconds to recover, whereupon she rolled onto her back. Before she could do anything, however, she felt one of the shadow-y hands wrap its digits around her throat and lift her up off the floor. She dropped her phone as she struggled against its grip, coming face to face with her opponent as she hung in the air helplessly.

“Did any of that manage to screw your head on right?” He taunted as he lowered Max to a height where he could look her in the eyes. “Every conduit thinks they can take on the world once they find out they have powers, but the world isn’t that bloody easy to take on. I bet you wish you’d learned that lesson earlier, dontcha?”

Max had to admit. He was probably right. She was in over her head. Managing to wrangle her eyes to look beside her, she spotted Victoria nowhere. Most likely, she’d been captured by the other remaining soldiers, as far as Max could reason. She turned her gaze back to the soldier who held her in his grasp, as she held onto the remaining bit of air still in her lungs.

“This is what you were looking for, wasn’t it?” He said with a chuckle as he juggled a small, blue-glowing crystal in his hand. “We found it right before your buddy over there interrupted our little operation. If only you’d’ve arrived a tad earlier.”

The shard. There it was. The thing that, according to Delsin, would allow her to do exactly what she’d come here for. And there it sat before her, just out of reach.

Before she could continue wallowing in self-pity and sadness at the turn her ‘quest’ had taken, however, a hand reached out to the arm he was holding the shard in.

In almost an instant, ice spread along the length of his forearm, and as he recoiled back, Max felt herself slip from the shadow hand’s grasp and drop to the floor. The mercenary stumbled back in surprise, and the shard slipped from his gasp, falling alongside Max.

Victoria! Max thought as she watched the blond-haired girl catch the shard out of the air. And as soon as her bare skin touched the crystal… it began glowing even more. In a matter of seconds, the light cascaded to envelop not only Max’s sight but what felt like the entire forest.

And then in an instant, the light disappeared to the ether.

Victoria looked down at the, now grey, shard in her hand, heaving as she tried to process what had just happened. But she wouldn’t get much time to do that, and as she heard the enemy still beside her grunt as he went to attack her, she almost instinctively punched him in the stomach.

She felt his skin ripple and rumble around her gentle fist, and before she’d registered what she’d done, the man was launched backwards. His body slammed through a tree trunk, knocking the whole thing down on top of him as Victoria was left there with the aftermath. She stared down at her own fist in a mix of confusion and wonder. The same question repeated itself in her head, although with different connotations every time.

“What did you just do?” Max asked, as she walked up to Victoria from behind her. She looked down at the grey shard in her offhand, the luster and life gone from it and seemingly now transferred into Victoria. Into Victoria. Not her. The frustration boiling within Max wouldn’t get the opportunity to show itself, however, as Delsin’s battle suddenly caught their attention.

Delsin tried his best to gather smoke around his fist again, but his opponent had deactivated his ability again, and all he could muster were a few wisps. As his enemy pushed his foot against his neck, he tried to think of anything he could do. But without his powers, he was vulnerable. He was just another guy. Struggling to keep breathing, he attempted to pry Augustine’s foot off his neck to no avail.

As doom seemed like it was nearing, his airways were suddenly and forcefully opened again, as a punch hit his opponent in the face, sending him stumbling backwards.

Davis eventually landed on his feet, taking some distance as he eyed the body of his second in command buried beneath a pile of branches and a broken tree. “Useless.” He grunted.

Max quickly helped Delsin get up. “That took a bit longer than I was hoping for.”

“You don’t get to complain, you were losing.” Victoria teased as she stood at his side, Max on his other.

Davis weighed the situation in front of him. His men had been wiped out, the shard he came here for sat—drained and useless—in the blond-haired girl’s hand, and by all means, he was on the back foot. There was only one logical course of action.

Quickly, before any of them could react, Davis pointed his arm in the direction of the still-running truck light, and absorbed its essence. Delsin tried to dash forward, catch him before he could use whatever this new power was. But before he could move, what felt like a flashbang blinded him, and as his eyesight recovered, Davis was gone.

Despite standing beside Delsin and Victoria, as Max stood there in that forest, she felt alone. On top of the mission having been basically a failure, her hopes dashed away by Victoria’s very hands, she’d come… practically face to face with death. Not that she hadn’t had… similar experiences before, but this felt different. A cloud of questions swirled through her head, but one took center stage.

What was she going to do now?

Chapter Text

It had been a long night since the group had returned from Tacoma. The mission had been, well, not a success. But at least they hadn’t been killed.

After a short shower, and a quick look at the smattering of new bruises covering her body, Victoria had settled at the dinner table in Delsin’s apartment.

As she ate her breakfast—a salad she’d cobbled together from whatever she could find in the shared fridge—Eugene had sat down opposite her and immediately started trying to help her figure out what her abilities even were. Or, well, it was closer to him spitballing ideas at her rather than anything else. Eventually he landed on something logical, though.

“Energy manipulation?” Victoria asked.

“Yeah, that has to be it.” Eugene explained. “At first I thought you had heat manipulation, but after you told me you could freeze stuff too, this seems like the only logical option.” He said, taking another bite of his peanut butter sandwich.

“What’s that even supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’re able to manipulate energy. All forms of it. Or, well, some limited forms in your case. That would explain how you melted that gun, you converted all the energy in the unspent bullets directly into heat energy, which was enough energy to melt the entire gun.”

“What about that punch? I launched that guy through, like, four trees.”

“Same reason you were so hungry when you came back.” He replied. “You basically manipulated all the energy in your body to move into that one punch. I’m assuming your body learned how to do that once you absorbed the shard.”

“Hmm,” Victoria mumbled to herself, picking at her salad with her fork as she thought aloud. “Where’s Rowe? I need to learn some of those moves he taught to Max.”

“I think Delsin was looking for Fetch.”

“Who’s Fetch?”

A quickly fading trail of neon lights led to the roof of a dockside warehouse, lasting barely longer than a moment. And at the end of it stood Fetch, crouched on the edge of that roof scoping out the lower-lying docks. The previous day, while Delsin, Max, and Victoria were busy searching for the Relay Shard, she had gone after the man Eugene had told her about. After a short conversation, she managed to discover that they were planning to take him to the docks.

Sure, the fact that they seemingly had the power to deactivate a conduit's abilities was part of the motivation behind her current mission. It was a dangerous, unknown variable that it would be smart to find more about.

But that wasn't the whole story.

Her first encounter with them, the weekend that Delsin was in Salmon Bay, wasn’t as neutral as she had put it back then. Because along with the soldiers she had told him about, were…

“Akurans?” Fetch mumbled to herself, looking down into the alleyway from her rooftop vantage point. “What are they doing here?” She wondered, tailing the gang of Akurans as they made their way deeper into the alley. There were about three of them, but aside from them, they had one more guest. A man with a sack around his head, arms zip tied behind his back, held in the middle of the three gang members by his arms.

As they arrived at a dead end, in between the back of an apartment block and a liquor store, she noticed that another group of people was waiting for them. They didn’t look much like Akurans, however. They were wearing some armored paramilitary garb, she'd almost clock them as DUP if they weren’t missing the copyright bright yellow. Not being one to wait for these weirdos to have their way with whomever they had tied up, Fetch knew what she had to do.

This situation was different, however. She needed to figure out exactly what these people were doing, and how they were connected to the Akurans. She needed to know exactly what was going on. For the conduits of the city.

Crouching her way to the waterside of the warehouse roof, coated in shadows, she spotted a small container ship sail into the docks. Its engine was seemingly turned off, along with all the lights, making it hard to make out any identifying details as it cruised to land. All she could really make out was a circular logo with an indent on the side of the boat, and what seemed like cages on the back.

Human-sized cages.

The boat docked itself against the coast, as the mishmash group of Akuran and paramilitary assholes approached them from their white van. One soldier, presumably the man who’d been driving the boat, strolled out onto the back of it and threw a rope to the soldiers on the coast, who tied it to the dock post. After a few moments of small talk with the ship captain, two of the men walked back to the van and opened it up. And as the doors opened, Fetch got a good look at what was inside.

“They’re taking away more conduits.“ Instinct overtook reason, and an urge to save these people took hold of her. And so she did. In an instant, Fetch’s body lit up in purple neon light and she sped down to ground level, finding herself in the middle of the paramilitary posse. “You assholes are done.”

Her opponents yelled something incoherently about a hostile or whatever, but she took them down pretty handily, moving too fast for any of them to tag her. She ran in between them, dodging bullets and taking them down—non-lethally, of course—without breaking much of a sweat. Bullets flew, guns hit the floor shortly before the bodies did, and each and every one of the Akuran-PMC mix went down.

As Fetch rushed in to attack her last opponent, she yelled out a brag. “Come on! Is that all you go-”

She wouldn’t get the chance to finish her one-liner, as her fist found itself stuck in their grip and stopped her dead in her tracks. Before the confusion could set in, a punch struck her across the cheek and sent her flying back. Her body ragdolled along the concrete floor for a few moments, but she quickly caught herself and flipped back up to her feet.

In front of her stood a woman, one standing only slightly taller than her. She wore an outfit similar to the paramilitaries she’d taken down before, sans the helmet and mouthpiece. Her long brown hair reached down to her shoulders, flowing in the wind as she lifted her metal covered fist up to her face.

“A conduit? Why the hell are you working with these assholes?” Fetch asked.

“It pays.” She replied with a shrug. “And you’re not getting in the way of my paycheck!” She was clearly done talking, and Fetch recognized it too. Fetch immediately stretched her arms out to start firing at her, but before she could react, a large ball of scrap metal struck her in the face, sending her flying through the warehouse wall behind her. Her entire body barrelled through the brick wall and landed on the warehouse floor.

Her body covered in debris, she uncovered herself as well as she could before her opponent could catch up. Yet as she tossed a chunk of brick away, she realized she didn’t have any time left.

“Don’t overestimate yourself, honey.” The other girl taunted with a chuckle, standing over Fetch as she spoke. Fetch didn’t let it get to her, and as the other girl continued taunting her, she quickly reached her arm out and blasted her with neon. The blast hit her square in the chest, sending her skidding back along the concrete floor, her heels digging into the ground beneath her.

Fetch used this opportunity to quickly get up, before dashing up to the other girl with her speed and clocking her in the face. She didn’t take the hit lying down, however, immediately taking advantage of Fetch moving in so close. She grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up before slamming her back into the ground..

She struggled as she felt herself being lifted, but the hit sent her straight into the floor, causing some serious damage to the surrounding concrete and embedding her face first into it.

Fetch tried to push herself up, but the foot on her back that kept pushing her down with every movement? It wasn’t exactly encouraging.

“Come on, haole, you did your best! Now give up, you've got so much left to live for.” She explained. “If you don’t give up, though, you’re gonna leave me no cho-” Her sympathetic speech was abruptly cut off by what sounded like a kick in the face. A rush of wind signaled the mass above her having disappeared, as did the sudden disappearance of the pressure that had been keeping her down. And as she managed to dislodge her body from the Fetch-shaped hole, she got a glimpse of none other than Delsin.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” The enemy conduit grunted as she shook off the concussion, her facial expression a mix of fear and confusion. “They didn’t tell me I’d be dealing with the Raven.”

“Man.” Delsin chuckled, a smirk on his face as he stared her down in full confidence. “I love when you guys use that nickname.”

Before Delsin could do anything, however, she quickly raised her hands up, causing pipes to burst out of the ground and spray water everywhere. Delsin and Fetch stepped back, and the enemy conduit ran.

“No! She’s getting away!” Fetch yelled, but before she could fully turn to neon and run after her, she felt Delsin’s hand on her shoulder.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“The Akurans… I was… “ Fetch clenched her fist with a frustrated grunt. “Fuck, I'm sorry, I know I said I wasn't gonna go after them anymore.”

“Hey.” Delsin replied. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just… tell me when you go do this type of shit, at least?” He consoled her. “You didn’t do anything wrong; you’re literally out here saving people.”

“I know, but… I lost focus. Fuck.” She mumbled back at him, before letting out a sigh. The action agitated one of the wounds near her stomach, and she let out another grunt.

“Come on, let’s get these prisoners out of here.”

Chapter Text

A myriad of thoughts plagued Victoria’s mind as she aimlessly wandered the dark streets of night-time Seattle. Her fingers clenched themselves harder around the hot paper cup in her right hand, staring at her feet as she kept her stride.

After Eugene had explained his idea of her powers to her, she had told him that she was going to get some coffee and come back later. But she really wasn’t sure if she wanted to come back. She thought she was doing a good thing when she contacted Max and wanted to learn how to control her abilities, but… she wasn’t so sure about it anymore. Especially after the events that had transpired the night before.

It was fucking terrifying. Exciting, but terrifying.

I thought I knew who I was. I’m supposed to know who I am! I’m Victoria fucking Chase! Her headache was killing her, but not nearly as much as her own doubts were. She tried to block them out, instead focusing on what she was gonna do now, where she was heading from here on out. Those thoughts ended up fruitless, as her mind brought her back to what Max had said to her the other day after they had gotten back from Tacoma. Their parting words before sleep took Victoria, and they hadn’t seen each other since.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Max snapped at her, as the two girls stood at the front door of Delsin’s apartment. Delsin himself had already entered, and now in front of the open door, Max’s frustrations finally boiled over.

Max’s face was filled with genuine anger, the corners of her mouth stretched as she blasted words at Victoria. “You’re so self-centered you just can’t see your own mistakes! I thought that maybe, just maybe, you’d’ve changed in the past three fucking years, but no! You’re still the same Victoria!”

“What!?” Victoria yelled back. “I’ve been struggling to live ever since Blackwell, and suddenly I find out I have fucking superpowers! I’m trying to understand what the fuck I’m doing! Are you seriously blaming me for that fact that you fucked u-”

“SHUT UP!” Max shouted. “It’s always about you, right? The world revolves around you like you’re the fucking sun, and now you’ve ruined my one chance at righting the biggest wrong in my life, and you can’t even say sorry?!”

Victoria was just about to retort when she felt the smack of Max’s palm hit her in the face. Her face lit up a bright red, but before she could even begin the storm of insults she was about to hurl at Max, the brunette was already stomping away. The words stopped themselves in Victoria’s throat and she fell silent.

Victoria let out a sigh. Maybe she was right. Maybe I am self-centered, but that’s the only Victoria I know. I never got the chance to change. She could go on, but writing a listicle wasn’t her main focus at the moment. Especially when her train of thought was so rudely cut off by someone yelling on the street just ahead of her. She was about to yell insults their way, when she noticed that there was actually a mugging going on. Instinctively, Victoria ducked out of the way and behind a tree.

Her mind was generally going pretty haywire, but throughout all the nightmare scenarios that were playing out in her head, there was one constant. She needed to do something. She looked down at the coffee cup in her hand, before closing her eyes, letting out a deep sigh, and pulling the scarf from her neck.

“A little faster, lady! We don’t have all day!” The first mugger shouted, his gun pointed at the victim’s head, as she emptied her purse as fast as she could. She was fumbling with the contents of the bag, obviously under a lot of stress.

“Y-yeah! We have, like, five minutes!” The second mugger added on. “And the clock is tick-” His—honestly very lame—joke was abruptly cut off by a fist hitting him right in the face, the sound of which prompted the first mugger to look around. And as he did so, he was met with a paper cup of liquid splashed right in his face.

The sudden shock sent him stumbling back, and as soon as he recovered, he tried to aim where he thought his assailant was.

“Seriously? I thought it would still be, like, a little hot.” A female voice to his right mumbled, and as he tried to adjust his aim, all he was greeted with was a hand taking hold off his face before slamming him down to the ground. He hit the floor, thud, out cold.

The streets went silent for a few moments, and completely dark too. At least for the mugging victim herself, as she kept her eyes shut in fear. Eventually, however, she slowly opened them up again. And when she did so, her sight landed on… somebody.

Whoever they were, the scarf they had wrapped around their mouth, along with the darkness of night, were concealing their facial features pretty well. Her savior slowly turned her head towards her, and she managed to make out the green of their eyes and their short blonde hair before they spoke up.

“You’re welcome.” They mumbled through the fabric covering their mouth. Their voice sounded pretty low, but not naturally so. More like they were trying to sound intimidating by lowering their tone. “You know, for saving you.”

“O-Oh!” She replied, recomposing herself to avoid stumbling over her words. “Thank you for saving me! I-I’m still kind of in shock, sorry.”

“Yeah, I can te-” Victoria’s—most likely rude—remark was abruptly interrupted by the grumbling of her own stomach. Jesus, how much energy did I use back there? I was trying to use the coffee’s heat. She thought to herself, planning on leaving until she saw her reaching into her purse. Quickly she pulled something out, and handed it to Victoria.

“There.” She said, “I know it’s not enough for saving me, but I can tell that you’re hungry.” She continued with a small chuckle, as Victoria took the item from her hand.

“Uhm… thanks.” Victoria replied. An energy bar? Cheapskate. She thought to herself before the other woman spoke up again.

“Who are you, anyway?”

“I’m… “ Victoria went blank, not really wanting to tell this total stranger her name after beating up two other strangers. As her eyes wandered to the energy bar in her hand, a light bulb lit up in her head.

“… Velocity. I'm a… superhero, conduit. All that.” She mumbled out.

“Well, thank you for saving me, Velocity!” She said with a gleeful smile.

“Punch me.”

“Are you… serious?” Victoria asked, standing opposite Delsin as he held his arms behind his back.

“I’m hella serious.” He replied. “I need to know how good your form is. And that’s impossible if you don’t throw a punch, so get on with it.”

“You are crazy.” Victoria rolled her eyes. She conceded, however, breathing in deeply before pulling back her fist and striking Delsin square in the chest. Her knuckles dug into his midriff, bony flesh impacting flesh and… sliding right off his chest.

“Well, that was terrible.”

“Yeah, duh.” Victoria replied, rolling her eyes. “I wasn’t even using my powers, of course it wasn’t going to hurt.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Delsin corrected her. “Your punches could hit with the power of a nuke, but if you throw them like a wet towel, you’re gonna miss all of them against anyone who actually knows how to fight.” He explained.

“Okay, tell me how to punch, then.”

“Copy my stance.” He instructed, as he got into a more proper boxing stance, fists lifted up squarely in front of his face. Victoria followed his example. “Now, you just thrust your fist forward like this.” He explained, slowly showing her the motions of a basic jab. She slowly copied the movement, before nodding. “You gotta move your body with the motion, rotate your hips.”

“I got it, I got it.” She replied in a half-frustrated tone.

“Just keep practicing that motion for a bit. Once you really have it down, it’ll become like a reflex.” He instructed her, beginning to walk circles around her as she did so. “And while you do that, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ask away.”

“Why are you here? Why do you want to learn from me and train your powers?”

“Is it that weird for a… conduit to want to learn to control their powers?” She replied.

“There are, what, hundreds of conduits just here in Seattle? And of all of those, you’re still the only offer I’ve gotten. Max doesn’t count, she’s from out of state. Most conduits just… try to ignore that they’re conduits and live a normal life. There’s even been some of jobs that are looking for conduits specifically. We don’t all have to live this life of fighting and heroics anymore.” He retorted. “So, what’s the deal? Are you here to help your friend?”

“Max? My friend? Pff.” Victoria mumbled, shooting that idea down pretty quickly. “I’m not really sure why I’m here.” She continued. “I guess I just want to take control of my life again, be someone new. Be… “ Her sentence trailed off, and before she could pick it up again, Delsin replied.

“So, who do you want to be?”

The question kind of caught her off guard, and she stopped moving for a few moments. She looked to her side, off the side of the roof and over the rows and rows of streets. The vast expanse of Seattle stretched out beneath her, not as choking as it felt on the ground floor. Not as threatening as the days spent holed up in the comfort of her apartment, hoping that she’d stumble into a reason to keep living. Not as suffocating as the pressure of expectations and image weighing down on her. She let out a sigh, before looking down at the concrete beneath her feet.

“I’m not sure.” She admitted, before quickly regaining her composure. “Look, stop trying to fucking psychoanalyze me, okay? Cut it out.”

“Alright, alright,” Delsin replied, before moving on. “Let’s continue. So you can’t just punch people. If they punch you first, you need to be able to retaliate. Now, if you’re in a decent fighting stance, blocking most punches should be relatively eas-” He was interrupted by his phone ringing. He quickly fished the device out of his back pocket.

“Oh.”

“What is it?”

“It’s… Max?”

Chapter Text

“That melodramatic bitch.” Victoria mumbled, her back leaning against the wall as she navigated her way to Max’s Instagram page. “I thought she would’ve actually grown up since Blackwell”

“I thought you two weren’t friends?” Delsin asked.

“We’re not.” She snapped back bluntly. “But I know her, everyone at Blackwell did. She always feels so sorry for herself it’s sickening.” She explained, before clicking into Max’s message box.

queenchase: Are you fucking serious?

queenchase: One little mistake and you’re done?

catcherinthewhy: what the fuck

catcherinthewhy: is wrong with you?

catcherinthewhy: not only do you mess up my one chance to fix the biggest mistake i’ve ever made

catcherinthewhy: but you also managed to make yourself think YOU are the victim???

catcherinthewhy: i hate you.

catcherinthewhy has blocked you.

“Oh my fucking god.” She said, trying to restrain herself from throwing her phone on the ground beneath her feet. Fingers clenched around the phone, she carefully placed it back in her pocket and let out a deep sigh. After a few moments of silence, she managed to calm herself down and started stomping to the stairwell.

“Wait, where are you going?” Delsin asks.

“I have to fix this.” She stated bluntly, pushing open the door before slamming it closed behind her back.

“Seriously?” Delsin mumbled to himself. “Did everyone just ditch me? Maybe Eugene-” His audible thoughts were abruptly cut off by the vibration of the phone in his pocket. Pulling it out, he turned the screen on only to be met with a text from Eugene.

SiMsWorld: hey i’m at a friend’s place tonite

SiMsWorld: DnD nite (:

SiMsWorld: just letting u know so u dont worry

“Dammit.” He mumbled again. “Why’d he of all people have to go and get friends?”

The stomping of Victoria’s feet was one of the few sounds still ringing through the late Seattle evening as she made her way down the street. You meet a lot of people on the daily commute, especially as a freelancer that works all around the place. And Victoria had an especially eccentric list of contacts, having had to network a lot in her new independent life. But if she was going to find Max, she would need a… specialist.

And she knew just the person.

Victoria stepped into a dingy alley, occasionally looking over her shoulder in a situationally appropriate amount of paranoia and fear. She made her way deeper and deeper into the alley until she stumbled upon a lonely gray door engulfed in the shadows created by the walls surrounding her. She checked behind her shoulder one more time, before knocking on the door in a particular rhythm.

Victoria stood in front of the door engulfed in complete silence, only occasionally interrupted by a soft shuffling deeper into the alley and the scuttling of rats among the floor. But after waiting for a few moments, she could hear the locks on the other side of the door being opened one by one, before the door slowly opened up with a small crack.

“Huh?” The guy peeking through the crack asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you guys-”

“Shut up. Is she here?” She cut him off, her quiet voice laced with frustration.

“She’s-” He was suddenly cut off by another voice saying something that was indecipherable to Victoria before the door swung wide open. As it did so, a female figure just a bit taller than Victoria herself revealed herself, a wide smirk on her face.

The girl had long pitch-black hair with a fluorescent blue-purple streak cut into a side buzzed look, the hairs draped down her face and right shoulder. She wore a hoodie and jeans the same shade as her hair, a pair of fingerless gloves covering her hands.

“What’s the High Queen of the Chase royalty doing in a dingy place like this? Aren’t you worried your sweater’s gonna get dirty?”

Victoria rolled her eyes in response to the mocking before crossing her arms. “Knock it off, Miya.” She mumbled as she walked past the two people in the doorway and into the hacker’s den, before being stopped from walking any further by a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, what makes you think you can just waltz in like you own the place?”

“I need your help.”

“My help? Are you fucking serious? I don’t care what you need.”

“Come on, Mi.” She replied, her soft and timid tone portraying just how weak Victoria felt at the moment. The fire and brimstone in Miya’s facial expression faded somewhat. There was a conflict in her face, but she quickly recomposed herself and turned her head to the guy at the door. At Miya’s nod, he closed the door behind them and Miya led Victoria further into the den.

They arrived in what seemed like the den’s inner sanctum, a room covered with monitors and desks with multiple keyboards, a few with what looked like broken electronics, and other assorted tinkering objects. Miya nodded at a few of the other hackers in the den, reassuring them that everything was alright, as she led Victoria into the next room.

This final room was seemingly some type of recreation center, with a big TV and a few retro consoles on one side of it, and a large worn-down couch on the other. As the two girls sat down, Miya let out a long and tired sigh, before turning her head to Victoria. At that moment, Victoria finally got a good look at the girl for the first time in… a while.

Miya Nakamoto, the only friend Victoria had had in this city for a good while and a hacker involved heavily with the hacker group DedSec. Although ‘friends’ might be understating it a little. They’d been in an on-and-off again relationship/situationship ever since they met, until their situation reached a boiling point.

Six months ago Miya’d traveled all the way to San Francisco to help their chapter of DedSec in their crusade against the surveillance giant Blume. And just before she left, the two girls had gotten into a huge falling out and hadn’t spoken since.

“Tori… what do you want from me? You told me exactly what you think of me the last time that we talked, and so did I. I… I didn’t think you’d ever wanna see me again, and I still don’t really wanna see you either.” Her words trailed off for a few moments, as she looked down at her own hands in search of the rest of her sentence.

“I’m… I know I did and said some stupid stuff.” Victoria softly mumbled, skirting just outside of actually saying sorry and apologizing. “But I want us to stay friends. And I need your help.”

“I don’t like seeing you like this, I promise you I don’t. ” Miya replied as she tried to keep her gaze away from Victoria, although unable to unsee the weakness in Victoria’s stance, like she was walking off a bruise. “But what happened to you? Did you get into a fight?”

“I’m a… conduit.”

“Wait, seriously?” Miya asked, breaking eye contact with the floor to look back at Victoria. “You actually have superpowers?”

“Yeah…” Victoria replied as a smirk appeared on her face. Miya’s words relit a fire in Victoria’s heart, one she quickly extinguished. “… I don’t have time to chat right now, though. I need to find someone.”

“Who is this girl, anyway?” Miya asked as she pulled Max’s Instagram page up on one of the computers in the inner sanctum. She sat at one of the smaller desks, her left hand resting on a black keyboard as her right hand moved what looked like an old IBM mouse. Victoria stood behind her, her hands clamped onto Miya’s chair’s headrest.

She quickly scrolled through her posts, coming across a few selfies and Polaroid collages, although most of them were pretty old. “She looks like the definition of a nobody.”

“Someone from back at Blackwell.”

“Ooooh, one of your old school friends? That’s fun.” She replied as she started searching up info about the name Victoria had given her. Victoria didn’t understand… a lot about what she was doing, but over the years she had known and been close to Miya, she’d gained a bit of knowledge on the whole subject. And she was pretty sure that Miya was having some trouble.

“Find anything?”

“Not… yet,” Miya mumbled in response, as she typed a few lines. “My IG back end isn’t working for some reason…”

“You missed a bracket over there.” Victoria chimed in, pointing at the monitor as she leaned over Miya’s chair. Miya looked over at her partner in confusion, before turning back to the screen and fixing the error. “See, I can hack too.”

“Sure.” She chuckled back. “I can get you her last GPS location, plus some other miscellaneous info. But this girl’s a ghost, persona non grata, there’s nothing else about her otherwise.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, so long as you don’t do anything creepy with it. And I’ll keep you to that, you know I can tell if you do.” She replied, typing in a few more lines, before pulling a USB out of her PC and turning back to Victoria in her chair.

“Here it is. Just plug this into a laptop or something and you’ll find her no swea-” Suddenly she was cut off by a scary sounding alarm ding from her PC speakers. She immediately turned around again, finding a new tab had opened on her monitor while she was looking the other way. The tab was showing a camera feed of the whole alleyway outside the door, seemingly being activated by motion, judging by the armored car stopped at the end of the alley.

“Oh fuck.” She mumbled.

“What is-” Victoria cut herself off as she laid eyes on the camera feed herself. Multiple of the soldiers she encountered at the warehouse were pulling out of the car, stepping in an orderly fashion deeper into the alley. “No… we need to get out of-”

“The guys need to get out of here.” Miya cut her off, whipping her head around to yell into the rest of the Den. “T, Arch, get everyone to the back exit, now! Stay on the move and don’t stop til’ you get to Queen Anne. Log into the Ichthys as soon as you’re there.”

“What about you?” The guy from the front door asked, all the other hackers packing up what they could as they gathered at the back of the room. “Are we gonna see you at the backup?”

“I’ll contact you when I’m safe, now get the fuck out of here!”

The scrawny kid furiously nodded, as he and the other hackers ran to a door in the back of the room.

“What!?” Victoria yelled in confusion, as Miya got up out of her chair. “We need to leave too!”

“We can’t! If we all run, they’ll catch up to us and then we’re all fucked. We need to give my guys the best head start we can and make them think we’re fighting back instead of running.” She explained, Victoria following behind her as she quickly walked into another adjacent room. “How did Oscorp even find us here?”

“I don’t think they’re here for you.” Victoria replied, causing Miya to stop dead in her tracks and turn to Victoria.

“They’re here for you?”

“I think so.”

“Great, thanks for luring them to us.” Miya chuckled, shaking her head in utter disbelief.

“They almost killed me the other day! These dickheads aren’t a joke, Mi!”

“Neither am I.” She said bluntly, turning around again before loudly opening a large metal wardrobe in the back of the room they had entered. Inside were different pieces of some kind of outfit, some kind of black leather looking jacket with an attached hood, a pair of sleek gauntlets with a litany of exposed electronics strapped to them, and other assorted tactical gear. As she finished strapping up the knee pads, she quickly looked at her right forearm as a small display on her arm lit up.

“They’re almost at the door, we have to hurry up.” She mumbled to herself, turning the screen off again before looking at Victoria. “What are you doing? Don’t you have a superhero suit or something?”

“Uh,” Victoria mumbled in response, taking the scarf wrapped around her neck and tying it around the lower half of her face and over her nose like she had done last time.

“Seriously?” She teased with a smirk, as she pulled her own mask over her nose and pulled her hood over her head. “DedSec should sue for that copyright infringement.”

“Oh yeah, and work within the system? As if.” Victoria mumbled as she pulled up the sleeves of her blouse. “What now?”

“The fun part,” Miya replied in a hushed mumble, as she pressed a few buttons on her wrist pad and…

Woosh

And everything went dark.

Chapter Text

“Clear!” A mix of muffled shouts yelled from the other side of the steel door, quickly followed by the sound of a loud explosion that sent the door itself flying into the room, lasers and barrel-mounted flashlights flooding the den’s “lobby”. The soldiers had made their way in, and with considerable numbers.

Miya had completely cut all the power from the building and wiped all the storage, although most of their data had been backed up to an experimental remote server. Victoria and Miya were up against the walls on either side of the entrance to the inner sanctum cloaked in complete darkness, and as the sound of footsteps slowly became louder, Miya signaled to her partner in crime with her hands.

Victoria just raised her eyebrows back in confusion, having no clue what she was talking about. She could barely even recognize Miya’s silhouette in the darkness of the room, let alone understand sign language. But she wasn’t able to dwell on that for long, as one set of footsteps in the direction of the dim rays of light coming from the blasted open front door started getting increasingly louder.

Miya made a shushing gesture with her finger, something Victoria did recognize. But in that exact moment, one of the Oscorp soldiers walked into the inner sanctum. He passed the door in a serious stride, his equipment similar to the soldiers Delsin had downed the other day, although this one had some kind of assault rifle raised up, the red laser underneath the barrel cutting a swath through the darkness. The soldier seemingly cleared the whole room—although sloppily enough to not notice the two girls pushing themselves up against the walls either side of the door he’d come in through—before taking one hand off of his rifle and raising it up to his ear.

Miya apparently saw this as an opportunity, sneaking up behind the soldier and punching him in the neck. And before the man spoke his first word into his comms unit, he immediately let out a painful scream, before dropping down to his knees like he had just been shocked. Victoria immediately snapped her gaze to Miya, her expression probably speaking a thousand words if she would have even been able to read them, but Miya immediately yelled at her.

“NOW!” Her voice was lower, modulated in a digital way, but Victoria didn’t have the time to dwell on it.

“What!?!”

“Take him out!” She commanded, as a storm of voices from the direction of the entrance started yelling out. Victoria stood there hesitating for an odd moment, before finally conceding and running up to the staggered soldier. As soon as she got close enough, she delivered a punch directly to the back of the soldier’s head, sending him flying straight into the floor. The impact was hard enough to embed his head firmly into the concrete, sending dust up from the broken flooring.

“HOLY FUCK!” Miya shouted in a tone of amazement—Victoria now noticed the digital effects masking the tone of her voice—as she saw the damage that Victoria had caused. “We’ve got some more guys coming, but we have to talk about your powers later!”

“More guys?” Victoria replied in a confused tone, her confusion immediately lifted by a pair of soldiers stomping into the room. As she turned around to the source of the sound, two red dots appeared on her chest and she instinctively raised her hands. One of the guys quickly reached a hand up to his earpiece.

“Command, we have a visual on the conduit known as ‘Velocity’. Orders?” He stated bluntly as he returned his hand back to his rifle. His voice now pointed at Victoria, and decidedly more authoritative, he spoke again. “Don’t move or we will fire!”

Victoria kept her hands raised, slowly gulping as she tried not to make any sudden movements. She’d fought two muggers before, but she wasn’t bulletproof. This was way out of her league, like putting a kid with a red towel into a bullfighting ring. If she tried anything she’d be a splatter of blood on the floor before long.

“Are you alone?” One of the soldiers shouted as he moved his laser sight to Victoria’s forehead.

“I’m-” Victoria cut herself off, as she realized that Miya’d slipped away before they’d caught her. She pondered selling her out for a few moments, as well as wondering where she had even disappeared to, when she suddenly noticed a familiar set of brown eyes appear in the shadows between the two soldiers. Victoria’s eyes widened as she noticed who those pupils belonged to, and before she could give the soldiers an actual answer, Miya already grabbed one of them into a chokehold.

The other soldier noticed this, quickly turning around to aid his teammate as he shouted into his comms. But as the red dot left Victoria’s chest, she quickly took that opportunity and reached out her arm in the direction of the other soldier. As she did so, she could hear her stomach grumble. But luckily, she had just enough juice left for one more attack. Heat rippled up in the grip of the soldier’s rifle, singing his fingers through his gloves and causing him to stagger back.

Miya took the cue, letting the first, now unconscious, body drop to the floor before quickly turning to the other soldier. He had already started recovering from Victoria’s attack, but Miya quickly disarmed his rifle before he could fully recover. As the rifle fell to the floor, the soldier immediately tried to catch her off guard with a quick hook, but Miya managed to react fast enough and blocked it with the side of her arm. She quickly followed it up with a counter punch, hitting him in the stomach. And as her fist connected, the soldier shook like he had been electrified, before dropping down to the floor.

Miya regained her breath as she turned to Victoria. “Velocity? That’s your superhero name?”

“I was in a rush, I read it off an energy bar.” Victoria brushed it off, as her stomach audibly rumbled. “You think that was enough of a head start? I don’t think I have much left in me.”

“Are you… hungry??”

“…yes. It’s a conduit thing.”

“Well,” Miya mumbled as she reached into one of the pouches on her side. After a few moments, she pulled out a small object and tossed it over to Victoria. “take that. Can’t have you passing out on me.”

“An energy bar?” Victoria replied as she looked down at the item in her hand.

“I’m always prepared.”

Victoria rolled her eyes as she opened the wrapper, quickly biting into the snack and immediately feeling the small burst of energy surge through her. “Thanks, now let’s get out of here-”

She was rudely cut off by a loud voice coming from the Den’s front entrance.

“They’re still here! Burn this fucking place to the ground!” Victoria turned to the source of the noise as fast as she could, but it wasn’t fast enough, and a burst of three bullets flew her way. She moved out of the way as quickly as she could, and that particular soldier’s bad aim was helping her pretty well, causing one of the bullets to skim past her and another to shoot the apple straight out of her hand. But the third round cut a nice hole through Victoria’s shoulder, causing her to clutch at the wound in pain as she stumbled forward.

Miya reacted as quickly as she could, briskly taking Victoria by the wrist and pulling her in the way of the secret exit the others had used. The two girls paced through the thin hallway as the door behind them slammed shut. Victoria had no idea where this place came out, but she had an idea it would probably be better than staying back in there.

Eventually, the two girls made their way outside, their feet tapping loudly on the pavement as they entered the dark street. As the moonlight shone upon them once again, Miya kept running towards a motorcycle on the side of the road, still pulling Victoria along.

Miya looked behind her, spotting a helicopter spotlight shining around the corner a few streets back. “We’ve gotta go.” She mumbled, jumping on her bike as she waited for Victoria to get on the back. Victoria pulled herself on the back as she wrapped one of her arms around Miya’s lower torso. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“Just go!” Victoria replied, grunting in pain as she pressed her body against Miya’s back in an attempt to quell the bleeding in her shoulder. On her command, the motorcycle growled to life as a plume of smoke ejected itself from the tailpipe, blasting the bike forward.

Tires screeched as rubber hit the asphalt, Miya’s bike tearing its way through small roads and alleyways as she tried her best to stay hidden from any Oscorp traffic. She sped through Seattle streets, taking sharp turns and running red lights. The fact of the matter was, however, that they couldn’t drive away forever.

Miya had figured that out too.

Eventually, they arrived at a park at the east end of the city. The place was pretty lively in the daytime, but at night it was practically empty. It was a good place to hide out for the time being.

They stood there at the park’s outset for a few moments, Miya’s bike parked on the road as they stood beneath a tree, their adrenaline slowly wearing off. As a light rain peppered the shoulders of Miya’s vigilante suit, she let out a sigh before beginning to bandage up Victoria’s shoulder. Blood still slowly trickled from the wound, but the superficial damage had already healed up a lot faster than it would have on a normal person.

“You called them Oscorp back there… who are they? And why do they care about you? I thought they were only kidnapping conduits.” Victoria asked her.

Miya let out a sigh. “DedSec’s primary directive—at least this chapter’s primary directive—is protecting citizens from violations of our privacy and safety. A few weeks ago, right after Delsin Rowe and Co. took down the DUP, Oscorp put in a request to the city’s government for a list of all the conduits in Seattle jurisdiction. Names, birthdate, family, and place of living, all that type of shit.”

“What?” Victoria replied. “Did they approve it? That’s an insane invasion of privacy.”

“Luckily, the lovely people of the city council had at least a bit of common sense,” Miya reassured her. “But the guys and I have been tracking all their moves here in the city. They’re very meticulous about who they take, and how many they take at a time. They’re keeping numbers just low enough to match normal missing person’s rates. They’re trying not to get caught.”

“They weren’t particularly stealthy back there, or the last time I saw them for that matter.”

“That’s the weirdest part.” She replied, flicking her wrist as the display on her arm lit up again. “This is totally unlike anything they’ve ever done before. Here in Seattle, at least. You said you’ve fought these guys before, right?”

“I did.”

“I think they might be trying to take out active threats more aggressively, or something to that effect.” She explained. “This city is still legally out of their jurisdiction, so Seattle won’t be turning into a war zone any time soon. But… it’s scary, right?”

Miya sighed, as she finally looked Victoria in the eyes again. “I want you to be safe from these people. And I know I said some awful stuff to you as well. But… I can’t say I’m not still angry at you. If-”

“Can’t we just… put that all behind us? I’m sick of not talking to you, I’m sick of not having you to talk-”

“No. It’s not that easy.” Miya mumbled as she stuffed her hands in her pockets. “You’re bad for me and you keep proving it. And I’m bad for you as well, I just enable all your… fucked up shit.”

“Yes, I’m still me. That’s not gonna change.” Victoria retorted, the words hurting even herself. “What do you want from me?”

“What I want is for you to look at yourself for once! See who you could be if you just got over yourself!” Miya replied as she reached her hands out to Victoria’s shoulders. But as the tips of Miya’s fingers touched her shoulders, Victoria’s hands almost reflexively shoved Miya away. She was still drained, but all the residual energy she had leftover seemingly went into that one strike, sending Miya straight to the floor.

With a thud, the girl hit the floor. Victoria fell silent as she looked down upon Miya. Her lip lightly quivered, as she realized… she’d never really changed. She came to Delsin with a veneer of wanting to change herself, she’d spent years as a nobody living from gig to gig, yet she was still the same. She was still wearing that same mask.

She was still Blackwell’s biggest bully.

She was still the Victoria she hated.

Victoria balled up her fist, as Miya slowly got up off the floor.

“What is wrong with you!?”

“Mi, I… I didn’t mean to-” Victoria stumbled over her own words, choked on the letters of the apology she so desperately wanted to form. The things she so desperately wanted to tell Miya. The regret she felt whenever she hurt someone she cared about because she couldn’t control her own emotions.

“Just… stop it!” Miya shouted back at the top of her lungs. “I knew this was a fucking mistake, I’m done with you.” She continued, sniffing lightly at the end of her sentence as she stepped back on her bike. Victoria tried to catch up to her, but she only managed to get so close before Miya blasted off, a small puff of smoke from her tailpipe being all that was left of her as Victoria was left in the rain.

Drops channeled through the strands of her wet hair and dripped onto the tip of her nose as she watched Miya drive away.

Victoria drove her away. She always did. She thought she could change that about herself.

Maybe she was wrong.

Chapter Text

A deer print shirt laid crinkled in Max’s hands as she sat on the side of her Seattle-childhood bed. After the debacle in Tacoma, she’d practically headed straight for her parent's house—crying, at that—and spent the last day or so there. It had become too much for her, all of it, she was in over her head. And she knew it, she’d probably known all along somewhere in her subconscious. In that time, she’d decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore and she was going back to Portland to finish college.

She let out a sigh as she folded up the fabric and stuffed it into her suitcase.

I couldn’t do it, I’m sorry Chloe. She thought to herself as she zipped her suitcase closed. We couldn’t do it all those years ago, and I especially can’t do it here without you. She dropped the suitcase off her lap and onto the floor, before she felt the phone in her pocket buzz. She slipped the device out, lazily pressing the power button to see who was texting her.

It was Delsin.

Max pondered not answering the text for a few moments. She wanted to put Seattle, put conduits, put all that shit behind her. But Delsin didn’t do anything to her, he didn’t deserve that.

heartshapedbox: Hey Max.

heartshapedbox: I know we only knew each other for a few weeks, but I feel like we are friends.

heartshapedbox: Right?

heartshapedbox: So, as a friend, I just wanna say, I hope you find what you’re looking for someday.

heartshapedbox: I just kinda assumed your motives instead of really listening to you, and I treated you as one of us. As a conduit. As a superhero.

heartshapedbox: And I guess I just never questioned if that’s what you wanted to be.

heartshapedbox: I hope Portland treats you well, and if I ever find a way to send you back in time, I’ll hit you up.

heartshapedbox: Also if you’re ever back here in Sea-Town, me and Abby would love to hang out. E, not so much.

Max couldn’t even begin to formulate an answer, biting her lip as she just closed the app again. Eventually she allowed her lips to curl into a small smile, realizing that… maybe this was the right choice. It was a good decision having come here, a good excuse to see her parents too, and meet some new people. A way for her to refresh.

But she needed to go back to her real life.

She stood up, looking for her messenger bag. The one she’d kept from all the way back in Blackwell. She looked around her room for a few moments, before finding the bag hung over the back of her desk chair. She slid the shoulder strap off the polymer headrest, before holding the thing in her hands.

Three years.

Three goddamn years.

Max slid the strap over her head as it fell down on her shoulder. She chuckled a bit as she analyzed herself in the mirror. Her hair had grown, her face had changed and matured a bit. But for all these years she’d still felt like that same girl. Coming here, meeting Delsin and his friends, it might not have led to what she wanted. But it helped her be alive again.

So what if I couldn’t save…

The name lodged itself in her gray matter, but her train of thought didn’t even want to utter the first letter. It was still too hard. Too soon. Too much to bear. She was almost angry at the thought, and the impulse to tear the picture with the butterfly that was still in her pocket surged through her hypothalamus. But before she could even consciously think about acting on that thought, a voice from the other side of the door called out her name.

“Maxine?”

Was that…

“… Victoria?”

Max didn’t even get a verbal answer, but as the door creaked open, it revealed the blonde she’d been hoping to avoid. The one she had wished would just fall off the face of the earth, never to return. Victoria stepped forward into Max’s room carefully, keeping her eyes strictly off of Max herself. She made a few steps forward in silence, closing the door behind her. Eventually she spoke up.

“This is your room? It looks-”

“How did you get here?”

“Your mother let me in, she’s a very pr-”

“You know that’s not what I mean.” Max replied, raising her voice as she stepped forward, her steps anxiously decisive as a frustrated expression began painting her face. Victoria almost flinched at the move, but she stood her ground. “What do you want from me?”

“I…just wanted to know if you were coming back.”

“You wanted to know if I was coming back!?” Max said, almost turning into a shout, before she quickly dampened her tone again, turning her head away from Victoria in an attempt to keep her cool. “What is wrong with you?”

“We don’t…we don’t have to be friends. We don’t have to be anything, we don’t even have to talk!” Victoria replied, trying to find that long-lost confidence. “I… I know I fucked up. I made a mistake, and-”

“This isn’t just about the other day! This is about every day of my life ever since I met you!” Max shouted back, seemingly snapping at Victoria. She turned to her in an instant, her lip trembling. “I watched Kate die, Victoria! I watched her kill herself because of the things you did! The only reason she isn’t dead right now is because I changed the timeline so it would never get that far!”

“I didn’t do anything! She-”

“I watched your fucking boyfriend kill Chloe! Over and over again, and every time that bullet entered her body, I hated his face more and more. I hated you more and more. You’ve always been a terrible person! But I keep thinking you’re gonna change, and you keep proving you never will!”

“I’m sorry!” Victoria yelled in response, the lump in her throat finally breaking. “I’ve been a horrible person, and I still am, but I want to change! I know not everyone’s going to forgive me… but I don’t want to be the reason you give up on the thing you were looking for.” She conceded, letting out a soft sniffle, before wiping away a single tear with her hand. “I don't want to be the reason you give up. I don’t wanna be a detriment to everyone around me anymore, at the very least.”

“I… “ Max choked on her breath, trying to calm herself down again for a few moments before speaking up again. “I don’t think I can forgive you.”

“I don’t want you to forgive me.” Victoria replied. “I don’t deserve anyone’s forgiveness, and especially not yours. But I want to stop ruining lives, and it only makes sense to start with the one life I haven’t managed to fully ruin.” She conceded, before turning her back to Max. “I’m sorry.” She’d already begun stepping to the door, but before her hand could even begin to reach for the door handle, she felt a hand on her own shoulder and turned around at the soft tug.

“Wait.” Max said, letting out a sigh. “If… you’re really trying to change, really trying to be better and atone for your mistakes.”

“I really am.” Victoria replied.

“Then… I want to be there for you as well.” She replied, a look of confusion setting itself on Victoria’s face.

“I thought you hated me?”

“I do… I think.” She admitted with a sigh, releasing her grip on Victoria’s shoulder as her hand dropped to her side. “But if you are willing to try and change… I just don’t want to hold onto that grudge any longer. All that hate eating away at me. We can all afford to change a little bit, I guess. Soooo… that makes us superhero partners again.” Max replied with a small chuckle, a tear dripping over her smirk, an attempt to alleviate the tension in the air.

“Oh my god,” Victoria replied, rolling her eyes before sniffling lightly. “If you’re gonna be like this, I’ll just move to Portland in your plac-” She was abruptly cut off by a loud growling coming from her stomach. “Sorry, I… haven’t really been eating.”

“It’s fine,” Max replied with a small chuckle. “My uhh… Mom was cooking up some pasta, you could eat here if you wa-”

“Oh fuck yes, I am starving.”

Chapter Text

Birds chirped outside the Rowe-Walker-Chase-Sims-Caulfield household (now that’s a mouthful) as the morning sun used its meager energy to heat up the cold streets. But Max and the rest weren’t outside to enjoy the lukewarm winter morning, no, they were inside working on more important things.

“So… Oscorp?” Delsin asked.

“That’s what Miya told me,” Victoria replied. “They’re rounding up conduits, but she doesn’t have any idea where they’re going.”

The group—all five of them—had gathered around the kitchen counter to discuss what they were going to do about the conduit kidnappings, and how they were going to get their hands on a core relay shard after Max and Vic had gotten back to the apartment last night.

Max reasonably asked. “All the way across the pacific?”

“No, they’re staying in the country.” Eugene suddenly chimed in, as he turned his laptop around to show his screen to the group. “Oscorp is based out in New York, they have labs spread across the country, but nowhere internationally.”

“What?” Delsin asked, confused. “If they’re in New York, why aren’t they just shipping them by truckload? Or sending them on a plane? Seems weird to ferry them all the way to the other side of the country by sea.”

“Something about laxer laws on the seas, maybe? Some maritime law shit?” Fetch reasoned.

“Pretty sure human trafficking still isn’t legal, even out at sea.” Max remarked.

“Maybe they’ve got secret labs overseas, I don’t know! Whatever the reason is, if we can ambush one of their higher ranks… “ Fetch said.

“… we can probably find out where exactly they're taking all these conduits.” Delsin continued, finishing her sentence.

“And find out where they’re keeping all the core relay shards that they found before we did,” Max replied. “So, that’s the plan?”

“Hold on,” Delsin replied. “I know we’re on a tight schedule here, but you guys aren’t ready for what’s coming. Right, Abby?”

Fetch just nodded, prompting Delsin to turn to Max and Victoria again. “Look, that last fight against Davis? It scared the shit out of me. Not because I almost died, but because I almost got you two killed.” He explained. “I was too confident, too reckless, and I was definitely being stupid bringing you two along. So before we do anything else, we’re gonna train. Hard.”

Victoria tilted her head in curiosity. “When?”

“Your powers have a lot of potential, but you really don’t have fine control over them.” Delsin explained as he circled around Victoria.

“What do you mean?”

“You tend to release all your energy in one punch, which is more than enough to defeat any old asshole. But it also means that you can only really fight one person before you’re out, and we really need you to pull more weight if we’re gonna be facing Oscorp’s endless piles of cash.” He explained, before reaching into his back pocket. After a few moments, he pulled out a small water bottle. “So I want you to make the water inside this bottle warm. Not hot, not boiling, just warm.”

“What?” Victoria asked with a smirk. “I kicked some Oscorp ass the other day, this should be easy.” She boasted, snatching the bottle out of his hand. At first nothing happened, as the plastic soaked in her very focused gaze. And then the plastic began bulging outward. And then she began to see the water bubbling, and in an instant she dropped the thing, whereupon Delsin caught it in a flash of smoke before it hit the ground and tossed it far away.

The bottle destroyed itself in a watery explosion in the air behind them as Delsin moved his gaze to Victoria again. “That’s kind of what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She mumbled. “What do you want me to do then?”

“Well,” Delsin replied, walking up to a small backpack propped up against the stairwell off the roof they were on. He pulled another bottle out and tossed it at Victoria, watching her struggle to catch it out of the air. “I want you to try again.” Victoria could only roll her eyes at the self-impressed smug on his face.

And so, the two girls continued to practice. Max herself began sparring with Delsin, the smoke conduit teaching her the ins and outs of fighting effectively with her hands. It was going pretty well, all things considered. She was getting increasingly more comfortable, not just with her fists, but also with effectively using them in conjunction with her powers. Getting hit, rewinding time, dodging said hit before swinging a fist across her opponent’s jaw, or their chest, or going for a sweep kick to the legs. A foolproof strategy, in theory.

Victoria’s improvement was going… slower, in comparison. She was having a lot of trouble with not letting the water get too hot, and immediately boiling all of it. And sometimes she accidentally froze the whole thing, leaving her with a cylindrical piece of ice and more pent-up frustration than a chained-up bull in a field of roses.

As steam seeped through the bottle cap of the 16th water bottle, she threw the plastic bottle into a pile of broken copies.

“FUCK!” Victoria yelled out in frustration. “I don’t fucking get it! How the fuck am I supposed to put exactly enough energy into this stupid ass fucking water bottle!? This is fucking stupid!”

Delsin signaled something to Max, causing her to lower her fists as he watched her turn to Victoria.

“What did you just say?”

“You want me to heat this fucking water up, but I just keep making it explode.”

“No, but you said something about putting exactly enough energy into the water.” He replied. “Try dividing the energy, adding it in smaller increments in intervals. It doesn’t have to be perfect in one go.”

“… huh.” Despite her confusion, or maybe her sudden realization, she caught the new bottle Delsin threw her way. This time, however, she took it slow. Grasping the plastic in her two hands, she closed her eyes, before slowly breathing in and out. A few moments of silence passed before she opened her eyes again and let out a deep sigh. She quickly tossed the bottle back to Delsin, who just managed to catch it.

“There’s your stupid tea water.” Victoria’s tone rang more jovial, there wasn’t any real venom in there.

Delsin just let out a chuckle as he tossed the bottle back into the backpack. “Being able to use your powers in smaller increments is gonna be really useful. A punch with even a little bit more energy than your opponent expects is gonna be enough to catch them off guard. And then you can save the big hits for the bigger guys.”

“And now?” Victoria asked, turning back around to Delsin.

“Well, I should probably teach you some more stuff about fighting as well. Don’t think your enemies’ll give you the opportunity to boil them to death.”

Chapter Text

Out in the deep waters off of Seattle’s coast, many miles away from civilization, and anchored to a strategically desolate spot, floated a large carrier ship. It spanned miles in length, and a few less miles in width. Its deck held a few choppers and jets, but they weren’t the important parts of the ship. That would be the things going on inside. Important science furthering the understanding of conduits, business calls and training drills.

One of those things was a call happening inside a conference room on the lower decks.

“You lost the shard?” A distorted and muffled voice spoke through the surround sound speakers in the conference room.

“Before I could leave with it, an… inexperienced enemy conduit drained it of its energy. Rowe is building some kind of vigilante group, and I don’t know what he’s playing at but we need to focus on exterminatin-”

“I gave you control of an army! Troops upon troops at your every command!” The voice shouted, before coughing loudly. “I want you to make sure that the researchers will be able to continue their research without a hitch, understood? Don’t let your focus wander on Rowe, this is not what I pay you for.”

Davis Augustine looked at the screen in the middle of the round table, trying not to let his anger bleed through the blank expression on his face, before quietly answering his leader. “Of course sir. I have the situation under control.” He explained.

“No more excuses. And take care of that Caulfield girl, she could be important. Don’t kill her.” The voice calmly replied, and before he could say anything else, the screen quickly blipped to darkness, leaving him alone in that dark room.

In frustration, he slammed his fist on the surface of the maple wood conference room table, muttering a quiet ‘dammit’ as he rose from his chair. On his way to the conference room’s door, he slipped a flip phone out of a pouch on his belt and dialed a number. After barely a second of the ringtone playing, the person on the other line picked up.

“Mr. Augustine?” They nervously replied.

“Tell me Ms. Kalima has arrived. She should have been here yesterday.” “The chopper should be here soon, sir. She’ll be waiting for you on the upper deck.”

“Good.” He mumbled in response. He quickly flipped the phone shut again before stuffing it into his pocket. Combat boots stomped on reverberating metal, moving from hallway to staircase, as he figured out how he wanted to approach this situation. Moments later, as he made his way onto the ship’s upper deck, he looked out over the deep blue seas and let out a deep sigh.

The breezy air the seas brushed over him calmed him down somewhat, and he let himself close his eyes for a bit and reorient. The breeze whistled past his ears, the sea stench felt like home to him. A home in a previous life, maybe. But now a more important cause called him.

After a few moments, he opened his eyes and began moving once again. On the way, he greeted a few Oscorp soldiers, nodding at them as the soldiers themselves stopped whatever they were doing to salute their captain.

The ship itself was laid out much like an aircraft carrier, although considerably smaller to ensure it wouldn’t be discovered by any unauthorized parties. It was too small for any aircraft to safely land on, but that did mean that it was also too small for most radar communications to detect it. Well, you know, any radars that would be in the area. Oscorp was bankrolling the whole operation, Davis didn’t know what for, he didn’t really care either. In his mind, he was using them more than they were using him. A calming delusion, at the very least.

Eventually, Davis made his way up the ship’s bridge, the command center overlooking the deck. Before his hand could touch the door handle, however, the metal door swung open on its own. And as it did so, Davis immediately caught a glimpse of the person he was looking for.

Jayda Kalima. Ferrokinetic conduit mercenary, a real piece of work but too good at her job to tell her off about it. Her ability was very powerful, and the extent that she had perfected it to was admirable to most any other conduit. If she wasn’t using it to kidnap them, at least.

Not only could she control metals down to the smallest components, but she was an expert at fighting with weapons. Especially ones she could make herself with her gift. She’d been able to defend most conduit shipments pretty handily, running a tight shift and making sure nothing got in the way of her paycheck.

Until the last shipment.

Delsin Rowe and Fetch together had proven to be too much for her alone, and she hadn’t taken the event lightly.

“Ms. Kalima.” Davis mumbled as he stared at her, leaning back in a chair with her feet propped up on the large console. “I’m glad you agreed to meet with me.”

“Eh.” She replied with a shrug. “It’s what Oscorp pays me for, hard to turn down the money.” She stated bluntly, turning her head to Davis. “But you know all about that, right?”

“I’m not doing this for the money.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve told me before.” She replied, cutting him off. “Look, what’s the job?”

“Our standard troops are often enough to take care of kidnapping conduits and getting our hands on relay shards.” He explained. “Especially with some of the new recruits I’ve been able to get.”

“Again, know that, what do you need me for?”

“I have an… offer for you.” Davis said as he crossed his arms behind his back. “Your recent defeat to Delsin and his ally was a major blow to our operation.”

“Not as much as your own defeat to him was though, right?” Jayda chuckled. The corner of Davis’ lip curled up in frustration, as he let out a sigh.

“We have simply underestimated the amount of resistance we were going to encounter. Delsin and his lackeys are powerful conduits, more powerful than I thought. And unfortunately, they’re more coordinated than I had expected.”

“So… ?”

“You wanna defeat Ms. Walker, right? Teach her a lesson? Show her that she was lucky when Rowe saved her?”

A smirk cropped up on her face. “Yeah. You wanna tag team her?”

Davis chuckled back. “I have a better idea.”

Chapter Text

swordsandpens: D

swordsandpens: dud

swordsandpens: chek ur fukn txts asshat

heartshapedbox: What?

swordsandpens: i thnk i got sumn

swordsandpens: sendin u the addy rn

heartshapedbox: Good.

heartshapedbox: Don’t do anything ‘til I’m there, alright?

heartshapedbox: Abby?

swordsandpens is offline.

heartshapedbox: Haha, funny.

Delsin groaned to himself as he stuffed his phone into his back pocket. Quickly draining the neon out of a nearby sign, he jumped off the building he was standing on and turned to a blur of blue-purple neon mid-descent. And as he hit the floor, light streaked through the late-night city streets,the few civilians wandering those very streets turning to look at the last wisps of his neon trail. Seattle’s very own Raven.

He raced to the Seattle Center as quickly as he could, and as he began to get close, he snapped out of his incorporeal form, quickly sucking the smoke out of a parked car’s tailpipe. To his surprise, as he strolled into the outer edges of the plaza, the fighting hadn’t started yet.

With Fetch’s temper, he’d be surprised if that stalemate held for much longer.

As he finished sucking up all the smoke into his arm, he could hear a soft whisper ringing out. Turning his head to the source of the sound, he noticed Fetch perched up on a wall, overlooking… something.

“D! I’m up here.” She whispered, Delsin quickly dashing up next to her in a puff of smoke. As he got up to her level, he noticed she was looking over one of the many walkways around the center, although this specific one had one thing out of the ordinary. An unmarked, white four-seater van parked to the side of the pathway.

“An illegally parked van? I didn’t know you wanted to be a beat cop. I can get that arranged for you, I’ve still got connections in the force, ya know?” Delsin whispered as he perched down next to her.

“That van has conduits in it, jackass. Buncha them. A squad of Oscorp dickheads rounded up a few earlier tonight and then parked down here for some reason. I’ve been following them through the city, it’s fucked up.”`

“That’s why we need to stop it,” Delsin replied with a nod, his eyes moving from Fetch to the van. “But why did you call me here? You can handle goons, I’m assuming there’s something more.”

“That squad. Two standard troops, plus one upper-level asshole looking dude. His uniform had some red embellishments, and the patch on his chest was different. I think he was a higher rank, captain, or general. Whatever they call their higher-ups. But…”

“... he might know where they’re going,” Delsin said with a nod. “So, what’s your plan?”

“My plan?” Fetch’s tone rang befuddled, surprised. “I was kinda hoping you’d come up with one.”

“Sure,” Delsin replied with a chuckle. “I’ll try to catch that red guy, you focus on getting the kidnapped conduits to safety, alright? Just distract the soldiers and give the prisoners a good head start.”

“Sounds good.” Fetch confirmed, her legs already turning into a blur of purple neon in a show of impatience. “You ready?”

“Always.” Delsin nodded, turning into a cloud of smoke as he dashed down the wall and to the passenger side door of the white van. Looking through the blacked-out window, he spotted two of the Oscorp goons, one sitting behind the wheel and the other in the passenger’s seat. He knocked on the glass, and as the soldiers noticed him and started pulling out their guns, Delsin released the cinder blast he’d been charging in his hand. The attack tore the door apart, blasted into the two soldiers, and flung them out of the truck by way of tearing out the door on the other side.

Behind the truck, a group of five or six conduits had been cut loose from their bindings and were currently escaping capture. Delsin quickly looped around the car to the driver’s side, as a streak of neon raced from behind the van to the spot next to Delsin before morphing back into Fetch.

“You recognize your guy?” Delsin asked, as they looked over the two Oscorp goons on the floor that were slowly getting up. “Not yet.” Fetch replied, another soldier stepping out of the backseat door and aiming his rifle at Delsin and her. Naturally, the two soldiers Delsin had downed slowly pushed themselves up again. Fetch’s right hand lit up in a flash of purple neon as she looked at Delsin. “Want me to take care of these guys so you can go look for him?”

Delsin nodded, dashing away in a puff of smoke.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” She asked sarcastically, cracking her glowing purple knuckles as the other two soldiers raised their rifles at her.

“Positive. Engage on my signal.” One of the soldiers said, most likely to his comrade.

Fetch just chuckled at the command. “Bad choice.”

And as Abigail busied herself with keeping the hapless Oscorp mooks busy, Delsin was trying to find their captain. He didn’t have much to go off, only a vague description of his uniform, but if the van was still parked in that spot he couldn’t be far off. As he ran across the Seattle Center area, his shoes tapping on the stone paths, he was suddenly caught off guard. A microsecond lapse in awareness, and an outstretched arm clotheslined him straight to the floor.

He scrambled back up, his eyes aligning themselves with the figure he was looking for as he got back on his feet. The Oscorp captain with the red-tinged uniform. His physical stature was nothing impressive, meaning that the surprising amount of strength he possessed wasn’t a product of his immense muscle mass. He was a conduit, without a doubt.

His uniform was different in other ways as well. It was considerably more slimmed down compared to the almost American military look that the other paramilitaries had, lacking the actual armor plate that allowed a plate carrier to protect one’s torso, and any of the magazine pouches. And instead of a helmet, this man wore only a black mask covering his mouth and nose. Slimmer and more nimble, but less protected. But Delsin’s physical examination of his opponent quickly came to an end as he started to speak up.

“There you are, the Raven himself. Your reputation precedes you.” He said in a foreign accent Delsin couldn’t quite place, his head held high like he was looking down on Delsin.

“You know how much I love hearing that kinda shit from you guys?” Delsin rolled his shoulder as he stared his assailant down. “I keep getting more popular these days, I think it's getting to my head.”

“But seeing you here in real life confirms it is nothing but lies. A story spun of a false hero, one whose exploits are nothing but exaggerated lies.” He continued, as he pulled out a matte black karambit knife in his right hand. “Mathieu Dumont will prove to the Seattle that their dear superhero is nothing but a child. In over his head.”

“It’s just Seattle, not the Seattle.”

Delsin mocked him, charging a cinder blast in his hand as he expected Mathieu to charge at him with his knife. But instead of the attack he was expecting, Mathieu pulled up his left sleeve and took the blade to the upper part of his own lower left arm. As a large cut opened up, he dropped the blade to let it clang on the floor, and a stream of blood started running down his arm

“What the fuck are you doing?” Delsin asked in genuine confusion.

“Catching you off guard.”

In an instant, the stream of blood coagulated into a globulated form, all flowing into his left hand at speeds that hinted at them moving under the influence of more than just gravity. And before Delsin could process what was going on, a set of dark red shuriken manifested between Mathieu’s fingers and he tossed them at Delsin in one smooth movement .

Delsin reacted quickly, letting the cinder blast in his hand dissipate before blocking the shuriken volley with a swing of his chain. But as the stars hit the chain links, they suddenly splattered in a spray of blood that went right into Delsin’s eyes. Temporarily blinded, Delsin tried to wipe the blood out of his eyes as he stepped back defensively.

But as soon as he could see again, he came face to face with Mathieu, less than three feet in front of him and about to swing a crimson red saber right at his head. Delsin dashed back as quickly as he could, but the tip of the blade just managed to slash a nasty horizontal cut through his chest. The wound healed itself quick enough, but the minimal amount of blood that did come out pulled itself towards Mathieu’s saber. The liquid moved like iron shavings to a magnet.

“What the hell are you?” Delsin proclaimed, loosening the chains around his arms to let them sag a bit lower, giving him more length to work with.

“Your equal and superior, boy!” Mathieu yelled back as he swung his saber at Delsin again. Delsin swung his chain to whip it around his opponent’s blade in an attempt to disarm him. But instead of the chain looping around the blade, the blade itself turned into a liquid and passed through Delsin’s attack for a few moments before reforming and lodging itself into the crook of his neck. Mathieu pulled the blade out, stealing some blood along with it.

Delsin grunted out in pain, but he knew the hit wasn’t enough to really damage him in the long run and tried to ignore it. He had enough juice left in him for now. Before Mathieu could attack again, Delsin quickly pulled the chains around his arms again and got into a blocking stance.

I need to get some distance between us, I’m not good enough at close range to keep up with this guy. Delsin thought to himself as Mathieu started wailing away at the chains around his arm. Between two of his swings, Delsin took the opportunity and blasted Mathieu in the face with a cinder blast. The attack hit, sending Mathieu flying backward through the air, before landing face-first on the stone path a few feet away.

Delsin didn’t want to give Mathieu another opportunity and immediately aimed his arm out in his direction. A big cloud of smoke gathered around his hand and after a few moments of charging he fired a cinder missile right at his opponent. In that time, Mathieu managed to slightly recover, and he’d gotten up to his knees. But before he could fully recover, the missile exploded right in his face blasting him back even further.

His flaccid body rag-dolled along the stone path for a few more yards, before coming to a halt by way of smashing into a light pole, denting its base with a mildly Mathieu-shaped deformation. Delsin wiped the dust off his hands, as he slowly walked up to Mathieu’s unconscious body. He was lying in a pool of blood, most of it probably belonging to the sword he had in his hands due to the wound on his arm already having fully healed up. For the rest, his opponent’s body looked pretty intact.

Good. Delsin thought. I was getting sick of that guy.

He knelt down next to the body, carefully turning it on its back so he could have a look at his front.

Delsin managed to get a better look at the man’s outfit, and he noticed that it was a heavily modified version of Oscorp’s standard uniform. He practically only wore the pitch-black tactical vest and shoulder pads. The rest was incredibly slimmed down, practically only cloth, making his body much more vulnerable but giving him a lot more room to move. His conduit abilities were probably the reason he didn’t seem to want the extra protection, a homology Davis’ combat outfit shared. And his aggressive, melee-focused fighting style did definitely benefit from having more room to move. Delsin decided to stop analyzing his opponent, starting to look for any documents that could tell them where they were sending their prisoners.

After a few moments of searching, he found what he was looking for. In a small pouch on his utility belt, among a collection of bloodstained dog tags, he found a small USB stick. It was inconspicuous, and probably the exact type of thing you would hide critical information on.

“This must be it,” Delsin mumbled to himself, before suddenly seeing a purple flash in the periphery of his eye. He turned his head around to see Fetch standing above him.

“Nice job, D!” Fetch said, crouching down next to him before patting him on the back. “Holy fuck that’s a lot of blood, did you kill the guy?”

“No!” Delsin replied. “I just…freaky ass conduit, it’s a whole story, I’ll tell you later. But… “ He continued, showing the USB pinched between his thumb and index finger. “… I think I found our way in.”

Chapter Text

Life was strange right now for Max.

In the past month, she’d gotten into life-threatening situations, talked to more people actively than she had in the past three years (she’d sorta turned into Portland U’s very own hermit), gotten into fights, and even made… a certain amount of peace with the feud between her and Victoria. It had been a tumultuous time, and this downtime while the others were trying to crack Oscorp’s secrets and she wasn’t actively training for combat was basically the only time she’d had to process the recent events.

Right now she was lying down in her bed staring at the ceiling at the… Rowe household? She wasn’t even sure what to call this place, the house was kind of a shared safe house for the five of them. Not that she was complaining, she liked living with them, and certainly didn’t mind not paying rent.

Max let out a sigh as she looked at her phone. Victoria had convinced her to come back, but there was no doubt that Max was still kind of nervous about everything. She still wanted to save Chloe so much, but she was starting to realize just how big the stakes were becoming. She wasn’t just dragging Delsin, Fetch, and Eugene into this, but also Victoria. And despite her longstanding hatred for the girl… she was still kind of worried about what might happen. What dangers she might be pulling her into.

Because Max’s time powers were powerful, incredibly so. But if Victoria or any of the others died she wouldn’t be able to save them without causing another storm. And at that point, everything would only get worse, she’d have to get that shard before the second storm happened. All of that power in her hands was terrifying. It always had been, to be fair, but now it had become so much more. She was older, wiser, but at the same time, even more clueless.

All of this was becoming so much more than she ever thought it would have. Back when she came to Seattle, she didn’t do so under the impression she’d be getting into any action. She didn’t even know what she was thinking. And now here she was getting ready to fight alongside a group of conduits to take down a huge corporation that’s bankrolling a whole damn paramilitary. It was like she was a protagonist in one of the cheesy movies she liked to watch.

If I traveled back in time right now and told eighteen-year-old Max that this was where her life was going… she’d probably call me insane. Even after all the shit in Arcadia Bay went down. Max thought to herself. Hell, I think I’m nutter butter and I’m in the middle of it.

She was abruptly snapped out of her thoughts by a knock on her door.

“Maxine? You in there?”

Max replied in a soft mumble. “Max, not-.”

“I know. I’m coming in,” Victoria said, as the door creaked open.

Max slowly sat up, lifting her head from her pillow to look at Victoria. “What’s up buttercup?”

“Not much, I was just getting tired of training.”

“You were still training?”

“I just want to be sure I can fight back if anything happens. You should do the same.”

“I’m pretty sure I know how to throw a punch by now,” Max replied with a chuckle, Victoria rolling her eyes, though she couldn’t hold back the smile that crept onto her face.

“Your powers are pretty cool, to be honest,” Victoria said, sitting down next to Max. “It’s kind of like… have you ever read JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?” She asked, kind of mumbling through the final part of her sentence.

At that name, Max turned her head to Victoria with a face of confusion. “I was watching the anime, so no spoilers please. But… you read manga?”

“I… don’t tell anyone I said that,” Victoria grumbled softly, Max softly chuckling in response. “Your powers are kind of like one of the bad guys from it.” She continued to explain, turning her embarrassed face away from Max. Before Max could inquire further about this super cool manga character, Victoria changed the subject. “I came here to ask you something else, though.”

“Ask away.”

“I just got a pretty big payday and I wanted to go shopping… care to join me?”

The confusion in Max grew. Victoria asking her out to go shopping? Granted, they weren’t at Blackwell anymore, but that was still a turn of events that would have sounded absolutely impossible to her three years ago. Something deep inside of her wanted to tell her no, she didn’t exactly love shopping… or crowds… or spending a lot of money, but another part of her…

“Sure.”

And so, the two girls set off to Victoria’s favorite mall. Seattle’s Westfield Southcenter Mall, a shopping mall down in southern Seattle. Back before Blackwell, when she first lived in Seattle with her parents, she used to go there all the time. Not to mention the amount of money she’d spend on every trip. But that was a long time ago, a person Victoria didn’t really recognize as herself anymore. An abstraction of her memories. A different Victoria.

One with access to a lot more money, too.

Victoria drove carefully as she pulled into the parking lot, her eyes focused solely on her mirror as she parked in one of the open spaces closest to the mall. The lot wasn’t packed, but it certainly wasn’t vacant either, and that became very clear to Max as she stepped out of the car and looked out into the sea of parked vehicles.

For a few moments, Max stood there staring into the distant horizon, and Victoria ran a hand through her own hair as she snapped herself out of the trance she would always get into while driving. It was easier to ignore the awkward silences and the music Max instinctively put on her Bluetooth radio—she didn’t remember telling Max that she could do that but she also didn’t remember telling her she couldn't—when you focused completely on the road. And as Max stood there on the other side of the car, her hand resting on her messenger bag, she realized something else that had changed about Victoria that she’d only subconsciously noticed before.

Her hair had gotten longer since Blackwell. Not much, just a little, but it was enough for Victoria to apparently deem dressing it properly like she used to do not so important anymore. The longer locks of blond hair were kind of messily strewn across her forehead, swept to the right, and just barely not reaching her eyes. There was also a bit of a mullet going on, although it didn’t run very far down her neck. It kind of reminded her of the french crops she’d seen on Tumblr, although a bit lengthier-

“What the hell are you staring at?” Victoria snapped, the venom in her voice palpable if seeming a bit forced.

“I uh… I like your hair,” Max stuttered, only really thinking about the words she’d just said after she had said them. “It… looks… good?”

Victoria’s face looked like it was short-circuiting, the small muscles around her eyes and mouth twitching like she herself wasn’t even sure what she was feeling. But as she started to feel her cheeks getting warm, she swiftly turned her back to Max and pulled her purse up higher over her shoulder. “Um… thanks.” She mumbled in response. “Don’t keep me waiting, let’s go.”

Quickly, the girls made their way through the parking lot and into the mall proper. As soon as she stepped through the door, Victoria breathed in the atmosphere, deeply. It was a world she hadn’t been to in a while, one she used to feel at home in.

Used to.

As the humid, musty mall air made its way into her lungs, her body rejected it, and the warmth and familiarity she was supposed to feel was replaced with indifference. It had been replaced by a cold distance, an abyss where life used to roam. Victoria shook the feeling off, as Max’s voice spoke out behind her.

Max stumbled over her words for a few moments, adapting to the fact that she was speaking in a crowd this big for the first time in years. “So, what do we do?”

“I knew you were a hipster, but you sound like an alien right now.” Victoria remarked. “Have you never been to a mall before?”

“Not… often!” Max replied. “Arcadia Bay wasn’t exactly abundant in them, and while I lived here, I wasn’t very interested in shopping. I think I uh… stayed up with my friends all night for a game launch once?” She admitted with a slightly embarrassed tone, as Victoria rolled her eyes.

“Just follow me,” Victoria said, as she cut her way through the crowd, Max hot on her trail. She had to do her best to keep up, to be fair. Victoria walked through rows and rows of people like a well choreographed dance, while Max had pissed off the better half of an entire concert with her clumsy moves. The two girls made their way through the crowd, up a flight of escalators, past rows and rows of stores, until they arrived at a clothing store that Victoria was interested in.

“Shooot,” Max said as they stepped through the front doors of the store. Looking around, she saw a lot of clothes, most of which seemed to be very…

“Expensive…” She mumbled under her breath, turning around the paper tag on a beige silk shirt. The price read a whopping $980.00.

Victoria herself came to this shocking realization as well, searching through a rack of clothes only to find nothing even close to below the $500.00 range. Jesus. I don’t remember everything here being so expensive. She thought to herself, thinking about the money in her bank account. She couldn’t afford anything here. Or, maybe I don’t remember myself not being able to afford any of it.

“I couldn’t afford any of this.” Max chimed in like she’d heard Victoria’s thoughts, inspecting the outfit on a mannequin from a distance.

Victoria just dropped a simple “Mhm.” before gulping.

“Hey, let’s go to another store.” Victoria suddenly said.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not really fun for you if you can’t buy anything, right?” Victoria reasoned, and before Max could respond, she continued. “Come on, let’s go.” She said, already walking out of the store and prompting Max to follow her without another word. They trekked through the mall complex again, cutting their way through crowds, before they found themselves at the front door of another clothing store.

This one was… well it wasn’t a designer boutique. To Victoria, it might as well be a dump, but with her current financial status there wasn’t really any other option. She let out a soft sigh before the two girls stepped into the store.

Victoria immediately went to the coat rack. She’d been wanting to get a thicker jacket ever since it had been getting colder, but her finances hadn’t allowed it. And with Christmas coming up, it was only getting colder. She’d seen this super cute beige trench coat the other day, so she wanted to get something similar to it.

Max herself… well she kind of walked around like a chicken without a head. She browsed through a rack of hoodies, not looking for anything in particular. I mean, she had enough clothes, she reasoned. As long as her outfit didn’t reek, it didn’t really matter to her what she looked like. That’s why she had a steady rotation of practically the same outfit for every day of the week. Hey, if it works! She thought to herself.

And so some time went by. Victoria tried on a ton of different clothes, not really particularly liking any of them. She’d put on a new shirt, a new skirt, look at herself in the mirror in silence, and just… not really get that feeling. She felt like something was missing.

After about the fifth outfit try-out, she’d stepped out of the changing room with a loud sigh. The sigh caught Max’s attention, and as she looked up from her phone she spoke up.

“I like that blouse.” She said.

“You… do?” Victoria replied, sort of absent-mindedly as she turned to face Max.

“Kinda. I just don’t think it fits you very well.” Max replied. “Kinda… too loud, ya dig? I think it’s the colors.”

“Well, I have another one. Give me a second.” Victoria said before she stepped back into the changing room. A few moments passed before she came out again. She was wearing something completely different. She was wearing an off-white blouse with a black blazer draped over it, and a tight pair of jeans around her legs.

“What do you think?” Victoria asked, making a few different poses to give Max a good look.

“Hmmm,” Max pondered, sarcastically scratching her chin. She chuckled at her own bit for a few moments, before finally responding. “I think that actually looks a lot better on you. It fits your… classy style.” She responded with a sort of meaningless hand waving that was meant to look faux-fancy.

“You mean my rich douchebag style, right?” Victoria responded as she looked herself over.

“… yeah.” Max admitted under her breath, the two girls chuckling lightly at the self-jab. After a few moments, their laughter died down and Victoria spoke up again.

“I actually have a few more outfits I wanted to try out. Wanna be my judge again?”

“Well, I did just get an invite to be a judge on The Voice, so a little practice won’t hurt,” Max remarked, causing Victoria to roll her eyes before she stepped back into the changing room.

And so Victoria went on to demo the outfits she’d picked out, as well as a few of the ones she’d tried on before. And Max judged every single one of them. And… Victoria actually started to have a lot of fun. The emptiness she’d felt for so long, the one they’d both felt for very different reasons… well it wasn’t fully filled up, but the patchwork was starting to come together.

Victoria started to realize that what she was missing wasn’t the money, the clothes, the luxury. It was none of that. She’d been kicked out by her parents, cut off all contacts with her Blackwell friends, and she’d pushed herself away from the new friends she did manage to make.

She was lonely. She’d always been lonely.

After the so many’th outfit change, she came out of the changing room with a stack of clothes in her arms, and the clothing she’d walked into the store with on her body.

“Are you buying all that?” Max asked, standing up from the small bench she’d been sitting on for the better part of an hour.

“No! Just… some of it,” Victoria responded. “What about you?”

“Nothing,” Max replied. “I’m happy with my current Caulfield class.” She concluded, showing off her brown hoodie, loose-fitting worn jeans, and some geeky 2001: A Space Odyssey quoting t-shirt. Like she’d said before, not exactly a fashionista.

“Well, I’m not,” Victoria replied, pulling a stack of clothes out of the pile before throwing it to Max. “Try that on, I’m gonna put these back.” She practically instructed, and before Max could even think about protesting, Victoria was already gone. Max looked down at the pile in her hands for a moment, before letting out a defeated sigh and stepping into the changing room.

A few minutes passed, and after Victoria finished putting back the clothes she didn’t want to buy, she’d returned to the changing room to see that Max was still changing. She quietly shrugged to herself, before sitting down on the bench. It took another minute or so for Max to finish changing, but when Victoria heard the curtains shift, she looked up to see Max and…

“Wow,” Victoria said almost involuntarily, before quickly hiding her surprised reaction.

Max luckily didn’t manage to catch what she said, however, inspecting herself in the mirror first. The outfit she’d been given consisted of a medium length beige trench coat, worn over black turtleneck and a plaid skirt. She awkwardly posed herself in front of the mirror a few times, trying to get a good feel for what she was wearing.

“What do you think?” Victoria asked as she stepped up next to Max.

“I… don’t know.” Max sheepishly replied, tugging at the bottom of her skirt to try and lower it. “I like it, but I’m not sure about this sk-OW!” She was suddenly cut off by Victoria swatting her hand away. “What was that for?”

“I think you look good in a skirt.” Victoria responded as Max’s cheeks turned a light red. “Besides, you wear the same pair of jeans, like, every day, is it really that much of a hassle to wear a skirt once?”

“They’re not the same pair of jeans…” Max mumbled under her breath. Eventually, she conceded with a sigh. “Fine, where’s the price tag on this thing?” She conceded, pulling at the hem of her skirt to find the price tag before being stopped by Victoria again.

“Don’t do that.” She mumbled, before looking back up at Max. “I’m paying.”

And so Max got dressed up in her normal fit again before the two girls set off to the cash register. Victoria had to take a moment to part with her hard-earned money, but after she did so, they packed their clothes into a bag from the store and left for the exit. But before they left, Victoria spoke up again.

“Wait.” She said, Victoria stopping dead in her tracks and causing Max to do so as well.

“What?”

“Give me your camera.”

“Wh-” “Just do it!” She pestered, before Max let out a sigh and started digging through her messenger bag. After a few moments, she found her old Polaroid 600. And as soon as the device left her bag, Victoria snatched it out of her hand. In that same movement, she wrapped an arm around Max’s shoulder, pulling her closer before snapping a quick selfie. The action caught Max off guard, and she just managed to flash an awkward smile before the camera flashed.

Max fell into laughter from the spontaneity of Victoria’s action, as even Victoria’s cold heart couldn’t resist laughing along. And for a few moments, they just stood there at the exit, content smiles on their faces, and a feeling of…

Max didn’t really know how to describe it. Her feelings in regard to Victoria were still… complicated. A part of her still hated the Chase girl with a passion, blamed her for a lot of the things that went wrong in her life, saw her as Kate’s murderer in an alternate timeline. But a new part of her wondered what continuing to nurture that hatred would really accomplish. When she said she’d wanted to help Victoria change, part of that statement was hollow, but over time she realized she did actually want to help her. She’d always wanted to see the best in people… she’d just lost the ability to care a long time ago. But it was finally coming back. She was finally feeling alive again.

That feeling was rudely ripped from her fingers when a bullet entered the side of Victoria’s head and her blood covered Max’s face.

Chapter Text

One moment Victoria and Max were finally connecting, finally beginning to reach a sense of mutual understanding. The picture in Victoria’s hand, the smiles on their faces, the warmth shared between them both physically and metaphorically.

The next moment Victoria’s body fell to the floor like a ragdoll as a spray of crimson blood coated the front of the picture. Screams around her rang out as the sound of gunshots filled the rest of the auditory space. Max couldn’t fully understand what had happened for a few moments, but she recognized the sound of a bullet entering someone’s body. Although she’d never seen it go straight through someone’s head before, it was a sound she could never forget. A sound ingrained practically into her DNA.

And in the next moment, Max’s hand was already raised forward in the air. The action didn’t even register in Max’s mind, it was like a reflex. She didn’t consciously move her arm, but as she did it she knew exactly what she was doing, although she might not have fully grasped the consequences yet.

In her little bubble of slowed time, Max suck in a deep breath, before-

Max fell into laughter from the spontaneity of Victoria’s action, as even Victoria’s cold heart couldn’t resist laughing along. But she didn’t have time to stand there, to continue living in the moment. As she snapped back to her past self, Max acted quickly, stuffing the picture in her messenger bag before tackling Victoria back into the store.

The two girls hit the floor, and as Victoria was about to yell at her, the sound of gunshots rang out through the building and screams filled the mall as everyone started running towards the exits.

“What the fuck?!” Victoria yelled as the two girls quickly got up and took cover behind the nearest display table. “What’s going on!?”

“I… don’t know,” Max replied breathlessly, slowly snapping out of the fearful trance she'd gone into. “I saw you get shot and I just… I acted.”

“Jesus Christ!” Victoria said, as panic started setting in. She tried to calm herself down to the best of her abilities, as she raked her mind for a plan. “We… we need to get out of here. Is it Oscorp?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t get to look, I just reacted-” Max cut herself off with a pained grunt, instinctively grabbing at her forehead. Fuck. Not now. Did I turn back too far? She thought to herself, powering through the headache to the best of her ability. “I think I’m out of juice for now.”

“Seriously? Now?” Victoria mumbled through gritted teeth, her tone one of desperation rather than actual anger. The sound of screams was already getting softer, probably due to the fact that most people had already evacuated the premises. But as Victoria noticed that, another noise came in earshot of her. Combat boots hit the laminate floor of the store, and approached quicker than she would have liked.

“Lost sight of Velocity and the Caulfield girl.” A gruff voice spoke out, as they could hear the sound of a mechanical clicking coming from the same source. Some radio or a communications device going back on mute. A few moments later, they could hear the boots hitting the ground again, tapping against the faux wood and slowly coming closer.

Victoria’s panic started rising as she realized that she was the one who had to make a move here. Max’s time powers were malfunctioning for some reason, and Victoria’s powers weren’t going to make up for it on their own. Which meant that she would have to make use of her very extensive martial arts skills.

Oh joy.

Victoria’s regeneration was significantly slower than Delsin’s or Fetch’s, which also meant that any injury sustained would debilitate her effectiveness in any potential following battles in the building. And Max could take a gunshot about as well as a stack of paper or a watermelon could.

Victoria’s lower lip was quivering, the pressure mounting within her mind. And as she turned her head to Max, preparing to ask her for advice in an act of pretty much pure desperation, she felt Max’s hand rest on her shoulder and the girl flashed her an encouraging smile. The brunette mouthed a silent ‘you got it’, at her, and Victoria closed her eyes before letting out a deep breath and taking her scarf from her neck.

A few moments of silence only occasionally interrupted by those same heavy footsteps passed, and as the Oscorp soldier reached the display table Max and Victoria were hiding behind, he was suddenly ambushed by the blonde herself. Before he could fire a single round, Victoria’s hand slapped his rifle’s barrel out of the way and prompted him to quickly step back.

“I have a visual on Velocity!” The soldier shouted, recovering his aim as quickly as he could. But as his barrel realigned itself with his target again, Victoria had gotten into melee range. She went in for a right hook, trying to hit the soldier in the face, but her opponent reacted quickly and moved his rifle in the trajectory of the blow. Her fist hit the rifle just on the ejection port, and the extra kinetic energy she’d put in the attack caused the blow to hit hard enough to put a huge dent into it and make the weapon unusable.

The soldier didn’t take it lying down, however, tossing his weapon to the side before engaging Victoria in melee combat. And she quickly came to notice that her opponent was significantly better trained in hand-to-hand combat than she was, forcing Victoria to go on the defensive. He was incredibly fast compared to her, and having to block every attack that the soldier threw at her caused her to be pushed back step by step. Being on the backfoot didn’t exactly give her any opportunities to punch back.

She blocked another punch, and felt herself being pushed to her limit. The limited list of moves that Delsin had taught her recently would be enough to keep herself safe for the coming few seconds, but one of these days her opponent was gonna break through her defenses, and she’d be down for the count. She needed to make a move. She needed to be the one in power here. And out of a seeming stroke of luck, she found her opportunity.

Her opponent went for a hook punch to the side of Victoria’s face, and she managed to block the blow again. Seemingly out of frustration, the soldier tried to switch up his style, and instead of keeping the pressure on Victoria, he moved back somewhat. Before Victoria could capitulate this free ground, the soldier threw a hook kick to the side of her head. Victoria managed to react just in time, dodging under the kick and finally throwing the Oscorp soldier off balance. She immediately took the opportunity, pulling back her fist, and as kinetic energy surged into her hand, she pushed forward and delivered a nasty punch right to her opponent's solar plexus.

The blow landed, causing the Oscorp soldier to be launched straight to the floor. The soldier slid along the laminate for a few moments, before slamming into a display case, which fell down on top of him.

Victoria let out a tired sigh as she waited for her stomach to rumble again. But it didn’t. Delsin’s advice had seemingly worked, and had allowed her to more finely control the energy she put into her attacks. She mentally applauded herself for a second, before being snapped back to reality by the voice of the brunette who was still hiding behind the display table.

“Tori! That was… awesome sauce!” Max exclaimed as she appeared out of cover. As the brunette walked up next to Victoria, she looked over at her companion and raised an eyebrow.

“Tori?”

“Sorry, that was… I don’t know where that came from, I-”

“No, it’s… alright,” Victoria replied, turning her head away again as the edges of her lips curved up into a small smile beneath her scarf-mask. “Let’s go, I don’t know if we’ve got more coming and I’d rather not find out.” She continued as she tightened her mask.

“You’re right,” Max replied with a nod, as the two girls jogged their way to the exit of the store.

But as soon as they stepped, another burst of bullets whizzed past, tearing apart a small plant pot a few feet away. Victoria acted quickly, grabbing Max by the wrist before breaking into a full sprint, practically dragging the brunette behind her. More rounds whizzed past them, Victoria shooting a quick look to her left to see a platoon of about three Oscorp soldiers firing at them. She was just able to outspeed their aim by pumping more kinetic energy into her movement, but that wouldn’t do much if they didn’t have anywhere to run.

As Victoria ran across the catwalk, dragging Max along by the wrist while the two girls were being pelted by bullets, she realized that she couldn’t just keep running. The current catwalk she was on was a bridge between two opposing walkways, and once they reached the other side of the walkway she was gonna have to choose a direction. And if they started to move parallel to the Oscorp soldiers, it was going to be a cakewalk for them to hit her.

Looking ahead of her, she spotted that the store they were heading in the direction of was on the edge of the mall. Looking further she could see that at the back of what seemed like a jewelry store, was a window. They were a few floors up, so the fall was gonna hurt. But they had to get out of the mall and into their car as fast as they could. As they started to near the end of the bridge, Victoria quickly turned her head to Max.

“Max… are you good at falling?”

“What does that mean!?”

“Just hold on tight!” Victoria replied as they ran through the jewelry store, and Victoria smashed shoulder first through the glass window. Glass splinters showered the two girls as gravity pulled them down towards the ground. And as they fell, Victoria finally assessed how high up they really were. They were about halfway through a fifty-foot drop, and it dawned on her that neither of them were sturdy enough to survive that kinda fall. Victoria maybe, but Max hadn’t been blessed with any increased durability when she unlocked her abilities.

Thoughts raced around in Victoria’s mind, as she felt Max’s arms wrapped tightly around her midriff. The brunette was holding on for dear life. Victoria had to come up with something. Time seemingly slowed down for her, giving her the clarity of mind to come up with something. Anything! And at that moment, something did shoot into her mind’s eye.

She had the ability to manipulate energies. At first only heat, now kinetic as well. And when one falls, their potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. So if she just… converted it all back into heat energy, they should come to a slower fall.

Don’t fail me now, Ms. Grant’s science class…

She acted quickly, trying to lower the kinetic energy of their fall… somehow. She quickly came to realize that this was a lot harder than just putting a shit ton of energy into a punch, there wasn’t any kind of physical action involved. It was all controlling her power.

And as the two girls were about to hit the floor, they closed their eyes in anticipation of hitting asphalt and breaking all their bones. But instead of the hard impact they were both expecting to feel, they kind of just… stopped. Their fall slowed to a crawl, and they softly felt their bodies hit the asphalt beneath them. After a few moments, they both opened their eyes to find themselves back in the parking lot, laying down on the floor.

“That was… “ Max was looking for the word she wanted to use to describe what just happened, when she noticed she was still stuck to Victoria like a neodymium magnet to a fridge. She ended the awkward embrace, as the two girls got up off the floor.

“Thanks for saving my ass.” Max flashed a small smile at Victoria, the movement of her muscles almost involuntary.

The cheeks under Victoria’s mask lit up in a light red, but she just shrugged off the compliment as she looked in the direction of where she had parked her car. “…thanks for saving me too, Max.” She mumbled through the thin fabric of her mask, quietly. A soft sound escaped Max’s lips, Victoria unsure whether she’d heard her or not.

As they got up, they wasted no time running to Victoria’s car. And by the time they were speeding out of the almost-empty parking lot they still hadn’t heard any gunshots. As soon as Victoria made it onto the highway, she pulled the scarf off her face and threw it in the backseat. She needed a long, deep breath.

Chapter Text

The last time it happened she wasn’t expecting it. It was a shock to her system, to her world, to everything she thought she knew. And she’d done everything to stop it. This time she had been waiting for it, however. Her fingers were wrapped tightly around the cereal bowl in her hands as she just stared out the window in disbelief. Her cereal had gotten soggy by now, but she didn’t care. She’d gotten up at around six and it was already nine by now.

And it hadn’t stopped snowing since seven.

When she saw the snowflakes hit the glass for the first time, she mentally scolded herself for forgetting that snow was the first thing that happened after she’d saved Chloe and the storm announced its soon-to-come destruction for the first time. After that, she just hadn’t been able to calm herself down or even think about anything else. Everything she’d done, everything she’d built up, it could all come crashing down just like that. It would come crashing down. It had to.

Soon it would all mean nothing if she didn’t do anything.

And then she remembered Chloe. Her blue-haired best friend, the fate, no, the world she’d been fighting for. A world where Chloe and Arcadia Bay could co-exist. Where Chloe and the world could co-exist. Maybe… just maybe, that fate also meant Victoria wouldn’t have to die either? A storm wouldn’t have to hit Seattle? There had to be something she could do, something she could hold on to.

It was the only hope she had… but it was a shallow one. She just had to keep fighting.

The thought wasn’t able to fully calm her down, but it distracted her enough to let her take a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. And as she chewed on the soggy flakes, a door creaked behind her and she turned her head to the sound.

It was Victoria. The blond flashed a small smile at her when their gazes met, before walking up to her. “Good morning, Max,” she mumbled in a tired slur before letting out a yawn. “How long have you been up? Your cereal is all… ya know? It doesn’t look very appetizing.”

Max chuckled lightly as she kept her eyes on the snow. “I’m not sure… an hour at least.”

“Jesus, are you okay?”

“It’s nothing, I’m just… “ Max let out a sigh. “… have you seen the snow outside?”

“Global warming’s getting bad, I guess.” Victoria sighed.

“That’s…true I guess.” Max conceded, finally taking another sip of her cereal. “It just feels kind of weird, like it wasn’t meant to snow today”

The confusion in Victoria grew, as she moved her gaze to the girl next to her. “… what? Did you smoke something after we got home? You sound like a stoner philosopher.”

Max just chuckled in response, before shaking her head. “Never mind, it’s nothing,” she assured her. “I guess I’m just tired.”

“Oh me too,” Victoria replied, as she turned around to walk to the kitchen. “I need a cup right now, you want some?”

“Coffee? No, I’m good.” Max responded, as she leaned back on the windowsill and continued to stare out at the snow, occasionally taking a bite of her cereal.

Victoria herself made her way over to the kitchen, and after she turned on the coffee machine to brew herself a hot cup, she leaned her butt against the kitchen counter. She leaned her head backward and closed her eyes before letting out a big sigh.

The day before had been one of the most exciting things she’d ever done, a statement she’d been having to repeat a lot recently.

I almost died!

The thought that this was the second time this had happened since she had embraced her powers flashed through her mind for a second, but the adrenaline was much more prevalent in her mind’s eye. The rush of battle was almost enough to motivate her on its own. But once she’d gotten down from that high, she also noticed that she almost killed Max herself with the ‘jumping-out-of-the-window’ stunt.

More than that though, the memories of her and Max’s impromptu fashion show is what really stuck to the forefront of her mind. Something about that had burrowed its way into her psyche, made her realize something that she… didn’t fully understand yet.

She brushed aside the thought when a set of footsteps entered the kitchen. Victoria’s eyes quickly snapped open, only to land upon the apartment’s resident nerd.

“Oh, good morning four-eyes,” Victoria flashed one of those polite smiles where you don’t move your eyebrows as she turned back to face the coffee machine.

“Good morning, Victoria,” Eugene replied, the hurtfulness of her words of choice only slightly bleeding through the tone of his voice. “I was actually looking for you.”

“You were?”

“I, uh… ” he started to say, only to trail off as he searched for something in his hoodie’s pockets. It took a few moments, but after a while, he pulled out a small piece of black fabric and handed it to Victoria. The girl took the fabric out of his hands, as he continued talking again. “My DnD group, we sometimes make costumes and I thought-”

“And you made a mask for me? That’s super cute.” Victoria replied, cutting him off as she wrapped the mask around her face.

His cheeks quickly flushed, as he scraped his throat before continuing.“W-well, yeah, kinda. But if you don’t like i-”

“I like it,” she replied bluntly, looking at her reflection in her phone’s camera. “… thanks, seriously,” she told him, turning her gaze back to Eugene. And man, was she happy that her new mask was hiding the small smile on her face right now, or else he’d probably be geeking out right now. As she moved her hands behind her neck to untie the mask, she made sure to lower her smile before Eugene could see her face. “Anything else?”

“Delsin also asked me to call you guys into the living room when you’ve got the time.” Eugene replied.

“Well… tell him I’ll be there when the coffee’s done,” she replied, turning her body towards the kitchen counter again. “Go tell Max, she’s busy… staring at the snow or something.”

Eugene just nodded, unbeknownst to Victoria, before walking out of the kitchen. Quickly, she turned around again. “Oh, and tell him we need a new coffee machine!” She yelled at his back as she watched him leave the room. “I hope he heard that.”

“A USB stick?” Victoria asked, her arms crossed as she skeptically raised her eyebrows.

“A USB stick belonging to one of their captains!” Delsin explained as he handed the stick to Eugene, who plugged it into his laptop.

“So that means we’ll be able to get the shard now?”

“Eventually, yeah.” Delsin replied. “Once we get into this thing and find out where the prisoners are going.”

“And we’ll be able to put a stop to these assholes.” Fetch added, as she turned her head to Eugene. The kid was practically leaning into his laptop’s screen, his eyebrows scrunched together as he typed away furiously. “What’s going on?”

“It’s encrypted,” he explained. “I can’t get in.”

“Well, un-encrypt it!” Victoria replied.

“Decrypt, not un-encrypt,” Eugene corrected her, prompting Victoria to mimic him mockingly before Max bumped her on the shoulder to tell her to stop. “And I can’t, I’m not a hacker. I tried to learn C# for a summer and I gave up halfway through, I definitely can’t get into this military-grade encryption.” he continued to explain.

“Fuck.” Delsin remarked as he leaned over Eugene. “Can’t you use your powers to get in?”

“I can make light constructs, I don’t have technopathy. We need a hacker.” Eugene replied before Victoria spoke up, her phone already in her hands.

“I know a hacker,” she said, already mid contact-scrolling.

“Are you talking about Miya?” Max almost sounded dejected, but her tone barely registered to Victoria.

“Give me a sec, I’m texting her.” she threw a quick shush as her attention remained on her phone.

queenchase: Mi?

queenchase: Are we… good?

queenchase: I really need to talk to you.

mindsweeper: miss nakamoto isnt able to respond to your message right now

mindsweeper: is there a message i can relay to her?

queenchase: Come on, are you still angry?

queenchase: I really need your help. This isn’t funny.

mindsweeper: its not a joke

mindsweeper: [goodbye.png]

Shock set in as Victoria’s eyes processed the image before her. Her hand immediately shot to cover her mouth as her pupils dilated in sheer panic, causing Max to look over at the picture as well.

It was Miya. Beaten and bloodied, her hands tied behind her back, her body slumped forward slightly on a small, rusty steel chair. Blood was streaming across her face, coming down from a big gash at the top of her forehead and covering practically the entire right side of her face, along with big patches of hair soaked in dried blood. Victoria could tell she wasn’t dead, but it wouldn’t be long.

“Oh my god,” Max whispered, prompting Fetch to look over as well.

“That’s your hacker?” Fetch asked, looking over Victoria’s shoulder.

“Y-yeah.” Victoria was still trying to process what she was seeing as Fetch spoke up again.

“Don’t worry.” Fetch replied, putting a hand on Victoria’s shoulder, causing the blonde to look over at her. Her body was already starting to glow with a bright purple shine. “I’ll get her,” she replied with a smirk. “Just… ya reckon she can hold out for another half hour?”

Chapter Text

The knife in Jayda’s hand was covered in blood. Not just the oxidated blade, but also the wooden handle and even the relatively clean pommel were decorated with splotches and splatters of the crimson stuff. Not cleaning one of her torture tools was intentional, and so was the rust. Her ferrokinetic abilities would have easily allowed her to create a practically flawless knife, made from any metal she could get her hands on. But she wanted Miya not just to feel the pain, but see it. Remember it. Feel the pain of everyone else she’d jabbed her sentimental instrument into.

“Tch tch tch.” Jayda mumbled mockingly as she walked back in front of the tied-up Miya.

The black-haired girl was not doing well. Her gray tank top was missing patches of fabric, replaced with deep gashes and knife slashes decorating her entire body. But Jayda still hadn’t broken her mentally.

“I told you… I don’t know shit.” Miya managed to get out, her voice rough like gravel and her breathing heavy and labored like a cement truck.

“And we both know that’s a lie,” Jayda’s tone was contrastingly calm as she moved her gaze from the knife in her hands to Miya’s broken and bruised face. “You know Velocity—whatever her real name is—, you tracked down Max Caulfield, presumably on her command, you know more than you’re letting on. Or, more than you’re willing to tell me, at least.” she continued, placing the knife to Miya’s throat. “We know you’re tangled up in all this shit. So just tell me what you know, and I won’t have to kill you. Or it doesn’t have to hurt as much, at least.”

“Fuck… you-AGH!” Miya’s insult was abruptly cut off when Jayda pulled the knife away and jabbed it in the side of her stomach. “Fucking fascist bitch… “

“Is that what you think of me?” Jayda asked with an amused laugh as she stepped back from Miya. “I know your type, you can fight, you can hack, you think you’re changing the fucking world. You think you’re fighting Big Brother, but I could give less of a fuck what Oscorp is doing with all these conduits! All of this is just a paycheck to me!”

“And you don’t think that’s even more fucked up?” Miya grunted in response, looking like she was about to leap forward out of her chair. “Maybe you’re not the fucking SS but you’re playing lapdog to their commander, riding conduit Hitler’s fucking d-” she was once again cut off by a punch to the side of her face, sending her wholesale to the floor. Steel and plastic clattered on the concrete floor as Jayda walked slowly to the large window on the other side of the room.

“I’m going to gut you when I’m done with you, Nakamoto. Davis didn't tell me to. Your holier-than-thou attitude is just getting on my nerves. I’ll leave your entrails spread all over this floor and send the pictures to your little girlfriend so she has an idea of what’s going to happen to her and her friends if they keep putting their noses where they don’t belong.” she muttered as she stared out the window, the only response she got from Miya being an angry grunt. “So you can say your last-”

Jayda cut herself off as she noticed a quick flash of purple neon light in the corner of her vision, tens of meters below her streaking across the street, but bright enough to let a glimmer of light reach her. Her eyes went wide as she realized what was going on.

I didn’t think she’d show up so soon. Jayda thought to herself, and as she turned around another bright purple flash confirmed that, yes, she was already here.

“Goddammit!” Jayda yelled, raising her hands forward to pull something towards her with her powers. But before her powers could even affect the steel beam she was aiming for, Fetch attacked first, blasting her with a neon missile before she’d even become fully corporeal. The attack hit Jayda in the chest, and as it exploded, it shattered the windows behind her and flung her out of the building.

Fetch let out a grateful sigh, before turning back to Miya who was still on the floor. She quickly got to work, crouching down and burning away the girl's bindings with a small neon beam, before helping her up.

“Ow, ow,” Miya mumbled softly, Fetch holding her up with an arm over her shoulder. “You… you’re Delsin Rowe’s friend, right?”

“Oh come on, I was in this city way before D came here.” Fetch replied with a small chuckle.

“No… I’m just-ow!” Miya cut herself off, reaching for the knife that was still stuck in her side. Fetch picked up on the gesture, gently swatting away Miya’s hand with her free hand.

“Don’t do that, you’ll bleed out.” Fetch told her, being met by a grunt from Miya.

“I know… this isn’t the first time I’ve been stabbed, doesn’t mean it hurts any less.” she groaned, being met by another chuckle from Fetch. “It’s not funny… “ After a few moments of letting herself stabilize, Miya finally began to feel somewhat alive again. “I need to get my stuff before we leave.”

“No, you don’t.” Fetch replied, as she reached her free hand into the inside of her jacket and pulled out a pair of black gloves. “I got it right here, seems to be the bulk of your tech, you can remake the rest of your suit later.”

“When’d you get the time to do that?”

“Superspeed. Super helpful.”

“And why’s a superhero come to save my life?”

“Victoria wouldn’t stop crying, promised her I’d save your sorry ass.” Fetch responded, only to be met with a groan from Miya. “Look, just let me get your ass out of here and you two can fight it out in person. I’m normally not this nic-”

Fetch was abruptly cut off by an attack from behind. She stumbled forward in surprise, and with a yelp Miya fell from her arms back down to the floor. She quickly came to her senses, turning around on a swivel and blasting practically the entire area previously behind her with a large neon blast.

Her counter-attack was nil, the blast falling short of the range between her and the risen-again Jayda, who seemingly had not fallen all the way down from the mid-construction highrise they were in. The pain in Fetch’s back and abdomen hadn’t subsided, and as she looked down she noticed that a thick bar of rebar had been jabbed through her body, stabbed right under her floating ribs. Before she could do anything about the foreign object in her abdomen, both ends of the rebar curled up, making it impossible to pull out without making an even bigger wound.

“What’s your fucking deal, you psycho bitch?” Fetch moved into a fighting stance, her teeth grit in pain from the rebar in her body.

“The plan was just to get the information I needed out of her,” Jayda explained, cracking her knuckles as a confident grin grew on her face. “But now? I just want a rematch, without any help from your little boyfriend.” she mocked, causing Fetch to flare up in a neon purple glow.

“Oh fuck right off!” Fetch yelled back at her. Her attack came quickly, as the neon energy that had gathered in her hand turned into a huge, continuous beam aimed straight at Jayda’s face. Jayda reacted in time, however, throwing up her arms in a protective stance as a huge mess of rebar and steel beams tore itself out of the concrete floor and formed into a solid shield to defend her from the beam.

Fetch didn’t let off, keeping the beam up and forcing Jayda to push herself to keep her makeshift defense up. After some time, Fetch’s beam began to lose power and fizzle out. Quickly dashing up to the raggedy wall, Fetch charged another burst of neon in her right hand, planning to punch right through. But before she could extend her arm, Jayda countered her.

Her opponent smashed through her self-made defense, her balled up fist leading the way straight into Fetch’s face. The purple-haired girl had no time to react and as Jayda’s fist slammed into her face, practically crushing the bridge of her nose, Fetch shot backward like a bullet, her feet skidding across the concrete.

Fetch recovered as quickly as she could. And she was seemingly just in time, because as her vision stabilized Jayda had already bridged the gap and was about to hit her in the face again.

This time she managed to react in time, and as her arms lit up in a neon purple glow she raised her right to block Jayda’s incoming punch. Jayda wasn’t planning to go easy on her, and Fetch was forced on the defense. Her neon powers allowed her to keep up with Jayda’s own speed, allowing her body to move fast enough to block almost every attack. But she was still steadily being pushed back, and as she tried to think of a way to get the upper hand, she noticed one thing.

Jayda wasn’t really using her powers at all.

Her enhanced strength was passively being used in their current scuffle, of course, but as far as Fetch could see, Jayda wasn’t manipulating any metal at all. This could of course have been an intentional decision on Jayda’s part, but to Fetch it looked like something else. She was getting fatigued and needed a moment to recharge. And that seemed like the perfect window for Fetch.

As Jayda threw another hook at Fetch’s head, she parried the attack instead of blocking and caused her to stagger back.

Fetch smirked.

Neon energy once again channeled along her arm into her right hand, and as she punched the girl in the gut, the energy all released itself in a big, purple explosion. The blast hit her opponent hard, sending her flying upward into the cellulose-lined ceiling, cratering the whole thing before dropping back down to the floor in a mess of ceiling tiles and ceiling-mounted cables that had now been torn loose.

Fetch let out a deep sigh, shaking the adrenaline off with heaving breaths, tired breaths. But before she could turn around and go help Miya back up, she spotted some movement in the rubble.

Barely a second had passed, when electrical arcs started sparking all across the rubble. Fetch carefully backed away in anticipation. The arcs started becoming more frequent and larger, when in one moment it all exploded, blowing all the rubble away. The blast was quick, but it wasn’t big.

Fetch shielded her face from the shrapnel with her arms, but as the strange static in the air receded, she dared to lower her arms and look again. And out of the singed rubble and dark gray smoke, arcing with bolts of lightning, strolled Jayda.

As if born anew.

“What did you do?” Fetch yelled at her opponent, raising her fists up again, bright purple neon energy gathering around both of them.

Jayda remained silent for a moment, inspecting her own hands as electricity arced between the webbing of her fingers. She smirked. “Oscorp employment has some nice benefits.”

Jayda managed to get the first hit in, reaching her hand forward in an open palm and causing the electricity to arc between her hand and the curled-up rebar still stuck in Fetch’s abdomen. The attack did more damage than Fetch expected, and as the electricity touched her, her nerves started going haywire, pain surging throughout her body and fucking with her vision.

“AGH! YOU BITCH!” Fetch yelled out in anger, almost instinctively firing a barrage of neon missiles from her hands. Projectiles went everywhere except her intended target, blowing apart walls and chunks of floor alike.

Slowly but surely her vision returned to a somewhat normal state, still fuzzy but clear enough for her to tell that Jayda had already cleared the gap between the two of them. Her vision was also clear enough to notice the fist heading for her face, arcing with electricity and buzzing with the recognizable high-pitched noise associated with that.

Fetch raised her arms in defense, trying to block the blow. But Jayda’s punch was immensely powered up, and she easily broke through Fetch’s defense, going straight to her face. As the electrically powered fist struck her, Fetch completely lost her balance and felt her vision being zapped away again. She could feel her back hit the floor, feel herself sliding along concrete and cratering the ground beneath her with each inch she moved until she came to a halt.

And when her sight returned, she came face to face with another rebar stick, jolting with electricity and pointed right at her face.

“Gotcha,” Jayda stated bluntly, her eyes burning brighter with a sense of victory than any of the electricity arcing around her. “If you’d have just left me the fuck alone, it would’ve just been one dead, punk little bitch. But no! All you fucking heroes, thinking you’re the shit, thinking you can save everyone!" She started to monologue. “Really, I’m glad we got to fight again. Just so you know that I would’ve kicked your ass if Rowe hadn’t jumped in at the last second.”

“Fuck you.” Fetch replied, flipping Jayda the bird from her position on the ground. She was heaving immensely, as streaks of purple neon light up the veins running through her hand, only for the light to quickly snuff itself out. Fetch herself could notice, she was running low, one more big attack and she’d be all out.

“This isn’t your big, heroic moment, honey,” Jayda said. “Now lie down and di-AGH!” Before Jayda could finish Fetch off, she stumbled back with a loud yelp of pain. It was hard for Fetch to see what was going on but after a few moments of intense focus, she noticed that her opponent had been attacked from behind. A dagger jabbed into the crook of her neck, a wound inflicted by…

“Miya!” Fetch yelled out, reaching her arm out as the quality of her vision swayed back and forward. She gritted her teeth in pain as she pushed herself to get up. She pushed herself up to her feet, the pain in her chest—a combination of the rebar beam still stuck in her chest and the electricity still arcing through it—persisted, and she could see Jayda turning around to face Miya. Fetch knew how this would turn out, she knew that her opponent could kill Miya without pretty much any resistance.

The purple-haired girl looked down at the rebar stuck in her abdomen and closed her eyes, the knowledge of what she would have to do setting in. Her calloused fingers wrapped around the beam in her abdomen, pulling harder and intensifying the pain that was already present. Her nerve endings frayed, her muscles burned up, her body pushed itself to the limit, everything was working on overdrive. She was using all the enhanced strength that her abilities had blessed her with. And it was almost becoming too much for her.

But she persisted. She had to. She had to save this girl. And so she just did it.

She tore the rebar beam straight out of her abdomen, breaking it out of her body with a splatter of blood and gore before the wound started regenerating. Her regeneration was slow compared to normal, blood flowing out of her body like an open tap, but she didn’t seem to care. She ran up behind Jayda, rebar in hand. And as she raised her hand, neon purple energy gathered in the curled-up tip of the rebar, before she swung her makeshift mace at the back of Jayda’s head.

Steel on skin and bone, the impact wasn’t just physical, but it exploded with a bright purple neon explosion, sending Jayda straight to the floor and sliding across the concrete. Fetch looked at her opponent’s flaccid body for a few moments, and when she didn’t seem to move at all, Fetch let out a deep sigh before dropping back first onto the hard floor.

She laid there on the concrete floor for a while, until she could hear a soft set of footsteps arrhythmically coming her way. Fetch poked her head up, spotting an equally wounded Miya straggling in her direction.

“Are you okay?” Miya asked as she stood over Fetch, looking down at the purple-haired girl as she held a hand to the wound in her side.

“Can't be any worse than you.” Fetch replied with a pained grunt, as she dropped her head back again. “I’ll be fine, I just need some fucking… time.”

“Well… “ Miya responded. “… I’m still kind of bleeding out.”

Fetch just chuckled lightly. It took her a few moments, but eventually, she got up to her feet to stand next to Miya and put an arm around her shoulder. “Fine, I’m just gonna have to find… a fucking neon sign.”

Chapter Text

Max had calmed down to some extent since the day before. The feeling of sheer panic, the feeling that she had fully lost control, had dampened. Not that she was completely calm, but she’d managed to push the thought into the back of her mind, halfheartedly convincing herself that the storm might not be coming anyway. And in the midst of her waning and waxing panic attacks, Fetch returned from her mission.

It had taken about an hour and a half for Fetch to come back, and when she did, she arrived with Victoria’s hacker “friend”.

“Holy shit,” Delsin mumbled, holding the door open for Fetch as carried the black-haired girl through the entrance, an arm sloppily slung over each other’s shoulders. Fetch looked bad, but the other girl looked like she’d been dragged through hell.

Her body had seemingly been dragged through hell and back, her clothes were torn and tattered, leaving barely any of her skin covered. And speaking of skin, her body was covered in cuts, lacerations along her abdomen and up to her neck.

Most of her wounds had dried, but some were still actively dripping blood. Even her face hadn’t been spared, her bloody hair being matted to her forehead, as a thick gash colored her cheek. Max just stared at the door from her safe spot on the couch in the back of the apartment. Of course, she was happy, relieved even. But her mind couldn’t handle this right now.

And especially not when she heard a fast set of soft footsteps rapidly approaching from the corridor that led to the bedrooms. Victoria quickly made her way out of her room, where she had been doing god knows what, and to the two girls standing in the door opening.

Now Max remembered; this was the girl she’d seen on Victoria’s Instagram before. That was probably her girlfriend.

Not that Max cared or anything.

And as Victoria stood there, laying her eyes upon Miya and Fetch, she was frozen for a few moments. But before any of them could speak up, as Miya was opening her mouth in a probable attempt at some kind of witty remark, Victoria unexpectedly unfroze, pulling Miya out of Fetch’s grasp and into a tight hug. Miya did her best to keep the groans of pain inside.

“I’m sorry Mi. “ Victoria muttered, her voice quivering, letting out a soft sniffle as her fingers clutched Miya’s back. “I’ve been making an ass of myself for so long and I hurt you so much and I’m just… I’m so fucking sorry.”

“It’s… well it’s not fine,” Miya replied softly, chuckling through the pain as she finally reciprocated Victoria’s hug, weakly grasping at Victoria’s back. “But I guess this means you’re really trying to change this time?” she replied, a tear rolling down her cheek as the corners of her mouth slowly curved up.

“Yeah… “ Victoria mumbled in response, resting her head in the crook of Miya’s neck. “… I really wanna be a better person.”

And as the two girls finally made up, Fetch walked over to Delsin.

“Sooooo… “ Fetch began, Delsin rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in response.

“Good job Fetch.” he conceded with a small chuckle. “She looks like an absolute mess, though. What happened out there?”

“Remember that metal girl, the one you saved my ass from a week ago?”

“Yeah.”

“Turns out she’s a real persistent pain in the ass.” Fetch stated bluntly. “Almost killed me, but Miya saved my ass this time.”

“Jesus,” Delsin responded. “Are you serious?” he asked, turning to her with a look of worry.

“Calm your tits, Del.” she replied, trying to reassure him. “I’m still here, right? Besides, I’m not planning to let you die after me.”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Delsin rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you’re safe, seriously.”

“And now we can finally take these Oscorp dickheads down,” she responded. “I’m getting sick of these military-backed conduits, that metal chick had this-” Fetch suddenly cut herself off when a set of footsteps rapidly passed her, and as her eyes adjusted in their direction, she spotted Max slipping out the front door.

“What’s wrong?” Delsin asked as Fetch turned back around to him.

“I…” Fetch looked around for a few moments, seeing that no one had really noticed Max leaving. “… I’ll be right back.” she replied, before disappearing in a flash of purple.

“Or you can just disappear.” Delsin mumbled to himself as he began walking to Miya and Victoria. “That’s cool too.”

Max let out a sigh as she bungled her legs over the edge of the apartment roof. She’d had a fear of rooftops ever since she failed to save Kate in that alternate timeline. And it never really waned. When she went apartment hunting in Portland for her classes there, she couldn’t even imagine getting one that wasn’t ground floor. And the first time Delsin and her trained on the roof, in her mind she was freaking out. But this whole trip she’d been taking risks, increasing her boundaries…

… and she was starting to regret it.

Before she could continue her thought process, however, she was suddenly distracted by a bright purple flash in the corner of her eye.

“Hey Del-” Max had already begun saying Delsin’s name, but upon turning her head fully she noticed that the girl up on the roof with her was… someone else. As she phased out of her neon form, Fetch strolled up to Max with her hands buried in her jacket's pockets.

“How ya’ holding up, Max?” Fetch asked.

“Good,” Max lied, turning her head and returning her gaze back to the soft glow of the late-night Seattle skyline.

“Really?” she continued, letting out a sigh as she sat down on the edge next to Max. “Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone mope harder than you’re moping here right now.”

“Ouch,” Max replied with a small chuckle. “Am I that obvious?”

“Look, I know how tempting it is to isolate yourself when you’re feeling bad,” she assured the brunette. “But speaking from experience, I also know that keeping it all to yourself doesn’t work super well.”

Max let out a soft sigh, before leaning back on her hands, tilting her head back to stare into the dark blue evening sky. “… fine, go ahead.”

“So… you have a crush on Victoria, right? Like, I understand it might be hard to see her hug her ex and be all sweet like that, but-”

Max’s face morphed into a look of confusion, as she turned her head to Fetch in an instant. “What!? No!” she yelled out a bit too enthusiastically, prompting Fetch to let out a chuckle in response. “… they’re exes?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Fetch responded between arrhythmic chuckles. “What’s going on, then?”

“I’m just… I’m worried, I guess. I’m scared.”

“Scared?”

“When I came here, I did so because I wanted to fix a mistake I made. I wanted to go back and save someone I failed to save,” Max began, leaning forward again as she dug through her mind to find how she wanted to phrase this. “I thought… I thought Delsin would be able to train me, I’d be able to save Chloe, and that’d be it. Have my cake and eat it too. But then I met Eugene, and I met you, and then Victoria got pulled into it, and then it became about saving a bunch of conduits, and now Miya is here as well and it’s just… I never meant to let it go this far. I’m not made for all this.”

“And that’s good! Without you, I don’t think we’d be where we are right now. We’re saving conduits!” Fetch tried to reassure her, although not really succeeding.

“I know that! But it’s just… I’m putting everyone in danger again. When I first saved Chloe back in Arcadia Bay, the universe wanted her dead. So much so that it sent a storm her way, a huge one that wiped out the entire town.”

“Yeah, you told us the story when you first came to Seattle.” Fetch replied.

Max gulped as she pondered whether she wanted to tell Fetch what had happened. “A few days ago… Victoria got shot. And she died. I saved her and now the storm’s coming to destroy Seattle as well. It’s all happening again.”

“That’s… less good.” Fetch said with a weighty sigh, not sure how to process what Max had just told her. “But… how do you even know it’s gonna happen this time?” Fetch asked.

“I don’t!” Max yelled a bit too loud, almost managing to startle Fetch before she quickly calmed herself down, though the twitch in her right hand remained. “I’m just scared. All of this is becoming so much, and for what? Am I willing to risk not just destroying Seattle, but letting all you guys pay the price just so I can save my fucking friend? I’ve come so far and now I’m not even sure. God, I’m such a selfish bitc-”

“Hey!” Fetch suddenly cut her off, prompting Max to turn her head to the purple-haired girl next to her. “I don’t think you’re selfish at all, you care about people, you want to help people! You got into this because you wanted to save someone’s life! And now you’re in another situation where you need to choose between who you wanna save, it’s not your fault the universe keeps putting you in these bullshit ultimatums!”

Max looked at the girl next to her, her eyes staring into the fabric of Fetch’s jacket as she couldn’t bear to look anyone in the eyes the way she felt. A soft sigh escaped her lips. “…you’re right.”

“Yeah, I am! So kick life in the fucking nuts and take your destiny into your own hands. You’ve hurt long enough, make your own choices, for yourself, not for others. You've become a kick ass bitch, I trust whatever choice you make to be the best choice you can make.”

Max looked down at her own hands resting on her lap, as a grateful smile grew on her face. “Thanks, Fetch,” she said, finally building up the courage to meet Fetch’s gaze.

“Hey, no problem. I have my own reasons for wanting to take down these assholes, but you’re a good person, and I don’t wanna see you beat yourself up like this.” Fetch responded, flashing a smirk before looking ahead into the skyline. “I get why you came up here to cool off and think, though. I used to sit on this one big billboard all the time after I got out of Curdun Cay, it felt like a home to me.”

Max stared into the sunset with Fetch, as she rested her head on the other girl’s shoulder. She was starting to realize just how much she missed this, the comfort of friends around her, the support of people who really believe in her. She let herself embrace the moment for a bit until Fetch spoke up again.

“Do you think she’s single?”

“Huh? Victoria?” Max replied in confusion. “I, uh, I… I think so.” she continued, kind of stumbling 0ver her words as she did.

“No, I mean Miya.” Fetch answered. “I… think I like her.”

“You think so? I guess sharing a near death experience is as good as a blind date?” Fetch turned her head to Max with a blank expression, and Max couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. After a few seconds of silence, and after Fetch had turned her gaze back to the skyline, Max dared speak again.

“I think you should give it a shot.”

“And you’re one to give advice on acting on crushes?”

“Hey, you asked me!” Max just let out a soft chuckle. “I don’t have a crush on Victoria, okay?” she replied. “She’s just… I’m glad she’s trying to be a better person, and I wanna be there for her so she has the chance to become that better person she wants to be. I don’t think she ever really meant any harm to people, she was just in a shitty situation and she reacted in a bad way.”

“Wow.” Fetch replied. “You’re this forgiving to bitch supreme, and you can’t be to yourself?”

“That’s… a good question,” she responded. Max was lost in the moment. The warmth of friendship, the positive feeling in her heart, and the warmth of the almost setting sun, all felt like a warm hug from the universe. And the nostalgic feeling of having a punk girl next to her, cuddled up and sharing each other’s body heat not so much in a show of love, but in a Platonic sense. It was a big contrast with the ice-cold snow that life had bombarded her with for the past three years.

So much, in fact, that when she saw the eclipse appear in the sky, she simply closed her eyes.

Max had had enough stress for now. She could worry later. Besides…

… there’d be enough reason to stress out later.

Chapter Text

Two days. That was how long Miya had told the group that it would take her to crack the encryption, what with all her injuries and the general complexity of the thing.

“I’d call it military-grade encryption, but I’ve hacked into government databases and none of them are as advanced as this. This is that private military company level tech.” she’d stated.

Max wasn’t… thrilled about the fact. The storm was still presumably coming, and as much as her conversation with Fetch had helped her process a lot of stuff, the fact remained that if they took too long on this, that storm was going to hit Seattle. It was going to wipe out everything, and there’d be only one thing Max could do.

And so the whales ended up stranded on the emerald city’s beaches. And Max tried to ignore it the best that she could. Of course, she read the headlines, and she caught the tail end of a news broadcast about the “once-in-a-lifetime environmental disaster”. But she didn’t want to think about it. And so she tried to distract herself.

Max hadn’t really been practicing with her abilities all that much recently. Maybe it came down to the fact that her time reverse powers were hard to really train with, but she decided that practicing a bit more wouldn’t hurt.

Knock knock knock. The knocks of her knuckles rang through the plywood of the door to Eugene’s room. A muffled “come in!” welcomed her into the room, and as she pushed the door open she spotted the TV conduit in the back of the room, in the process of spinning around his chair as his multi-monitor setup lit the room up.

“What’s up?” he asked, pulling the headset off his head and down around his neck.

“Do you know where Delsin is?” Max asked.

“I think Fetch and him went on patrol a bit ago. They probably wanna keep Oscorp of the streets til’ Miya gets their location.”

“Dammit,” Max mumbled, crossing her arms as she half turned around. But as her eyes skittered across Eugene’s screen, she stopped moving. “What are you doing?”

“I’m… playing Heaven’s Hellfire,” he answered, spotting the newly-appeared frown on Max’s face. “Hey, let me play my games, I don’t judge your weird-”

“I’m not judging the fact that you’re playing games.” Max spat back. “I’m just… if you’re gonna play a by-the-books fantasy MMO, why not play a good one?”

“I'm not playing FF14,” he replied with a shrug, and before Max could even react in any way, the kid had already spun around in his chair and was back to farming.

“You’re missing out!” She left his room with a chuckle, closing the door behind her. Stepping into the living room, her eyes immediately moved to the laptop on the kitchen table. And behind the laptop sat Miya, Victoria next to her, watching as the black-haired girl typed away.

Just chill, Max. The brunette thought to herself, as she began to approach the pair. “Any luck?”

“Not… much,” Miya replied. “I don’t think I’ll be done before tomorrow. This thing has a surprising amount of layers, and I can’t brute-force through all of them. Not in a timely manner, at least. If I had my guys we could crack this shit a lot faster but all our gear got burned to the ground a bit ago so I’m on my own ‘til all this shit has blown over and it’s safe to meet up again.”

“Huh?”

“It’s gonna take her a while,” Victoria translated, as she got up out of the chair beside Miya. “So I have plans for us in the meantime.”

“Plans? For us?” Max asked, chuckling from the surprise.

“Yeah?” Victoria replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion at her weird reaction. “I thought you were finally getting less weird,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. “Anyway, we need to practice.”

“I was just about to ask you to do the same thing,” Max replied.

“Well,” Victoria mumbled, as her eyes moved to the door on the far side of the apartment. “Let’s go, then.”

The two girls made their way to the rooftop that Delsin often trained them on. It wasn’t a long journey, only a few blocks away from the apartment they all stayed at, but they still had to be careful on the way there—Oscorp’s troops could ambush at any time, after all.

Eventually they’d reached their destination, and as Max walked into the wider space of the rooftop, Victoria made her way to the small backpack with supplies that Delsin had stored under an overhang. She crouched down, and after rifling through the bag for a few moments, she pulled out a few baseballs.

Max let out a sigh as she zipped up the dark gray hoodie she was wearing. It was colder outside than she was expecting. She’d almost forgotten how cold Seattle could get, and the closer they were getting to winter, the more noticeable it was getting. She shivered lightly, as Victoria got back up to her feet with a small collection of baseballs in her arms.

“You ready?” Victoria asked, carefully dropping a few baseballs to the floor, leaving one in the palm of her hand.

“I uhh… think so,” Max replied kind of awkwardly. “Don’t throw too hard, alright?”

“Sure,” Victoria replied as a small smirk grew on her face, and she started throwing the ball in her hand up and down. “You wanna warm up first?”

“No! I’m good!” Max replied as she tried to jazz herself up, jogging in place to get her blood flowing. “Hit m-” Before she could even finish her reply, a baseball slammed her in the face at… well, it wasn’t moving slowly, at least. The rubber and cork core wrapped in cowhide bruised across the side of her cheek, but she managed to react quickly, and as her arm shot forward-

“No! I’m good!” Max replied, and instead of waiting for Victoria to break her jaw, she followed the baseball as it flew through the air, and as it got close, she moved to the side of where she knew it would hit.

“That was a nice one.” Victoria complimented her, as the sound of the baseball hitting the wall behind Max could be heard by the two of them. “How far back can you turn again?”

“Not super long. I think like, a minute tops.” Max replied with a small huff as she slowly reset to a defensive stance. “But when I change big things, it really messes me up.”

“Big things?”

“Yeah, like big events, serious injuries… deaths,” Max replied, mumbling through the last entry on her small list.

“Like when you saved Chloe?”

“Uhm… yeah.”

“So at their worst, your powers send a storm your way? Seems like good incentive not to turn death bac-”

“I kinda don’t want to talk about it.” Max quickly blurted out, wanting to get her to stop pondering the whole situation. Max had never actually gotten the opportunity to tell Victoria about what exactly happened at the mall. She had no idea that she’d died. She had no idea that the storm was coming.

She didn’t want Victoria to ask her to make that same choice.

“Just throw the next ball,” Max replied, as Victoria threw a confused glance at her. Eventually, Victoria just shook the feeling off with an eye roll, and the two girls continued to practice. They kept it up for just over an hour, Max dodging all of the baseballs handily with the use of her powers, even the ones that Victoria launched faster with her own set of powers. And she only really started to feel the headache setting in near the end of their practice.

“I… think I’m done,” Max said with a grunt, raising a hand in the air to signal Victoria to stop. The hand moved to the front of Max’s forehead, as she moved to sit down against the small rooftop stairwell enclosure that the backpack was propped up against.

Victoria just nodded at the girl, before kicking back the small amount of water that had remained in her bottle. After finishing all of it that was left, she tossed the plastic bottle into the backpack.

“Can I ask you something?” Max asked.

“Uh, sure?” Victoria asked, the tone in her voice dismissive like she’d raised her walls up again.

“What’s going on?”

“Seriously?” Victoria groaned, rolling her eyes at the sudden turn. “Guess you can’t spend more than an hour with Max Lamefield before she starts psychoanalyzing you.”

“That’s… kind of what I’m talking about,” Max replied, only gaining another grunt from Victoria’s direction. “You’re so out of it. You were talking about getting better a while ago and now you’re just-”

Victoria grunted, cutting Max off. “I’ve been trying, okay. But I’m just realizing how much I fucked up. Miya almost died because of my fucking actions! So did Kate! I feel like whatever I do, whatever I change, it’s… it’s too late to fix anything.”

Victoria’s sentiment rang somewhat true in Max’s head, and she let out a small gulp before responding. “I… get it.”

“How could you? You can turn back and change every fucking mistake you ever made, in what world could you possibly ‘get it’?”

“I can’t fix everything either! But I… we need to move past that. You need to move past that, at some point, for your own sake. You can’t stay stuck in the past forever. The things you did were terrible, but flaying yourself for the rest of your life isn't gonna make up for them. The only thing that’s gonna change anything, is if you change yourself! The past is set in stone to some extent, the only thing you can do is change the present, and the future. You need to be better.”

Victoria’s eyes were trained on Max with a sort of open-mouthed stare, as she tried to process what Max had just said. And so she stood there for a few moments, moonlight reflecting from her eyes and burning a hole through the tension between the two of them. Eventually, her eyes skittered away from Max, and she let out a small sigh before speaking up again.

“You suck.” Victoria managed to mutter in between the sniffles that were coming up. She just stood there on that roof for a few moments, trying her best to keep the tears at bay. But when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her body, and as the Caulfield girl’s body heat moved close to Victoria’s core, she couldn’t help but let the river flow. Tears trickled down Victoria’s cheeks, smudging her makeup and producing a wet stain on the back of Max’s hoodie as they dripped onto her shoulders. Not that Max really cared all that much. She was ready to take it all, to be there for Victoria.

Because she knew what it felt like, to feel like you personally fucked everything up, and the catastrophic consequences are all blood on your hands. To live with the guilt of being forced into an impossible choice, making the only decision you could, and not having a shoulder to lean on, to cry on.

A small tear escaped Max’s own tear duct, as she squeezed Victoria tighter than before. And the two girls just stood there in that embrace for a few moments. They let the feeling soak in for the time being. But after a while, Max loosened her grip and let Victoria go. Max’s hands slid down to Victoria’s hips, as the two girls stared at each other for a bit, their faces close enough to feel each other breath. Max could feel her own bottom lip tremble, and she felt a feeling she hadn’t felt in so long.

But she pushed the thought aside when Miya’s face flashed in her mind. Max didn’t know anything about Victoria’s relationship with the other girl, and she didn’t want to cause any trouble. Miya’s face wasn’t the only one that took up space in her mind, however. That ole’ familiar head of bright blue hair still couldn’t leave her alone, even three years later.

Max still couldn’t let herself move on, she still couldn’t let herself do what felt like a betrayal to Chloe. She closed her eyes in defiance, as her fingertips reluctantly left Victoria’s hips, and she stepped away from the other girl.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t want to, I didn’t mean to I just-” Max had just started her sentence when Victoria cut her off.

“It’s… fine,” Victoria replied with a gulp, wiping a residual tear off her own cheek as she turned away again. “We should head home.”

“Yeah…” Max mumbled softly, as she felt a tear roll down her own cheek until it rested on the top of her upper lip. “… we probably should.”

Chapter Text

And so the next day, twin moons floated in the night sky, lighting up the dusky city in a way that it had never seen before. That almost no one had ever seen before. But Max definitely had. Although, arguably, Victoria had.

In a world that never existed.

Max was still worried. If Miya couldn’t find out where Oscorp were bringing conduits today, they would be out of time. The storm was coming tomorrow, and while some conduits could probably survive… the city would be wiped out. And the only way to change that would be to turn back time and change everything.

To just let Victoria die, or go back even further.

Max was curled up sitting on her bed, knees raised up to her face while she stared at the moons through the open window. The gate to the twin moons up in the dark sky let in a soft breeze, cold but not too much for Max. And as she sat there, she turned her head to the journal placed beside her on the mattress. Her pen lay down on the paper.

Max’d decided that writing her thoughts down might get her mind in order a few minutes earlier. She’d only managed to get a few sentences down before she laid down in bed and just started staring out the window. Almost paralyzed in place, her trance was somewhat broken when a knock came at her door.

“Come in,” Max mumbled, watching Victoria as she awkwardly stepped through the half-open door. “What’s up?”

“I… “ Victoria started, before letting out a sigh that reeked of disappointment in herself. “… can’t sleep.”

Max just raised her eyebrows in surprise, causing an even more annoyed grunt to escape Victoria’s lips. “Don’t take it like that, weirdo,” Victoria replied. “I just need to talk for a bit, I guess. And there’s no one quite as good at talking nonsense as you.”

Max just let out a chuckle, before muttering a soft ‘whatever’. Victoria rolled her eyes as she let her arms drop to her sides and she lifted herself up on Max’s bed.

“Thanks,” Victoria mumbled as she rubbed a thankful shoulder with Max.

“It’s all good,” Max replied, a soft smile pressed on her face as she felt a weight press down on her shoulder.

And so the two girls tried to feel normal for a moment, for the first time not just since they’d started this journey, but for the first time since everything that happened back in Blackwell. Two girls sharing an intimate moment, one that didn’t really have to mean anything more than just… them finally having someone to be there for them.

Half a city away, in a dark alleyway hidden behind a grocery store, Delsin and Fetch were laying down another group of Oscorp soldiers.

A duo of smoke blasts knocked the helmet off one of the goons, and his unconscious body fell to the floor. Delsin let out a sigh as he looked over the small pile of knocked-out soldiers, Fetch moving to stand beside him from behind as she wiped the dust off her hands.

“Still nothing?”

“Nope,” Delsin replied.

“This sucks, I don’t know how much longer we can wait on Miya to crack that encryption. We’re completely empty-handed.”

“Chill out, Fetch. She said two days, and I’m taking her on her word. She knows what she’s talking about.”

“You know it’s hard to chill out when every day that we don’t take those Oscorp assholes down, another group of conduits could be getting kidnapped and sailed away somewhere to be experimented on.”

“I know that,” Delsin replied. “But we just need to be patient. Why is everyone freaking out all of a sudden?” He continued, as the two started making their way out of the alley.

“You weren’t locked up like me and Eugene were, Del. You don’t know what it’s like. And at least Augustin- old Augustine, the DUP one, had some kind of sympathy for other conduits. These Oscorp douchebags, and especially Augustine’s brother, I can’t even imagine what they’re doing to these conduits. We need to get them out of there as fast as we can, before they hurt anyone else.”

Delsin bit his bottom lip, before conceding his position and letting out a sigh. “You’re, okay? We need to get all these conduits to safety ASAP. But there’s just not that much we can do right now.”

Fetch let out a grunt as she crossed her arms. “There’s gotta be something.” She mumbled as the two finally ended back up on the sidewalk in front of the alley. Fetch averted her gaze away from Delsin and to the far end of the road in front of them. “I have an idea. Can you make it home on your own?”

Delsin side-eyed her for a moment, and when she didn’t return his gaze, he just sighed. “Sure. I’ll see you back home, Fetch.”

“Yeah, see ya.” Fetch mumbled simply, before quickly disappearing in a flash of purple neon.

“So much for tacos… “ Delsin mumbled to himself, before solemnly stuffing his hands in his jacket pocket and dashing away in a puff of smoke. And as Delsin traveled back to the apartment, Fetch sped through the city at max speed. Street after street, tile after tile, streetlights flickered in the corner of Fetch’s peripheral vision. And eventually she left the city.

When Brooke Augustine was arrested all those months earlier, even the authorities knew she couldn’t just be locked up in any old prison. They placed her in inhibitor shackles and kept her under strict lock and key in a maximum-security cell for a long time, but all of that was still temporary. They briefly considered placing her in Curdun Cay, retrofitting a cell for her specifically, but they were still busy getting all the conduits that were still in there, out of there, and they weren’t able to get that plan cleared. So the Washington government came together and funded an ultra high-security, low capacity prison just outside of Seattle.

The Yama Penitentiary, a regular prison from the outside, but actually designed to house Brooke Augustine and any other potentially dangerous individuals on her level. A forty-minute drive from central Seattle, it was basically only even known to exist by the population of the small town of Carnation that it had been built next to. Small, inconspicuous, and basically no travel in or out. It was built to be ignored.

But on the inside, it was anything other than a normal prison. State-of-the-art tech, purpose-built not just to keep conduits in, but Augustine specifically. It was virtually impenetrable.

Or, well. It was inescapable. They just hadn’t considered that anyone would be willing to break in.

In an instant, Fetch disappeared in a flash of purple light, zipped past the two guards at the front of the prison without them noticing, and zoomed up the walls before moving through a vent higher up the building and ending up in front of Augustine’s cell. Her feet made a soft tap on the metal floor, causing the figure behind the bars to quickly turn her head. A head of overgrown ginger hair spun around, as Brooke Augustine’s tired face stared back into Fetch’s eyes.

Augustine’s lips parted for a moment, but Fetch quickly shushed her as she moved her own gaze to the corner of the room. A small security camera, on a swivel and slowly moving to Fetch’s position. The girl acted quickly, and before the camera could move to cover Fetch, she reached an arm out in the camera’s direction, firing a quick blast of neon that covered the whole thing in a thick fog of gas.

Fetch turned her head back to the woman behind bars, and before she could even get her first word in, Brooke was already talking.

“How did you get in here?”

“We both know that the government knows jackshit about keeping conduits locked up. There’s a reason they needed your militia to do their jobs for them.”

“These nullifiers sure are doing their job, though.” Brooke rebutted, gesturing at the handcuffs chaining her arms down into the concrete below her feet. She sat with her back against another large concrete slab, one of three walls only interrupted by the thick metal bars she was staring at Fetch through.

“The ones your people designed.”

“What do you want from me? Did you break in here just to annoy me? Make me feel bad about all the evil things I did?”

“God, I wish,” Fetch replied with a small chuckle. “No, I… we need your help.”

“What could I possibly do to help you?”

“Well…” Fetch started with a grunt as she sat down on the floor opposite Brooke. “… you could start by telling me a little bit about Davis Augustine.”

Brooke fell silent as her gaze dropped to the floor in front of her.

“I’ll start. Your brother has been in charge of a paramilitary crew kidnapping conduits for the past half-year or so, starting a few weeks after you were locked up in here.”

Brooke’s lips stayed shut.

“But he’s not working alone.”

Brooke’s gaze flickered towards Fetch again.

“After some intensive digging, we popped the lid on the case and figured out that he’s been working with a science company named Oscorp. We don’t know what the fuck he’s doing with all these conduits, but I can only imagine the ‘research’ that’s illegally being performed in their cells. The torture they’re inflicting on innocent conduits. Ring any bells?”

“… oh.” She muttered quietly. “There’s not a lot I can tell you.”

“Well, tell me what you can.”

“Back in the day, in the DUP’s heyday, Oscorp approached us for a potential… under the table partnership. They would discretely supply us with extra funding, and we would give them the conduits we captured so they could test on them.”

“So they’re experimenting on conduits? For what?”

“I don’t know, I declined the partnership. But my brother… he never agreed with that decision. When I first learned that I was a conduit, I was conflicted, I was scared. But Davey… he always embraced any chance to become stronger, to become the next link in the chain of human evolution. When he found out he was a conduit, he rejoiced. When he found out he had the adaptive gene, just like your friend Delsin, he almost went wild, immediately going around captured conduits and taking their powers. His respect for me was all that kept him in check from going too far, but with me gone it seems he finally took his opportunity. Took the initiative he always wanted to.”

“How would teaming up with Oscorp make him more powerful?”

“He figured that they were trying to turn conduits into weapons. He told me…he wanted in on that. He wanted them to turn him into a weapon, to use their findings on him to make him a stronger conduit.”

“Holy shit…” Fetch mumbled as she listened along. “…a few days ago I fought a conduit who suddenly gained multiple abilities, could that be… “

“I don’t know what they’re working on exactly. But if my suspicions are correct… you can’t let them experiment on these conduits any longer.”

Fetch nodded in agreement, as she turned her back to Brooke again, preparing to leave.

“Abigail, when you see Rowe, please tell him; you’re more similar than you think.”

“What does that even mean?” Delsin mumbled through a mouth filled with late-night cereal.

“I don’t fucking know.” Fetch replied as she dug through her small bag of beef jerky, legs dangling off their shared rooftop as they stared at the twin moons coloring the sky, dotting off the day like a metaphysical umlaut. “It’s weird as fuck, though. Brooke was super fucking cryptic, didn’t give me anything other than that they were experimenting on conduits. Your brother can absorb powers, no shit Sherlock like I couldn’t recognize a power absorber if my best friend was one.”

Delsin chuckled at her small rant, as he laid back into the concrete of the roof, hands placed behind his head. “Yeah, I-” And before he could say anything more, he was abruptly cut off by the vibration of his phone in his pocket. “Oh, Miya’s got it.” He said in a pleasantly surprised tone as he lifted himself back up again.

“Seriously?” Fetch replied, getting up on her feet with a grunt before moving to stand behind Delsin.

“Yeah, she wants to tell us what she found, but she did send me a screenshot…”

“What’s it say?” She asked as she peered over his shoulder.

“… where’s the Salish Sea again?”

Chapter Text

Ratatatatatatatata…

That was the sound the group's small dinghy—one that was just large enough to hold their team of four people—had been making as the vessel’s small engine carried them to a set of coordinates in the middle of the Salish Sea. Miya was far too wounded and had not recovered enough to join them on the mission, and Eugene had elected to keep an eye out for her. And earlier that morning, around 5 AM, they had set off from Port Angeles.

Of course, both Delsin and Fetch could have both easily crossed the waters themselves in a much quicker tempo with their Neon abilities. But aside from the fact that that still left Max and Victoria on the other side of the Sea, that would also immediately give their enemies a warning that they were coming. A chance to kill all their prisoners or worse. This mission had to be stealthy, for as long as they could keep it so, at least.

And besides, it was harder to carry the other six dinghies without the one at the front. They had no clue how many prisoners were being held on the ship, but they wanted to be safe rather than sorry. Getting them off the ship safely was the number one priority.

Max stared into the horizon as the sun’s fledgling rays started to tickle the back of her neck. Later that same day—even if she didn’t know exactly when—the storm would hit. She had no idea where it would originate, she had no idea how much of the city it would take. She only knew that this was her last chance. This was it. If she could harness the power of a relay shard and gain the power to reverse death, she could fix everything that had gone wrong.

Maybe they were high hopes, but if she failed it would all be over.

Max let out a soft sigh as she listened to the soft purring of the engine. It was an attempt to calm herself, distract herself maybe. To not think about what was or was not about to happen. Then she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, turning her head to see Victoria sitting next to her. The girl opened her mouth carefully.

“Are you… uh… like… okay?”

“Huh?” Max asked with a light chuckle.

“I’ve never worried about people before, I’m just trying to check in…”

“You’re worrying about me?”

“Oh my god.” She mumbled, her cheeks turning a bright red as she buried her face in her hands. “Never mind.”

Max practically burst into laughter as Victoria exponentially became more embarrassed. After a few moments, Max’s laughter died down, and Victoria peeked through the gaps in her fingers to see if she had really stopped laughing.

“So I guess you’re okay?” She mumbled through her hands.

“Could be better,” Max replied as she flashed a kind smile at Victoria. “I’m just… aren’t you scared?”

“Maybe, but… I think I’ve been scared for a long time, I’m not sure if I’m any more or less scared than I have been.”

“Wow, I definitely feel that.” She replied with a nod. “So I guess we just power through it, like we always do.”

Victoria smiled softly, out of Max’s sight. The brunette had turned her head back to the sea, back to the horizon. She was looking ahead.

“Uhh…” Delsin fashioned his hand to a visor as he looked deeper into the sea. “… I think we’re here.”

Victoria followed his eye line to the huge ship towering over their small dinghy. The carrier’s shadow slowly covered the group’s boat, blotting out the small amount of sun that they were starting to get.

“Well, there goes my tan,” Victoria said with a sigh as she looked up at the aircraft carrier that overshadowed them. The huge white text on the hull read S.S. INNOVATION.

“Not that you were getting much.” Fetch replied, chuckling to herself as she moved to the front of the boat. A few moments passed, the dinghy almost hit the side of Oscorp carrier, and Delsin turned his head back to Victoria.

“Come here.” Victoria silently complied as she walked up to the two people in the front of the dinghy.

“Can you melt a hole through this plating?”

“Hm,” Victoria mumbled, leaning over the edge of the dinghy to run her fingers across the metal plating of the carrier. “Probably?” She hoped, as she began to put pressure on the fingers she pressed into the metal.

A few moments passed.

A few more.

And then the metal hidden behind the rust started glowing a bright orange. Heat radiated from the spot around Victoria’s hand, and she started moving her hand in the shape of a rectangle about the size of her own body. More moments passed, and she’d finished the outline. Victoria pulled her fingers out, shaking off the heat from her hand, before pushing the separated plate into the ship's hull, dropping onto the floor on the inside with a thunk. She looked back at Delsin.

“Like that?”

Delsin smirked. “Just like that.” He complimented, patting her on the shoulder as he walked past her and stepped into the ship through the hole. The rest of the group followed behind him, all of them sneaking through the cramped hallway of the lower hull of the ship. They passed turn after turn, looking for… something.

In all honesty, they didn’t know exactly where they were going. They were looking for the kidnapped conduits, and they were looking for a core relay. But where any of those were… that was a mystery. Miya’s hack got them the ship’s coordinates, but not anything resembling a map or blueprints. The internals of the ship were still a mystery.

After a while, the group reached the so-manyeth turn and stepped into a new hallway. But instead of being met with another sprawling tree of even more hallways, they stepped out into a single, broader hallway. Further up a set of stairs led up, presumably to the deck. And on the left, a large doorway stood, azure light radiating from inside. Carefully, Delsin stepped forward.

“Wow…” He mumbled, stepping into the room closely followed by the rest of the group.

“Is this… their lab?” Max asked, mostly to herself as she scanned the large chamber. The place was huge, littered with screens, test tubes, and all types of scientific equipment. It was like if someone multiplied her old science classroom by a hundred and molded it from die-cast. Yet for its size, the lack of actual scientists was remarkable.

“Looks like it.” Fetch agreed, diverging from the group and finding a still active computer propped up on a small desk. She dug the keyboard out from under a pile of papers, and when she looked at the screen she could see that it was already logged in. She dug through a few digital folders, until she came to one with a set of videos titled “Synthetic_conduit_trials.”

The rest of the group ventured further into the laboratory. Delsin led the charge, and after a few moments of searching they found something. In the back of the room was a large glass pane, covering a stark white room that looked like it had been dug into the wall. It was almost pristine, except for, well, the prisoners inside.

The three of them gathered to look through the glass, coming face to face with six, maybe seven dozen people clad in orange jumpsuits, sitting in a circle in the middle of the room. Delsin was the first to engage, knocking on the glass loudly. One of the people turned their heads, they had medium long white hair, couldn’t be older than fifteen, and they looked battered. Bruises, black eyes, the whole thing. Either they had recently been taken, or these ‘experiments’ were more brutal than they thought.

The person’s facial expression started off as confusion, quickly moved through a whole range of emotions, before finally landing on what could be called glee. They got up off their feet in an instant, running towards the glass. They were initially met by confused glances from the rest of the group, but they quickly caught on and followed the prisoner to the glass. As they reached the glass, they immediately started talking, apparently not knowing that the glass was mostly soundproof. But Delsin could read a single word on the kid’s lips.

“Raven!”

Delsin looked down at his hand, smoke slowly starting to emanate from the tips of his fingers, and he mouthed to the prisoners to stand back. They promptly followed suit, and after a few more moments of charging, he released the smoke blast in his hand and blasted the tempered glass to bits

One for one the prisoners made their way out of their shared cell, all moving past the group as they celebrated loudly, except for the white-haired one. The kid stopped in front of Delsin, looking up at him in wonder for a few moments, before speaking up.

“Y-you saved us, Delsin!”

Delsin couldn’t help but crack a smile, as he almost instinctively ruffled the kid’s hair. “That’s what heroes do, right?” He said, being met with a laugh from the white-haired kid. Delsin looked at the rest of the group of prisoners, assessing who he thought looked to be the most responsible among them—a 40-ish year-old woman with long brown hair—and addressed her.

“Lady, if you leave this room, follow the right corridor and just keep going, there’ll be a boat. Take the kid and the rest of them, and get out of here as fast as you can.”

The woman feverishly nodded, mouthing a quick ‘thank you’ before beginning to jog towards the lab's exit with the rest of the group in tow, including the white-haired kid who waved back at Delsin as they left.

“Wow.” Max said with her arms crossed. “Who knew the Raven of Seattle was so good with kids?”

Delsin rolled his eyes as he let out a small chuckle.

“No, no, she’s right.” Victoria added on.

“Let’s just keep going.” Delsin replied, the smirk on his face unmissable.

“Uh, guys?” Fetch yelled out, getting the group’s attention and prompting them to flock over to Fetch’s corner of the lab.

“You gotta see this.” She hovered over one of the files in the folder she’d been in, and pressed play.

[Pure_light_conduit_76.mkv]

“Light conduit, test 76.” A scientist in the middle of a stark white room said as he quickly jotted down something on a notepad. The camera captured the footage through a large glass pane, the corners of the frame showed metal paneling similar to the room they were currently in.

“Dr. Kendall, please administer the transfer agent.”

“A-are you sure this won’t do anything bad?” A man strapped to a chair in the middle of the room stammered as the second researcher in the room slowly approached him with a needle in hand.

“95.8 percent sure.” The researcher said, as he lowered the needle to the height of the man’s shoulder.

“T-that’s… high, right?”

“Higher than our previous tests, if that's any consolation.” He half-heartedly mumbled, his gaze not even leaving the point of insertion. And before the man could get another word in, the needle went in and out, and Dr. Kendall stepped back from their test subject.

A few moments passed without a lot of happening. The first researcher wrote something down again, before speaking up. “Now, Mr. Pritchard, you are not a conduit, right?”

“Nope.”

“Never have been?”

“No.”

“Don’t know any conduits?”

“Uhm… no?”

“Hm.” The researcher mumbled, writing something down on the notepad. “Mr. Pritchard, could you try lifting your hand please?”

“What? I’m tied down.” He said, demonstratively putting pressure against the bindings around his right arm.

“Try.”

Pritchard just conceded, putting more pressure against the leather straps that kept his arms to the chair's armrest. More moments passed where his arm simply didn’t. But when the man was seemingly on the verge of giving up, the impossible happened.

A warm, white light started radiating from the tips of Mr. Pritchard’s fingers. It was gradual and barely noticeable at first, especially from the position the camera was at. But it quickly cascaded, and in no time at all, the man’s full forearm had been turned into a bright spot of light, and it passed right through the leather straps that were previously holding it down.

The first researcher’s facial expression remained neutral, as he looked down at his notepad again to write something down. “Complete photonic alignment has been achieved, now for a successful reversal.”

Mr. Pritchard looked at his own arm in amazement for a few moments, as it seemed like the experiment had completely worked.

“Okay, return your arm back to normal now, Mr. Pritchard.” Dr. Kendall said.

The man enthusiastically nodded, as he put all of his focus into his right forearm. And again, for a few moments passed wherein nothing happened. And then it got worse. The glow started cascading again, even faster this time. Light spread up his arm, and it didn’t confine itself to just the arm. Shoulder, chest, stomach, legs, face, head, and then, with nothing but a short yelp… gone in an almost instant flash of light.

Nothing but the man’s clothes remained, in a pile on the chair he’d sat on only moments ago.

The first researcher sighed again, before scribbling something down on the notepad.

“Note: Subject #76 lasted 3.6 seconds longer than the previous average. A major improvement.”

The video stopped with a hard cut to black, as Fetch kept her eyes locked onto the screen in front of her. The video they’d just watched was the last one in that folder, but there were ten other folders with a comparable amount of videos. Some of their thumbnails showed dead bodies, or piles of clothes similar to the one in the video they’d just watched. All of them individual tests, individual test subjects.

“Davis, you son of a-” Fetch began through gritted teeth, before being so rudely interrupted.

“Did I hear my name?” A voice echoed, originating from the entrance of the laboratory. The whole group turned around.

Davis Augustine stood in the laboratory doorway, his hands crossed and his hemokinetic henchman, Mathieu Dumont, standing behind him. Davis’s mouth was curled into the slightest of smiles as he stepped forward into the room.

“What the hell are you doing in this place?!” Delsin yelled, prodding for some kind of explanation for the horrific acts that were being done here.

“Brooke dropped the ball with you and your friends. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing.” Davis started to explain, his tone ever so calm and his posture ever so straight. “Because if she did, you wouldn’t have stood a single chance against her.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Power. I’m talking about strength and control. All pieces of the same puzzle, and I’m finally putting it all together.” He continued, as he lifted a finger in his crossed arm stance, strange enough for Delsin to notice. “Us conduits are simply superior, and we’ve spent too long denying that fact. Putting aside our destiny of godhood is simply irresponsible.”

“You’re not putting together jack shit! You don’t know anything!” Fetch butted in as she moved up next to Delsin.

Davis chuckled. “Truth is decided by the people in control. And you?”

Smoke started rising from the tip of Davis’s lifted finger, smoldering with bright orange embers and softly emanating a gray smoke plume.

“You are not in control.”

Chapter Text

Max stood hidden behind Victoria, Fetch, and Delsin as Davis’s monologue continued. She should have been scared but the adrenaline had pumped her up too much, she was lost in the action. She tried to peek past the rest of her group, and listen to what Davis was saying.

“Power is the thing that drives everything. Brooke never understood that, that’s why she didn’t want the DUP to partner with Oscorp. She would rather stay subservient to an institution as banal as the American government. Bleh. But their facilities, their… willingness, it allows us to become more powerful than we’ve ever dreamt of.” Davis explained, waving his hand through the air and playing with the smoke emanating from his fingers.

Fetch stepped forward, frustration in her gait as she began yelling at him.

“She refused because even she has fucking a line! Her approach was fucked up and wrong, and yours is even more fucked up and wrong! You’re kidnapping conduits off the streets and turning them into weapons!”

“SHE WAS AN IDIOT!” Davis yelled, swiping his arm down in a show of anger as his hand flared up with smoke and embers. “Protecting conduits… protecting conduits! She wasn’t protecting anyone, she was keeping us weak. Docile. So we could live as what? Pets to weak humans? Live our lives in cages? She was a fool.”

“And you’re a monster,” Delsin said bluntly. “So we’re gonna put you down before you can hurt anyone else.”

Davis closed his eyes, let out a deep sigh, opened his eyes again, and cracked his knuckles as his facial expression turned to a more serious one. “That’s alright, I just wanted to explain myself.” He said, stretching his arm that wasn’t pouring with smoke out to his right. “Fighting you was the plan the whole time.”

A smirk returned to his face. And his right arm lit up with bright purple neon light. “I can’t just not try these new powers out, right?”

Victoria ran in front, her fingers clasped tightly around Max’s wrist, pulling her friend through the maze of metallic corridors as fast as she could. Back at the lab, Fetch and Delsin were fighting Davis, but the two of them managed to slip away—by Delsin’s suggestion—to find the one thing Max had to find.

The core relay.

The two girls made their way through the arterial-like structure of the carrier ship’s hallways, and as they did so they could feel the stability of the ship decreasing with every passing minute. Light swaying and wobbling had morphed into a feeling that the ship was about to capsize by the time they reached the floor just below the deck.

As they reached the metal staircase that led up to the upper deck, Victoria stopped for a moment to let herself catch her breath as she looked back at Max.

“Are you okay?” Max asked.

“I’m fine. We just have to keep moving.” Victoria mumbled through heaved breaths. Max looked at Victoria's uneasy face, her own facial expression shifting for a moment… but she shook it off, and nodded at Victoria. She took the hint, and moved her eye line back to the top of the staircase, dragging the other girl up by her wrist. And when they arrived at the upper deck, they finally realized the reason for the ship’s sudden turbulence.

“Holy fuck.” Victoria mumbled.

“Oh no.” Max said, an expression on her face as if she’d just seen herself die. “It’s here.”

The two girls stared out to sea, eyes wide and locked on the huge tornado that was heading in the ship’s direction. It was absolutely tearing up the waters, and while it wasn’t moving fast, it was definitely making progress. From there it would still take a while to reach Seattle, but if they didn’t act fast… Max didn’t even want to process what failure here would mean.

Max sucked it up, tugging at Victoria’s arm to get her attention. The blonde turned her head to Max.

“Let’s g-.” She was abruptly cut off by the sound of a bullet passing right by her head. And as the two girls caught a glimpse of the Oscorp squad that was coming their way from the ship’s bow, Victoria started running, dragging Max along in the direction of the bridge.

A beam of purple neon grazed Delsin’s cheek as he dodged one of Davis’s attacks. A blast of smoke singed the tips of Fetch’s hair as she phased out of the way of another. The two ended up side by side again, panting as they kept their arms raised in a defensive stance.

“I can’t fucking get in close!” Fetch yelled in between heaves, quickly followed by Delsin’s own addition.

“Two powers at the same time is not fair!”

Davis cracked his knuckles with a smirk, sparks of neon and orange embers chipping away from his fingers as he did so. “Come on, Rowe, show me that strength that sent my sister to jail and toppled the DUP. I’ll shove it back in your face tenfold and make you regret ever going against me.”

Delsin grit his teeth, as he turned his head to the side to look at one of the many monitors and screens lining the laboratory walls. He reached his arm out to the side, absorbing the energy from the screens, and rejuvenated himself.

“You talk way too fucking much, dude!” He yelled, immediately charging at Davis as his chains turned into a set of dual katanas. Davis raised his smoking arm in a blocking maneuver, and as the blades hit his arm, Delsin was blown back with an eruption of smoke and ember.

Delsin tried to recover from the blow, but before he fully could, a salvo of smoke pellets was fired in his direction from Davis’s outstretched palm. Delsin crossed his blades in a blocking stance, trying to hold back against the unceasing assault of smoke and embers. But Davis didn’t give him a single window to counter, leaving Delsin high and dry.

Well, that would have been the case if he was fighting on his own.

During their struggle, Fetch sped in from Delsin’s right side, dashing in as a mess of neon before changing back to her corporeal form to deliver a neon-powered punch straight to Davis’s jaw. And the attack hit with a blast of bright purple light, causing Davis to stumble back some distance and take the load off Delsin.

But Davis recovered quickly, and before Delsin and Fetch could lay into him together, he’d already prepared his next attack. Delsin rushed ahead in front again, swinging down with his right hard-light katana. But instead of blocking again, Davis completely phased into a state of neon, dodging the attack wholesale and moving between Delsin and Fetch in a matter of moments. Fetch slowed down on a dime, processing the situation as quickly as she could and deciding to blast Davis with a huge blast of neon as soon as he turned back to his corporeal form.

Delsin turned around, and seeing the neon energy charging in both of Fetch’s hands, he took the hint, floating up into the air as fast as he could with a pair of blue hard light wings and…

The storm had gotten worse. The ship was rocking side to side, making it hard for the girls to stay grounded. And worse than that, they were still being shot at. The girls sped up the stairs leading to the ship’s bridge. They reached the door, and Victoria slammed through it open with her shoulder.

The two girls breached into the bridge, sped forward and duck behind the control console in the center.

“We can’t run forever,” Victoria said in between heavy breaths.

“I know, but we’re almost there.”

“At this pace, they’ll catch up to us both,” Victoria replied, tilting her head to look at the back of the bridge, at the door leading to Oscorp’s constructed core relay.

“We’ll just have to be faster.”

“Even if we get in, we’ll just be locked in there with all of them behind us. I…”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You need to go. Now.”

“What? What about you?!”

“I’ll hold the soldiers off!”

“No!” Max yelled as she turned her head to look directly at Victoria. “I can’t just leave you here.”

“You’re not leaving me. I’m… staying right here, I’ll be waiting for you.” Victoria replied. “Just go.”

Max bit her lip as she turned her head away again. She slowly and carefully pushed herself off the ground again, followed by Victoria doing the same. Her eyes stared at the door at the other end of the bridge, the entrance to her final challenge. Her final choice. She squeezed her empty hands tightly, let out a deep sigh, and turned her face back to Victoria again.

“Wait.” She said, grabbing one of Victoria’s hands. Victoria awkwardly reciprocated the gesture, interlocking her fingers with Max’s.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them-”

“Please, just don’t die.” Max said, squeezing Victoria’s hand with her words.

“I won't-”

“No. Promise me you won't die. I'm sick of people dying for me, dying because I can’t save them. So promise me you'll be here when I get back.” She held back a sniffle, and she could feel the tears building up in their ducts.

“I… I promise, I'll be right here.”

They stared into each other's eyes for an odd few moments. But their moment was interrupted by the sound of heavy boots speeding up the stairs to the bridge.

“Go! Now!” Victoria commanded Max, pushing her away. Max started making her way to the door, but her eyes were still trained on Victoria.

The blonde girl mouthed a silent 'you got this' to Max.

Max took her eyes off Victoria.

And she made a run for it.

Delsin, Fetch and Davis announced their arrival to the ship’s upper deck with an explosion of elements. Video, neon, and smoke all blasted from a huge hole in the middle of the runway, quickly followed by three bodies launching from the middle of the explosion and landing on different spots of the ship’s surface.

Delsin shook his head as he pushed himself up. Moments ago the ship was undergoing heavy turbulence, shaking and tilting the ground they were fighting on. But after they had been blown onto the upper deck, the movement had seemingly stopped. And as Delsin caught his breath, absorbing some of the smoke that resulted from the explosion, he gave himself a moment to take in his environment.

It was only then that he realized they were in the eye of the storm.

Literally.

A huge wind cyclone swirled perfectly around the body of the ship, protecting the vessel itself from its effects while lifting up gallons and gallons of water around it. Oscorp’s carrier would be stable for now, but if the storm kept moving it had a serious chance of completely capsizing.

Delsin ignored that for now, however. He had something else to focus on. He returned his gaze back to the plume of smoke that bloomed out from their crater. And slowly the smoke cleared, along with Delsin’s vision of what was happening behind it.

Davis’s fingers were wrapped tightly around Fetch’s neck as she struggled to escape from his grip. But her efforts were naught, and as a surge of embers traveled through his arm up to his hand, he blasted her away with an explosion of smoke.

“Abby!” Fetch yelled, taking his focus off Davis before dashing in the direction of Fetch’s body in a plume of smoke. As he disengaged from his smoke form, he immediately crouched down next to Fetch, her body lay in a small crater on the metal floor of the Oscorp carrier. “Are you okay?!” Delsin’s tone was frantic, sliding his hand under the back of her head as he tried to lift it up a bit.

“I’m…” Fetch grunted in immense pain as she tried to move her body into a more comfortable position. “… Jesus fuck. D, I’m not alright.” Her panic was palpable, her breathing erratic. Pain was shooting through her body.

“Calm down.” He said, almost managing to fool himself as he caringly rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down. “You’ll heal, right?”

Fetch shook her head, lifting up her right hand and letting it sputter with the faintest hint of neon sparks. “He fucking… zapped me. I can’t fucking heal at all.”

“That fucking…” Delsin grit his teeth, his hand balling into a fist. “… I’m gonna kick his ass.”

“Go kick his fucking ass, D.” Fetch replied, managing to flash a smirk through the pain. Delsin shot a reassuring smile back at her, before standing back up and facing Davis again. And as he got ready to face his opponent again, he remembered the words that Fetch had relayed to him.

The advice that Brooke Augustine had meant for his ears.

“You’re more similar than you think.”

Delsin closed his eyes. Sound overwhelmed him, the sloshing of the sea, the howling of the storm’s mighty winds, the clattering of the ship's metal, and the noise of gunshots in the distance. But he zoned in on one particular sound.

Down to his left, blasted away in the explosion that resulted in them ending up on the upper deck, between rubble and metal plates. The buzzing of exposed wires, electrically arcing between themselves and conductive metal rubble.

Delsin opened his eyes again and stretched his arm out to the left. Arcs escaped their standard radius, jumping a remarkable distance to meet Delsin’s fingertips, before spreading over his entire arm and eventually half of his body. He flashed a smirk as he stared Davis down.

“Ready for round 2, asshole?”

Chapter Text

An amalgam blast of neon and smoke tore a hole through the air and made its way straight for Delsin’s upper torso. But Delsin reacted quickly, and as the electricity arcing throughout half of his body moved to concentrate on his feet, he dashed out of the way in a flash of lightning, managing to dodge the attack. Davis’s barrage didn’t stop, however, and Delsin had to keep moving, dashing through a storm of neon beams and smoke blasts, his body arcing with high voltage electricity.

As he moved, his lightning-licked feet glided across the floor as if he was ice skating. This lightning form was fast, faster than smoke dashing through Davis’s attacks, but slower than if he were able to access his neon form. His lightning abilities did have a different upside. Compared to neon, they actually had a way to recharge on this ship.

And as small sparks of neon sputtered from the palm of Davis’s outstretched hand, that fact bit him in the ass. Delsin sped past another exposed wire, swiping a few arcs of electricity from its source to recharge himself, before charging at Davis. Delsin’s fist was raised, smoldering with embers, and as it slammed into Davis’s face it exploded with a burst of smoke.

He stumbled back from the blow, but he recovered quickly to the sight of another—now electrically charged—fist heading for his head. He shifted his body to the side, raising one of his arms up to block Delsin’s blow. And his blocked stance stood steady, defending him from Delsin’s fist for a moment. Davis quickly retaliated, sending an uppercut straight for Delsin’s chin. And it connected.

The blow hit hard, sending Delsin into the air before hitting the metal floor with a-

BANG!

Another bullet whizzed past Victoria’s head, a missed shot that gave her another few seconds of life. Turning around to the source of the gunshot, Victoria dashed up and wrangled the rifle out of the Oscorp soldier’s hands, letting it drop to the floor. But before Victoria could follow up with a counter attack, a sharp pain entered her gut; she’d just been stabbed.

Victoria stumbled back with a pained grunt, holding her hand to the newly created wound. Pain still ran through her, but as the Oscorp mook came charging at her again, she dashed to the side before delivering a punch to her opponent’s abdomen. Victoria loaded the attack with more than enough kinetic energy. And as her knuckles dug into the soldier’s gut, it sent him flying out the bridge’s front window, shattering the glass with a loud crash.

As her opponent disappeared from view, the sound of footsteps running up the stairs registered in her mind again. Soon enough another one would enter the scene, she didn’t have time to slow down. She moved quickly, hiding behind one of the consoles in the middle of the bridge, crouching down and resting her back against the metal.

Victoria was running out. She realized it when she sat down and started breathing heavily. She was running out of time. She was running out of energy. She was running out of ways to take out the people that were coming for Max.

Victoria took her hand off the wound, lifting it up to her face to stare at the blood dripping from her fingers.

And she was also running out of blood.

Her healing was still slower than most of the conduits in her troupe, but it was fast enough to at least start the clotting of the blood in her wound. It wasn’t a fast heal, but it would have to be enough for now. She reached her hands behind her head, pulling her mask tighter, before letting out a sigh.

Victoria mumbled to herself. “Just a little-”

“…longer.” Miya mumbled as she soldered the last wire to the green circuit board on her makeshift desk. In her ears she was listening to The Story So Far, specifically their self-titled record from the year before. With the sizzle of a wire, she placed the soldering iron back in its stand.

“There she goes.” She’d stacked a few boxes together, making sure the contents of them were sturdy enough to support the large wooden plank she’d placed on top as a DIY tabletop.

Fetch, Delsin, and Max had left for the Salish Sea earlier that day, and as the sun was setting outside their apartment, Miya lifted her welding mask up to look upon her handiwork. Jayda, Oscorp’s lightning-toting mercenary, had done some serious damage to her equipment, and she’d been spending that time fixing as much of it as she could.

She let out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair. The day was turning to… well, it wasn’t night yet, but it was starting to get late. Miya wasn’t worried, per se, but she was starting to get doubts. They’d been gone for the majority of the day so far without even a sign that everything—or anything, for that matter—was going well. Not even a text from Fetch… or Victoria.

“I hope they’re okay,” Miya mumbled, before pulling her earbuds out to go get a glass of water, strolling to the kitchen with her face buried in her phone. Lazily she grabbed a glass off the counter and filled it with water from the tap.

“Hey! Uh… Miya, right?” Eugene’s recognizably voice called out in the middle of the large swig she took.

“What’s up?” She asked, peeking around the corner into the living room.

“Did you check your phone?” Eugene began as Miya calmly strolled into the living room. “I just got an extreme weather alert.”

“Huh?” Miya replied in a confused tone, as Eugene turned his phone around to show her. “A hurricane headed for Seattle? And it’s coming through the-”

“-Salish Sea.”

Delsin pushed himself up with his elbows, managing to lift his back and his head up into a sort of half lying down half-sitting position. But as he did so, he spotted Davis lunging down from the sky in his direction, some type of sword in his hand. Delsin reacted quickly, rolling to the side in an instant, as the sound of his opponent’s weapon slamming down into the floor reverberated from the space he was just in.

He quickly got up into a crouch through a smoke morph, only to see Davis’s blade coming straight for his head again. He didn’t want to dodge again, however. As Davis’s blade was barreling for him, aiming to lob off the top of Delsin’s head, he reached an arm out in his opponent's direction. A bolt of lightning shot through Delsin’s outstretched arm, and arced through the air before making contact with Davis’s sword.

Davis yelped out in pain, as if being hit by a stun gun, as the lightning arced throughout his whole body, sending his body flailing over Delsin’s head before he hit the metal floor behind him with a loud slam.

Delsin got back up to his feet again, letting himself catch his breath while keeping his eyes trained on Davis’s body. After a few moments, his opponent pushed himself off the floor again.

“Showing mercy, Rowe?”

“No, just giving myself a moment.” Delsin replied with a smirk, as he let his chains drop lower, the metal hitting metal with a soft clang. “That sword, what ability was that?”

“Oh, this?” Davis replied, holding his hand out, palm side down. Moments later, the metal beneath his feet bent and broke, moving up in chunks to met his hands, and as he wrapped his fingers around them, they morphed into a single, solid steel blade. This new weapon looked more like a European longsword. “Took this from one of my associates. Before she was murdered by your neon friend.”

“As if you’re so above killing people.”

Davis chuckled at Delsin’s remark. “Oh, don’t take it that way. I’m not above a lot of things. I was honestly quite impressed, a low tier conduit like her taking on a professional like Jayda with only the help of a lowly human? It was honestly quite commendable.” He explained, brandishing his blade in a fighting stance. “But I’ll grant you the courtesy of a fighting chance once again.” He said, as his blade suddenly lit up with embers and smoke.

“Oh, I’m so grateful.”

Dark.

That was the first thing Max thought, as the heavy metal door behind her closed with a slam. Stepping forward, her feet tapped with a metal sound, resonating through the steel casket she’d stepped into. It was hard to see anything, no thanks to the lack of conventional lighting in the large metal room, but she did seem to have one point of reference. In the center of the hexagonal chamber sat a faint blue glow, emitting from the center of some type of pillar.

That has to be it. Max thought to herself. The core relay.

She slowly began walking again, following the blue beacon of light in the center of the room. Step by step she got closer, but with each step, the energy in the room became more palpable. As if the core in the center was emitting some kind of forcefield. It made the hairs of her skin stand up straight. Footsteps reverberated off the floor, echoed off the wall and mapped out the space of the room. Eventually she reached the pillar, placing her hands on the console at its base.

The pillar was made from some sort of metal, reaching up multiple meters to the ceiling of the room. It was about twice as wide as her own body in both directions. In the center of the pillar, surrounded by tight metal bars, sat the core itself, gleaming with bright blue light. The light reached Max’s eyes, shining into her irises with power.

This is it. She thought to herself. Everything I’ve been fighting for, everything… we’ve all been fighting for.

This is for Chloe.

This is for me.

Max looked down at the console again, her hands gliding across the display as she tried to look for a way to get to the core inside of the pillar. She navigated through multiple programs and screens. For being made by scientist, Max was expecting a more properly sorted and easy to navigate piece of software, but the relay’s control panel was harder to use than a toaster with two forks stuck inside of it.

But she powered through it, and after a few extended moments of looking, she found something. A short paragraph read:

The Core Exposure Protocol will only activate in case of manual activation, core temperatures higher than safe thresholds, or complete vessel meltdown. If the protocol is falsely or invalidly activated, please contact your nearest Relay Core technician. In case of meltdown, contact on-land Oscorp operatives for rapid evacuation.

Manual activation? Max thought to herself. Where the frick is the button, then? She was getting frustrated, this close, yet now she was still finding new hurdles. She swiped through screens and protocols, files flashed in front of her eyes but she paid no heed to them.

Because as she moved her hand to navigate to another window, she was rudely and quickly interrupted by a knife crashing into the screen in front of her. Cracks quickly spread through the glass, and as she pulled her hand away in a panic, she turned around to face whoever had just attacked her.

There, concealed in shadows, stood a figure that struck awfully familiar. They wore what seemed like a pretty standard Oscorp uniform, if not for the red embellishments lining the clothier parts of the suit and the lack of a helmet.

The sound of footsteps echoing through the large chamber was quickly followed by the figure’s voice calling out to her.

“Max Caulfield,” They spoke in an accent Max could only place as vaguely European. “Finally found your name. Blackwell Academy alumni, on-and-off photographer, involved in the arrest of Mark Jefferson—a man after my own heart—, otherwise completely irrelevant to the world.” He continued as he kept getting closer, causing Max to start backing up slowly. “So why has no one killed you yet? Why have you survived through everything the world has thrown at you?”

“I guess I’m just luck-”

“I know you’re a conduit, of course.” He interrupted. “I just don’t know what your deal is.” He let out a sigh, as he pulled a mask over his mouth, slightly muffling his accented voice. “Not that I care that much really, they don’t pay me to ask questions. I just value speculation. I think it helps the brain develop.”

“Who are you?” Max asked. She was still backing up, but she was standing strong in her own way, her posture straight and fierce, a facade of bravery to hide how scared she really was.

“I guess I see no harm in telling you my name… call me Mathieu Dumont.”

Max’s eyes went wide, as she recognized his name from a news report she’d seen a while ago. “You’re the Butcher of Nantes?”

A smile suddenly grew on Mathieu’s face. “Oh, I haven’t heard that one in a while. Not since Oscorp broke me out of my life sentence. Wish your friend had recognized me back there when he stole my property.” He focused back on Max, before letting out a sigh.

The sound of a dripping liquid suddenly made itself known, and as Max pulled her vision in the direction of the sound, she noticed blood streaming down from a huge cut in Mathieu’s arm. Before she could even fully process what was going on, all the blood suddenly moved into his hand before coagulating into a solid, knife shape.

“I am going to kill you, Maxine Caulfield. And I’m going to enjoy it, so very much.”

Bound in chains, Delsin’s forearms were kept crossed in front of his face as he held back against the force of Davis’s continuous blade slashes.

“Give up, Rowe! You can’t keep going forever!” His voice manic, the smile on his face portraying exactly what he felt; this battle was exhilarating to Davis.

“You first, asshole!” Delsin shouted back, as he tried to push back against Davis’s assault. His opponent's strength was overwhelming, however, and this standstill was all he could muster. Both of their powers were starting to run dry, and they were both pumping all their energy purely into brute strength, hoping the other would give up first. But that wasn’t happening any time soon.

Delsin grit his teeth as he stood his ground, his heels digging into the steel floor beneath him, bending and bulging it downward. His strength was starting to give, and he had no idea how Davis was holding on. He had to do something. He had to think of some kind of counter strategy.

Fortunately, the thinking had already been done for him.

Delsin felt the strength against his block begin to mount immensely, and he would have buckled under the pressure if it hadn’t suddenly lifted in a single instant. The sound of a gunshot rang through the air, cutting through the cacophony of rushing winds, as Davis stumbled to the side from the sheer impact of the bullet. Delsin looked to the source of the gunshot, spotting Fetch standing in the periphery of his vision.

She stood off balance, one hand to the slowly-healing wound in her stomach, the other tightly gripped around the grip of a Glock-18 she’d salvaged off of a fallen Oscorp soldier. Two more shots left the barrel of her gun, her aching muscles struggling to handle the recoil.

Delsin’s eyes skittered back towards Davis, as he noticed smoke gathering around his now outstretched arm, pointed in Fetch’s direction.

“NO!” Delsin’s voice almost cracked as he swung a chain forward. A blast of smoldering embers exploded from the palm of Davis’ hand, just before the chain fully wrapped around his wrist. With an immense show of force, Delsin tugged at the chain and pulled Davis towards him.

Davis left the ground in one fell swoop and flew in Delsin’s direction like a limp sack of potatoes. He pulled a fist back, smoke and electricity gathered in the palm of his hand, the elements combining into a deadly combination.

He had one shot. This had to be it.

Delsin closed his eyes and he resorted to his instincts.

Moments passed as Davis’s body flailed through the air, the wind rushing from his body’s movement. Delsin’s muscles tingled, waiting to spring and release all their pent up energy.

Now.

His muscles released like a spring as his fist sprang forward, cutting a hole through the air. The wind stood still for a few moments, and as Delsin’s fist moved, it felt like time ceased to move as well. Eventually, however, Delsin could feel his knuckles cracking his enemy’s nasal ridge, and as the impact exploded in a haze of smoke and lightning, he embedded Davis back-first into the ship’s deck.

Delsin crouched down into the cratered metal beneath his feet, and looked at his defeated opponent. Blood poured from Davis’s nose, his powers too depleted to clot his blood and heal the wound that caused it. Putting his all into it, Davis managed to lift his head up to look Delsin in the eyes.

“You won… now kill me.” Davis sneered.

“I didn’t kill your sister, and I’m not going to kill you either.” Delsin replied with a sigh. “I really wanted to, to be honest. This whole time I was so sure I was gonna kill you.” Delsin turned his head to the right. “I still hate saying this, but we’ll hand you over to the cops, they’re gonna lock you up in the same prison they put your sister i-”

Delsin cut himself off as he saw a flash of orange light in his peripheral vision. He reacted quickly, turning back to Davis and blasting his raised arm with a bolt of electricity. Davis let out a scream as his arm roiled back, and before he could even think of doing anything else, Delsin’s hand had already clutched onto his face.

Fingers dug into the sides of Davis’s head, as Delsin—almost instinctually—began the process that Davis had subjected him to two times before. Light shot out from the crooks between Delsin’s fingers, the glow ramping up before quickly becoming bright enough to eclipse his whole sight. Delsin tried shielding his vision with his free hand, but before the motion could even become useful, the light snapped away in an instant.

Removing his hand from Davis’s face, he could see the man’s head leaning back against the floor, heavy breaths cycling through the gap between his lips.

“You’re a coward, Rowe,” Davis mumbled through heavy breaths and restrained grunts. “A stupid one, at that.” He laughed through a crooked smile.

Delsin let out a sigh as he got up to his feet, his eyes moving over to Fetch who was standing a few meters away. She was leaning against a shattered railing, one hand held to one of the wounds in her stomach as the other clutched the pistol she’d used to shoot David. The purple-haired girl shot a sly smile at him, and he couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s time a coward wins for once.”

A knife just whizzed past Max’s head, as she ran to hide behind the huge terminal in the center of the room. Her feet moved as fast they could, yet she could still hear Dumont’s determined strut creeping up behind her. Another two knives dripping with blood zoomed past her before she got behind the terminal and slumped back first against the metal.

This was it. She was almost there, and there was another roadblock. Max was just about ready to count the amount of times she’d thought that exact thought on her hand, but she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Dumont’s footsteps echoed through the room, she could hear him getting closer but he wasn’t moving fast. He was taking his time. And that meant Max had a chance.

She crept over to the edge of her cover, listening for him to come closer. And as the footsteps came in a range she deemed close enough, she peeked out of cover and was met with a knife through the throa-

She crept over to the edge of her cover, listening for him to come closer. And as the footsteps came in a range she deemed close enough, she ducked down in an instant. Quickly thereafter, Dumont swung his knife right over the top of her, embedding his weapon into the metal of the terminal with a recognizable “clang!”.

Acting quickly, she looked over in her assailant's direction and sprinted into him for a tackle. She wrapped her arms around his stomach, throwing him down to the floor. They both hit the floor with a loud thud, and Dumont didn’t wait a moment before struggling against the girl’s grip.

Max knew her own strength was easily trounced by Dumont’s own, and as she tried to throw a punch in his face, she was quickly met by a headbutt. The attack hit her hard, sending her head up and-

Nope! No punching! She kept her hands locked on Dumont’s shoulders, pushing as hard as she could to keep him on the ground. Sooner or later, Dumont would overpower her, and she’d be dead with no chance to strike back. She needed some way to take him down, or at least delay him for long enough to get her hands on the Relay Core. A hundred and one ideas swirled around in her head, and a hundred and one went straight into the trash.

No! Come on Max, think! There’s gotta be something you can do! You’ve gotten this far, you can’t jus- Max was abruptly knocked off her train of though when one of her hands slipped from Dumont’s shoulders, fucking up her focus and her balance. She knew that was his opening.

Panicked now, she scrambled to turn back time, but she wasn’t fast enough. Dumont quickly followed up with a headbutt, sending her back onto her ass and disengaging her grapple. Before she could recover, a quick kick to the mouth sent her sliding along the metal ground, back-first into the console. She hit the metal with a thud, the pain rippled through her body like a shockwave, and it took her a few moments to recover.

But eventually, Max opened her eyes. In front of her, the sharp edge of a blood-red knife threatened to cut her eye if she were to be too liberal with her head movement. The blade’s edge glistened, reflecting the bright blue light that stemmed from the machine behind her head. But instead of the tip slowly inching its way closer to her eye like she was expecting, the knife only stood in the same spot, perfectly frozen in motion.

It didn’t take Max long to realize what was going on after that. The air in her mouth tasted arid like the dry oxygen in the desert, a feeling she’d only ever felt years ago. But one she’d never forgotten. Max let out a sigh, pushing herself up out of the precarious position she was in, moving past the tip of Dumont’s knife and brushing the dust off her outfit once she stood next to her assailant.

Dumont stood frozen in time, his visage still in the middle of attacking. A bloodthirsty grin marked his face, his chipped teeth revealing themselves to Max’s eyes. She imagined how long he’d been locked up, how long it'd been since he’d cleaned himself in any way, and she shuddered at the answer she settled on. Slowly, Max moved through stopped time, wading through frozen air and walking towards the front of the console.

Her steps didn’t even echo through the large space, instead making soft thud after soft thud as she made her way to her destination. The fact that she hadn’t stopped time like this since Kate wasn’t in the forefront of her attention, nor was the fact that she wasn’t feeling the pounding headache that came paired with it last time. She was too preoccupied to even begin thinking of that right now.

After a few moments, she’d arrived at the front of the console once again. Her hands absentmindedly slid across the brushed steel as she went to work on it. She didn’t know how long this time stop would hold, but what she did know was that she would have to use her time efficiently if she wanted to get her hands on the Relay Core before Dumont could kill her.

Unfortunately, Max had a bad habit of being interrupted.

Almost getting used to living in this stopped time, Max had begun to get accustomed to the frozen air surrounding her. So when a soft air current behind her suddenly revealed itself to her, it set her off like a hair trigger.

As soon as she had turned her head, her eyes scanned for the source of the now-moving wind, but for a few moments, they could find nothing but empty space. Yet she kept searching, and her efforts eventually paid off, as her eyes landed on a small creature floating through the wind, making its way in Max’s direction. Small, blue wings flittered and fluttered, rhythmically flapping away the air beneath them before coming to a halt as they landed on Max’s now outstretched palm.

Max stood practically frozen as the creature sat there in her palm, her brain too overwhelmed to even gasp. Everything was coming at her so fast, she had no way to process it.

And that’s when the blue butterfly spoke to her.

Chapter Text

“Max Caulfield… can you hear me?” An ethereal voice echoed off the many walls of the large metal box they were in.

Max stood there with an agape mouth, simply staring at the blue butterfly resting in the palm of her hand. It took her a few moments, but eventually, she nodded a soft ‘yes’.

“Sorry, it’s just been so many years since we’ve seen each other. I am quite the busy bee these days.” The butterfly spoke once again, giving Max a few seconds to respond. She… did not do that, however. Max’s eyes burned a hole into the blue butterfly in front of her, and it didn’t take the ‘critter’ long to understand what was going on.

“Oh, of course! Excuse me.” The ethereal voice apologized. The insect’s wings fluttered quickly as it flew into the empty space in front of Max. It floated there for a few moments, before suddenly lighting up in a bright flash. She shielded her eyes with the palm of her hand, stopping the light from burning out her eyes. After a while, she could feel the light die down. And as Max removed the hand from her face, her eyes wandered across someone she… more than recognized.

“Vic… Victoria?” Max managed to stammer, as she stared at this pastiche-Chase looking down and examining her own body.

“Well, this is a somewhat unexpected form, I must say.” She spoke, the voice coming out of her mouth matching the one that previously originated from the butterfly. “I guess she was on your mind?” She continued, turning to look at Max for an answer.

After a few moments of confusion, Max tilted her head and answered with a solid “Huh?”

“Never mind, I shouldn’t overwhelm you like this.” The fake Victoria said, shaking her head before politely reaching a hand out in Max’s direction. “It is incredibly nice to finally meet you. In the flesh, that is.”

Max’s eyes stayed frozen in space and time, inspecting this… facade’s hand like a cat smelling something it’s never encountered before. A cold breath left Max’s lips, as she carefully reached her own hand out and shook hers. A smile popped up on “Victoria’s” face as she enthusiastically shook Max’s hand back. The whole interaction only lasted a few seconds, where after Max quickly returned her hands back to the safety of her hoodie’s pockets.

In silence, Max stared at the fake’s face for an entirely too long time. Eventually, however, her lips parted long enough for words to make their way out.

“Who are you?” She mumbled softly, causing the corner of Faux-toria’s mouth to curl up into a smirk.

“You don’t remember?”

“You… the butterfly… but that doesn’t make sense? You’re-”

“Not a butterfly? Yes, you’re right about that.” She replied, strolling across the metal flooring mid-speech, talking into the void yet still aiming her words at Max. The brunette just watched her saunter. “Or, well, you are kind of right. To some extent.”

“Kind of right? You either are or aren’t a butterfly, right?”

A chuckle escaped the blonde’s lips, her feet still rhythmically tapping away at the floor beneath her. “It’s not that simple, really. But that doesn’t matter to you. For your purposes, yes, I am a butterfly. No, I am-”

“You’re that butterfly. The blue butterfly-”

“Yes, the butterfly that was there when you first used your powers. That was me.” She cut her off once again, coming to a halt as she turned to face Max.

“My name is Prometheus.” She spoke simply, giving Max a moment or two to process that information before continuing. “I’m what you might call a… god. A deity, numen, whatever word you might want to use. Your people have a variety of words for my kind.”

“So is that why you can do… all this?” Max asked, vaguely gesturing at all of Prometheus’ being.

“Yes, and it’s also how I made this little bubble in time for us. We share abilities in that way. I am an avatar of time. An extension of the very concept itself, in the same way that your arm is an extension of your torso. I am one with it, but I am not it. I can not fully control it, only manipulate it to an extent.”

Max almost subconsciously lifted an eyebrow in confusion as she crossed her arms. She let out a sigh, before replying back to Prometheus. “So… why are you here? Why are you doing all of this? Why now?”

“Back when you saved your blue-haired friend, I felt that. Every time you used your ability, I could feel it. Every time you tore another hole in time, it resonated through my being, as clear as a touch on your bare skin. So I observed you. I watched you go through everything, every time you went back I followed you. And then, when you sacrificed that girl-”

“Chloe. Her name was Chloe.”

“When you sacrificed Chloe, you stopped using the grasp you had over time, and my attraction to you waned. My connection to you fell away. And so, I left. I followed other meddlers of time, others with similar abilities to yours, although they were all considerably less powerful than you ever were. If I am like an arm to time, you were like a finger, and everyone else was barely a toenail.” Prometheus said with a disappointed sigh.

“When our connection died, I was dreading that maybe your connection to time had fallen away entirely. I was devastated! You were one of the most interesting people I've ever had the pleasure of observing. So you can imagine my excitement when you began using your abilities again. I felt fate tug at me, and it pulled me in your direction. In a very real sense fate pulled everything and everyone here right now into its place.”

“So… why are you talking to me now? You’ve never done this before.”

“Because there is something important you need to know. Something that… I should have said a long time ago.” Prometheus said with a heavy sigh. She stopped walking, coming to a halt in the middle of the room, staring out into the wall in front of her instead of Max herself. “You can’t save her.”

“W-what?”

“The rules of time have been yours to play with for a long time, and I fear my lack of guidance has been complicit in causing this confusion. Time is malleable, especially for someone of your caliber. But it has its rules, it has its foundations, it has its pillars. And there are things you simply can not change. Chloe Price’s death can not be changed. At least, not just like that.” She explained, emphasizing the last part of her sentence with a snap of her fingers.

“You’re saying… there’s a trade-off?” Max inferred carefully, prompting Prometheus to nod in agreement.

“I can allow you to go back, one last time, and make the choice to save her. I will be able to dispel the storm, and you will be able to live a normal life with her. A normal life at Blackwell, a normal graduation, and a normal life to live however you choose to afterwards.”

An unsure expression crept up on her face. “What’s the catch?”

Prometheus sighed, as she tried not to let Max’s insecurities get to her. “Whichever choice you make, I can’t allow you to retain your control over time. That means you get one chance, whatever you choose.”

“And…” Max’s eyebrows furrowed, as she waited for Prometheus to continue.

“If you choose to go back, you will create an entirely new timeline. One where you have not experienced any of the things you have now. One… where you won’t remember any of this. And one where your influence on everyone else’s lives will be gone, or will at least have changed. One where the balance of life and death still needs to be even.” Prometheus explained. “A world where Victoria Chase dies in Chloe's place. Not in her exact shoes, but instead of her. A life for a life."

Max gulped as her eyes skittered down to the floor beneath her feet. The weight of her actions, of the decision she was about to make, of everything she’d done in recent memory, it was all finally coming down on her. Tears threatened to stream down her face, but she managed to keep the panic contained as she asked Prometheus one more question.

“Can I… have some time to think?”

Prometheus simply nodded, and Max accepted the sign like it was her saviour. On the verge of a very poorly timed breakdown, she slowly made her way through a stopped time version of the path she’d taken to get to the reactor room. Through the 2-inch blast door, into the dark hallway, and finally back unto the bridge. The journey felt ten times longer than it actually had been, numb and lost in her own head, but when she saw Victoria her sense of feeling slowly returned.

Carefully, she shuffled over to Vic, who had seemingly been stopped in the middle of a battle with one of Oscorp’s soldiers. Her bloodied knuckles—an aesthetic that highly contrasted her immaculately manicured nails—dug into the stomach of one of them. Victoria could not have looked worse for wear, hairs stuck to the surface of her sweaty forehead, as blood splatters decorated her clothing. A broken person hidden behind designer fashion.

Slowly, Max approached the girl, as her hand hovered above her shoulder. A thousand-and-one thoughts raced through her head, but she pushed them all aside. She didn’t have time to think.

She needed to talk.

As soon as her hand made contact with Victoria’s shoulder, a heaving breath escaped the blonde girl’s lips. Not a moment later, she collapsed.

Max reacted quickly, catching her in her arms before she fell to the floor. Ragged breaths took the place of words for a few seconds, Victoria resting her weight onto Max as the brunette helped her to her feet. Slowly her breathing steadied, making place for the words she was trying to say.

“W-what’s going on?”

“I… don’t really have time to explain. Trust me?”

Victoria turned her head, as her tired eyes stared into Max’s own.

“Yes, I trust you. What’s wrong? You don’t look great.”

Max couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. “Says the walking corpse.”

“I could drop dead right fucking now if you wanted me to, Caulfield. But I doubt you stopped time or whatever bullshit you pulled just to watch me do that. So, spit it the fuck out.”

Max sighed, diverting her gaze from Victoria to avoid staring back into her eyes. Years ago she might’ve done that out of fear, or hatred. But now, the emotion she felt towards her was much more amicable than it had ever been.

“Yeah, it’s uh… important,” Max said. Staring at the floor, she did her best to muster up any semblance of courage. Not that there was much left in the pile of scraps she liked to call her bravery. She felt trapped, just like she did back with Chloe, stuck in another impossible choice, alone. Before she could work up the courage to say anything, however, she felt Victoria take her hand into her own.

Max looked back at Victoria, and her worries almost melted away.

“Hey, I’m here, alright? Sorry for blowing up again.” Victoria said in a sort of half-whisper, the comforting smile on her face accented by the cut in her lip from a punch she’d received earlier in a fight. “Come on, talk to me.”

Max squeezed Victoria’s hand tightly, before finally speaking up. “I’m… stuck, between the past and the present. I have the power to get myself unstuck, but… it either means embracing the past or moving further into the future, and I don’t know what to do. What would you do?”

“Cryptic as ever, but… I think you need to keep moving forward. Maybe I would’ve been more conflicted a few months ago, but now? I don’t know, I think I’ve changed.”

“You changed me, I think. You showed me that I can’t hang on everything I’ve done wrong, blame myself for it without moving on. I’ve been stuck in my ways for so long, but you showed me that I need to live for the future instead of hating myself for the past. Even if I go back and change all that shit, I’m still me, those same mistakes will haunt me forever and influence the shit I do in the future. But I need to move on, and make sure my life in the future matters.”

Max wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe she’d been selfish for so long, somewhat self-absorbed, she’d only been thinking of the girl in the mirror. Of herself. She’d not even noticed how much she’d really changed Victoria, and how much the girl had changed her. How much everyone around her had changed her.

They both stared at each other in silence for a few moments, as Victoria’s cheeks lit up a faint cherry red. An unspoken truce between them built up like a wall for years, faintly present to the both of them like a voice in the back of their heads.

And then Max cut the tension.

Her first kiss had been years ago. Three years ago, to be exact. In a certain sense, it hadn't even really happened.

She’d not dated anyone at all, not done anything of the sort, since Chloe. No one else had felt like her. She’d never felt like she deserved to go out with anyone. But now, here with Victoria’s arm wrapped around her, her hands under the girl’s shirt, her fingers tracing the skin of her back while they stood on a ship that was threatening to be capsized by the storm she was so scared of… well, it still didn’t feel the same.

Victoria’s lips were nothing like Chloe’s. Victoria’s dainty hands were nothing like the rough calloused fingers that Chloe used to have. Victoria's eyes spoke stories that Chloe's didn’t.

Victoria was nothing like Chloe. Nothing like her at all.

And maybe that was good for Max.

Max pulled away with a heaving breath, the two girls stared at each other again. Instinctively, Max leaned her head forward, nuzzling her face into the crook of Victoria’s neck.

“Thank you, Vic.” Max mumbled, as she felt Victoria’s gentle hands rubbing her back. They stayed there like that for a second or two, because god knows Max needed it. But they couldn’t stay in this stopped time bubble forever. Nothing could last forever. Like mitosis, they split. Max pushed herself out of Victoria’s clutches, and as soon as their skin stopped touching, the blonde froze again. The color seemingly drained out of her skin as she returned to a part of the scenery.

Max let out a sigh, as her eyes turned to the Oscorp soldier that had been fighting Victoria earlier. Quickly, she jogged over to him and pushed him lightly, making sure to not let him into her bubble of stopped time. Like a statue, he tilted over, and was sure to hit the floor once time resumed again.

She took one final look at Victoria, and turned around. She finally knew what she had to do.

“So, have you decided?” Prometheus asked, Max standing opposite her. Max silently nodded in response. “Good to hear, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

“I…” A lump set itself in Max’s throat, the words refusing to come out. Choices were always made easier in one’s head. Speaking them out loud was much harder. Thoughts were malleable, not real in a way. But words are the physical. The real. Once the sounds left one’s mouth, the words were set in stone. Maybe not written, but scribed into the soul of the universe.

Or maybe that’s just what Max told herself to explain why it was so hard to talk.

Maybe she felt like she was giving up on Chloe. Maybe she felt like she was doing her a disservice. Maybe she felt like disrespecting the ghost of her best friend was the last thing she should be doing. Maybe she felt a hundred thousand million different things. Maybe she didn’t feel anything at all. Maybe it didn’t matter.

Maybe she knew what she wanted.

Her lips dried, her throat scratchy, she felt like she was on the verge of crying. But Max pushed through. Max opened her mouth and spoke.

Chapter Text

“… I have to stay here.” Max replied with a gulp. Prometheus stared at her for a moment imperceivable, before nodding in response.

“For as much as this means coming from me, I’m proud of you.” Prometheus replied as they put a hand on Max’s shoulder. “I know how hard this choice must have been, I once had to make a similar one. When I was a younger kin of the void. These ultimatums are always unfair, but so is the nature of life.”

Max raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but before she could raise a query, Prometheus moved on.

“Like I said before, I can’t allow you to keep your powers. Your reckless actions with them, and my tolerance of those actions have left me in an unfortunate position.” Prometheus explained, before turning their head to look behind them at Mathieu. After a few moments, they looked back at Max again. “I couldn’t possibly leave you in here with him without something to defend yourself, however.” Prometheus continued, as they pulled something out of their inside pocket and gently placed it in Max’s hand.

“What is this?” Max asked as she looked down. In the palm of her hand now sat a small, golden necklace, gilded silver providing the detailing around the centerpiece itself. The centerpiece was… surprisingly modest. A small golden shield with a flame insignia sculpted from silver in the center of it. And in the very, very center, sat a small green encrusted gem.

“This is my token.”

“How do I use it? Or is it, like, symbolic?”

“I can’t tell you that.” Prometheus replied simply. “You must discover what you want in your heart. Only then will my token open itself to you.”

Fittingly cryptic for a deity. Max thought to herself in between confused questions. And before she got the chance to ask any of them, Prometheus addressed her again.

“I put my trust in you, Max Caulfield. The fate of your world lies in your hands. It always has. So protect what you hold dear, and keep moving.” Slowly, the figure in front of Max faded out of existence, like some kind of cheap effect in an old film. And Max had watched a lot of old films, she would know. Coinciding with Prometheus' leave of absence, was the return of that good old fourth dimension.

Slowly, Max could feel the cogs of time set into motion again. First she felt the breeze slowly brushed the back of her neck. The toiling and turning of the sea returned to wobble the ground beneath her again. Only then did she think to turn her attention back to Mathieu again.

He was standing opposite the console she’d been at moments ago in real time. His eyes were still staring at the place she had been, but he was slowly starting to realize what was going on. And with a face filled with frustration, he turned his head to Max.

“You… how did you get there?”

“Put some dirt in your eyes.” Max mocked as she got back into somewhat of a fighting stance, Prometheus’ amulet gripped tightly in her right hand.

Dumont chuckled as he wiped the dust from his clothes. “It doesn’t matter. You can’t run forever, little girl. No matter how much dirt you throw into my eyes.”

“I’m not running anymore.”

Dumont’s eyebrow raised. “You’re fighting?”

“I’m not letting you hurt my friends. I’m stopping you here, now.”

Dumont let out a singular ha. “I keep liking you more and more.” Before Max could respond again, he rushed at her. A new crimson red sword formed in Dumont’s hands, and as soon as he reached Max, he swung for her head.

As if struck by a sudden bout of precognition, Max dodged to the side of his swing. More slices came in her direction, but even the fiercest ones she managed to dodge if only by a hair. Air moved with every strike, and Max began getting confident. A smile stood on her face as she weaved through Dumont’s attacks like a ballerina. It was like she was able to dodge his attacks without having to turn back time first.

But Dumont wasn’t here to cater to her whims.

Max dashed to the right to dodge an overhead swing. But before she could notice what was going on, the foot placed to her right swept her off the floor and sent her careening down into the cold metal. A loud thunk announced her arrival to the floor, the impact hurting her back almost as much as the last time. And as soon as her vision cleared, she could see the tip of Dumont’s blade heading straight for the space between her eyes.

She thought back to the amulet in her hand, the words Prometheus had spoken to her, and without giving it another second, she instinctively covered her face with her arms. A few moments passed before Dumont’s blade would have pierced the tendon’s in her forearms. But instead of the feeling of her skin and bones tearing, she felt a sensation like a hammer hitting sheet metal barely a few inches in front of her arms.

Slowly Max opened her eyes once again, only for her gaze to fall upon… well, she wasn’t exactly sure what it was. A soft, golden shimmer, transparent yet strangely solid, lined a contour around the surface of her arms. A golden haze filled the room with light.

“Prometheus…” Max mumbled. A grateful smile appeared on her face. “Thank you.”

“C'est quoi cette merde?!” Dumont yelled.

Max unclasped her arms, the action dislodging the blade from her newly earned forcefield, and sending Dumont flying back. Max used the window to get back up herself, but as soon as she did so, Dumont was back in range to take another swing at her.

Max raised her right arm, blocking an overhead swing with her forearm. The spot of impact lit up as Dumont’s blade hit again, but he didn’t give up. More swings came Max’s way, and her improved speed along with her ability to block all the attacks meant she felt like she could actually keep up.

She dodged under one of Dumont’s slashes again, and instead of staying defensive, she let all defense go. Pouring all the power of her barrier into the area around her fist, she delivered a punch straight to Dumont’s face and knocked him right on his ass. A second later, her assailant was laid out on the hard metal floor following a loud metal clang.

Max let out a grateful sigh, her mind able to calm down for the first time in the past week. Only for that feeling to once again be interrupted by the ground beneath her shaking. At the same time, a loud voice boomed over the intercom system, announcing that the ship was undergoing minor turbulence.

She sped to the reactor room's exit, past the door she came in through, through the long hallway, and back onto the bridge. From the hallway, she could already see Victoria. Back against the console, she had a hand on her stomach and her other rested on the floor as she sat there among the pile of knocked-out Oscorp soldiers.

Victoria looked up as she heard Max’s footsteps approach, and as Max dashed through the doorway, Victoria was only halfway through standing up.

And Max practically swept her off her feet into a hug. Victoria let out a soft moan (of pain, perverts!) as Max squeezed her as tightly as she possibly could.

“Good to see you too,” Victoria grunted.

Max pulled back slightly, staring at the blonde with a gleeful smile. She stared at her for what felt like an hour but was merely a few seconds, before pulling her into a kiss. Their contract, their reciprocal promise to be there was once again sealed, as Victoria reciprocated. This kiss lasted a few seconds shorter than their first, as Victoria pulled back.

“So… that kiss from earlier wasn’t some kind of crazy hallucination? I honestly thought I was losing it.”

Max chuckled, before finally letting words leave her lips again. “I love you, Victoria Chase.”

“We’re doing full names now?” Victoria’s cheeks went red, a shade not far off from the blood running down the side of her face as she smiled back at the brunette girl, giving away the embarrassing feelings she’d been hoping to hide with that snarky remark. “You wanna get out of this place?”

“Like hell.” Max replied as she finally let Victoria go. Before quickly wrapping an arm around her shoulder when she saw the poor girl almost fall right back to the floor. Slowly but surely, they made their way down from the bridge back to the deck and met back up with Delsin and Fetch. Fetch looked battered, while Delsin held Davis slumped over his shoulder looking even worse than her.

“We’ve gotta get out of here.” Were the first words that left Max’s mouth when Victoria and her struggled in their direction.

“Yeah, I couldn’t agree more.” Fetch replied. “But we gave those prisoners our boat. We’re gonna have to find a replac-” Fetch was suddenly interrupted by the approaching sound of… wings, huge ones, as if a dragon was descending upon the ship’s deck. They all looked up, their eyes falling on a group of blue angelic knights descending down onto the ship’s crumbling platform.

“Your savior has arrived! Hail! Hail!” A distorted version of Eugene’s voice echoed through the sound of flames and rushing wind. Delsin rolled his eyes with a chuckle, before beginning to speak. “Angels from up high have heard your prayers and-”

“Please, E.” Fetch buried her face in her hands. “Just get us out of here, we can LARP your heroic rescue later.”

The distorted voice let out a disappointed sigh. “You never let me have any fun.”

“Oh, and please tell me you called the cops.” Fetch kept talking as Angel-Eugene scooped her up in one of his many arms.

“Well, Miya did, or she wanted to. But…” Max had already tuned the conversation out. Victoria still hung heavy on Max’s shoulder, as they waited for the rest to get picked up. Max looked out to the bright blue seas ahead, through the smoke and dust blown into the air by the various explosions. And there, in the infinite abyss, she saw potential.

She saw a way ahead.

A real future, one not haunted by grief or guilt. She looked over at Victoria with a tepid smile.

A future together, hopefully.

Victoria looked back. A face once worried turned to a reciprocal smile. And as Victoria rested her head on Max’s shoulder, the brunette herself let out a content sigh. It was over, finally.

Chapter Text

“In other news, the circumstances surrounding the phantom hurricane from yesterday morning are currently being investigated by several government, among which the FBI. The Bureau have issued a public statement that it is ‘most likely a natural weather phenomenon;” A female newscaster on the TV set in Victoria’s living room spoke to the camera. “Rumors on social media, however, suggest that it might have been some kind of weather experiment set up by the government themselves…”

Victoria rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, as she could faintly hear the sound of the male co-host expand on what his partner was talking about. Sunlight softly streamed through her window blinds, the weight on her legs slowly ebbing and flowing. Max’s snoring was the only sound besides the soft TV noise and the chirping of birds that filtered through the window filling up Victoria’s living room.

Slightly rearranging her position on the couch, Victoria looked down at Max’s head resting in her lap and smiled softly to herself.

Last night they’d fallen asleep after watching End of Evangelion, a movie Victoria had to do her best to not visibly be excited about finally showing Max (who had to pretend not to have seen it). Afterwards they’d initially wanted to do… a bit more, but Victoria’s wounds were still healing and they were def-

“Ow.” Victoria softly groaned as Max rolled over on her back, right into a bruise in her abdomen. Once the brunette had settled once again, she could finally breathe without grunting in pain, she looked down at Max again. The girl looked like a farm animal when she slept, just an absolute mess. Hair swept in front of her eyes, her mouth hung open and one hand resting on her face and covering half of it.

It was pretty cute, if Victoria had to be honest.

Victoria snorted out of her nose in amusement, before moving her hand to brush the hairs out of Max’s eyes. Apparently, she’d been too tired to even do that correctly.

“Shit.” Victoria mumbled as she accidentally poked Max in the eye with her thumb.

“Oooooow.” Max said, her voice filled with sleep as she moved her hand to hold the recently-poked eye. “If you wanted to kill me, it would’ve been way easier yesterday.” She mumbled, before letting out a sort of half-chuckle-half-cough. “My throat hurts.”

“I did warn you that I’m good.” Victoria replied with a self-content chuckle.

“Ew.” Max mumbled as she rolled over on her side again. “We didn’t even have sex.”

Victoria dug her arm out from under Max with a soft grunt of pain, and checked her watch. “I don’t have to be at The Reporter for another three hours, soooo if you want…”

Max turned her head to look up at Victoria, an incredulous look on her face. “Did you know you’re really effing gross?” She said with a chuckle, before dropping her head back on Victoria’s legs. “Our first kiss was literally yesterday.”

“I’m just kidding.”

“I’ve never even-” Max quickly cut herself off, trying to cover that fact up with a sort-of well-placed cough.

“Wait, you’re a virgin?”

“Please ignore me, I'm very tired and embarrassing myself.” Max mumbled as she dug her face into Victoria’s legs. “Stop me before I say anything else stupid, it’s been a very high-stress-low-sleep kinda week.”

Victoria laughed, enough to convince Max’s instincts to laugh along as well. It lasted for a couple seconds, after which Victoria spoke up again.

“You wanna hear a secret?”

Max’s ears perked up. “… you’re a virgin too?”

“What? No, of course not.” Victoria rolled her eyes at the very idea. “My secret is… you’re cute even though you’re a virgin.”

“That’s a…really weird thing to say, and if we weren’t already sleeping in the same bed that’d be a huge turn-off.”

“Yeah, now that I say it out loud I realize that.” Victoria replied with a soft chuckle. “Maybe we should both go back to sleep.”

“Oh definitely.”

On the other side of town, in the ruins of what used to be DedSec Seattle’s HQ, a darker situation was unfolding. As in, the only light came from the flashlight attached to Miya’s chest.

Miya’s boot-covered feet waded through burnt ceiling tiles covering the floor, pushing debris out of the way in a quest to recover more of her group’s equipment. Sure, all their drives had been burnt, along with any components the Oscorp soldiers might’ve thought to check, like RAM. But GPUs and CPUs weren’t cheap, and some of them hopefully had been saved from the massacre. Although shrapnel or collateral wasn’t something she’d exactly planned for in her contingency strategies.

As she crouched down to brush a pile of dust off of what looked like the remains of a PC case, a new person entered the scene with a flash of purple light. For a second Miya was caught off guard, but upon turning her head, the intruder was already talking her ear off.

“Sup.” The purple-haired girl named Fetch asked as she approached Miya, hands in her coat pockets. “Miss me?”

“Not that I don’t appreciate you saving my ass back there from that Oscorp psycho,” Miya said, turning her head back to the rubble she’d been digging through. “but I’ve more than fulfilled my part of that deal. I’ve got a DedSec chapter to repair, I don’t have time to play girl-in-the-chair to a bunch of superheroes right now. Ask again later.”

“Chill, I’m here to help you.” Fetch rebutted as she crouched down and helped Miya lift up a piece of drywall. Fetch tossed the piece aside, Miya getting to work on finding any tech that Oscorp hadn’t completely torched. At the same time, Fetch just focussed on tossing all the trash and debris in a big pile.

“Is this like, some strategy to lure me in and then you ask me to hack into a government database?”

“No! If we needed something like that I’d just guilt-trip you by saving your life again.”

Miya rolled her eyes, stuffing a few seemingly intact sticks of RAM into the pouches on her belt.

“That was a joke.”

“Just not a very funny one.” Miya mumbled through another, smaller flashlight gripped between her teeth. Her fingers pried between the creases of a surprisingly intact PC case, she pulled on the thing and tore it off. Picking up a maybe-salvageable Nvidia GTX 1070, Miya was about to blow the dust off when Fetch spoke up again.

“Do you wanna maybe go and get like… coffee after this?”

“… what?”