Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Looks at Fourth thread again
Last threadmark year: 2020
Current year: 2023

FUCK, I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING!

The elevator came to a smooth stop near the top of the building and the doors chimed to indicate they were about to open.

"Here we are," Miss Militia quickly said, trying and nearly succeeding to look like she wasn't on the edge of running out of the elevator.

Her Shard, Sentinel, provided her a very powerful ability to regulate her own emotions and a defense against sanity drain, but even it wasn't really prepared to deal with being stuck in an enclosed space with three fans of her without any backup, two of which were Endbringers and another of which the very kind of being that gave the human race powers in the first place.

Yeah, they filled her in about that. After asking me, of course, but I saw no issues with it.

Everyone on the planet would know eventually. They deserved to. And Armsmaster would no doubt tell her relatively soon after he finished frogmarching the living stereotype of a Bond Villain down to the PRT building's cells.

Coil was probably not doing very well seeing as I'd given his Shard a directive to make all his simulated timelines fail while Armsmaster was apprehending him.

I didn't even have to use my access codes. The Shard was a surprisingly intact Thinker one, and even had a little bit of the higher level functions running.

What limited thought it had saw the opportunity as one that would rightfully generate a lot of conflict in its host.

Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

Back to our own area of the building, I'd managed to tone my own fangirling of Miss Militia down for the most part. Ben joined me in my restraint, and other than Levi extracting another promise for ice cream from the flag themed heroine, he was content to just play with some water above his hands.

That didn't freak the Protectorate member in the elevator out at all… after the third time she let herself look at it.

Ziz, on the other hand, had joined right in with Khonsou and Emma's squeeing and begging for autographs.

The little Khonsou was totally legit about her wish to fawn over Miss Militia. Emma was genuinely fascinated with the heroine life, and it wouldn't surprise me if later on she asked me to let her go out and play hero. We'd wanted to do that as kids after all, and despite the fact that I'd made this Emma more or less myself, she was effectively my sister.

And Ziz… well, Ziz admired Miss Militia like the rest of us yeah, but she was definitely primarily involved to mess with her. It was her thing now, she told me over direct comms. She messed with you if she liked you. Even if she was scared of you.

Explained why she managed to overcome her fear of me to do what little needling she had… but I didn't feel great about her being scared of me.

She'd been burned by two Entities before me, so I understood why she had that response, but it still hurt a little.

Whatever, I'll just have to prove to her that she can totally trust me! Yeah, that way she can feel safe to let her guard down around me, and then I can hug her without her flinching! Plan Hug The Birb is a go!

Ziz looked back at me with the weirdest confused expression I'd ever seen on her, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

I just smiled and waved back at her to reassure her there was nothing to worry about. You can't hear my evil, evil plans to get your hug ratio up anymore since I figured out the channel system, nya nya nya nya nyah! I singsonged in my own head, pointedly not broadcasting it anywhere.

Ziz squinted her eyes at me suspiciously, but my lack of anything but smiles gave her nothing to go on. She let me know she thought I was being weird with an eye roll and turned back to continue messing with an increasingly nervous Protectorate heroine.

Ben liked the woman who had found herself being our guide pretty much purely due to the fact she could deploy nukes.

That he could eat.

She demanded in no uncertain terms that we never reveal that.

Either of those things.

There was also something about being child soldiers, but I wasn't touching that with a 10-ft pole.

And Levi?

Well. Levi had a promise of ice cream. And apparently had promised Miss Militia a water gun in return for that ice cream.

Even with what I was now, even with my new state being so far above everything else on the planet… my sense of humanity still recoiled at the thought of what exactly a water gun meant to the being who used to be the Endbringer connected to water.

With my overview of the emotional states of my little group complete, I took a few moments to send off a message to my dad.

[Dad, I fixed the boardwalk. Mind bringing the people back?]

His reply was, of course, immediate. Although there was one slightly concerning thing.

Or two.

[Sure thing kiddo! What do you want to do with that thinker and her friend though? She's been sort of… I want to say half freaking out and half worshiping me?]

I freely admit it took me way too long to process that. [She's what?]

[Yeah so it turns out the Cycle limitations on her Shard are not exactly the most solid things ever? Also, it's an Inference Shard, and they both are sort of made for each other, so they have a very high compatibility. Basically, her Shard was letting it spill as to what we are in the ice cream parlor and hasn't really stopped. Her brain would probably have exploded if I wasn't keeping her healthy.]

…What the hell. I didn't even know where to begin.

[Dad, I don't know what to tell you. Just fix it. Keep her as a worshiper if you have to. And her boyfriend. But, put everyone else back please!]

His reply was tinged with amusement. That ass! He was teasing me! [Sure thing Taylor. Do you want me to include the people who died too?]

My blood momentarily felt like it chilled. It didn't, I was monitoring my body closer than anything else on the planet, but it still felt like it. Didn't my Friendbringers act? Didn't they stop it?

No, of course not, they couldn't have. Ziz hadn't seen it coming, so none of us did either.

Who expects the Ash Beast to appear out of thin air?

My emotional management Shards went into overdrive as I felt myself start to hyperventilate. [People… died?!]

The response I got from my Dad wasn't what I expected, but in some ways, it was exactly what I expected.

[Only momentarily,] was his attempt at reassuring me. [I helped them get better.]

I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose, a sudden headache related to the rapidly draining away panic forcing me to massage it back to whence it came. [I don't want to know, I don't have to know, and you are having way too much fun with this,] I sent him.

He quickly replied with pure unending feelings of amusement.

[Less troll, more fix, Dad!]

[Yes, honey,] he teased me. But what few observation platforms I had in his reality showed his power systems shunting to different sectors, so clearly he was at least attempting to do something.

Wait.

Since when did I have observation platforms in my dad's reality?

[Dad, did you give me a way to watch you?]

[Sure did! It's only fair, right?]

[...You do remember what I said about what looking at our Shard bodies feels like to me, right?]

[Yep!]

Okay. That's it.

He wanted to tease me?! It's not like I was having a panic attack over here or anything!

Well fine then!

I stretched out my reach from my core, grabbed an asteroid, dropped it through a dimensional portal, and chucked it at him.

He casually sideswiped it with an energy surge from his surface, but I could hear his laughter echoing through the space-time around it.

I shook my head at my dad's antics…

And then the door opened.

"Miss Militia!" a tall, somewhat thin man called out to our escort the moment the doors opened wide enough that he could see us. "Something has happened to the Dir-" he trailed off when his eyes traveled to us. "Well. Hello!" He greeted us in a somewhat friendly way, then turned a strained smile to the heroine beside us. "Who're they, Miss Militia?"

Both Ziz and I could read the unsaid context. Something similar to why did you bring a bunch of civilian teenagers into a secure area without prior authorization?

Ziz wanted to say something no doubt incredibly trollish, but I raised my mental hand to halt her. She pouted. It was adorable. It didn't stop me.

"Deputy Director Renick, I'd like you to meet Taylor Hebert," she introduced me, stepping out of the elevator. My social shards told me she'd only said his name so that we'd know what it is. "And her… Friendbringers."

"Nice to meet you?" he half asked, half told us.

We waved at him, though Khonsou and Ben curtsied and bowed.

"Why are they here?" he rounded on Miss Militia again.

She let out a long sigh which sounded a little bit offensive in how much suffering it implied. "I imagine for the same reason the Director probably drunk herself into a coma." She turned to the shocked Deputy Director and raised an eyebrow. "Am I wrong?"

"...No," he hesitantly answered, looking at us out of the corner of his eye, "but how did you guess?"

"Because honestly I feel a little bit like joining her."

Renick stepped back in shock. "You? Militia, what is going on?"

Militia sighed again, brought her fingers to the bridge of her nose, and gestured to us. "Taylor here has, apparently, not only gained control of all the Endbringers, but changed them into effectively teenagers like herself, and also made a new one, and that's just the verified parts of this headache."

Renick stared at her like she'd lost her mind.

"It's true. Legend backed them up."

Hearing that, the Deputy slowly turned his head to look at us one final, much more heavily weighted time.

I tried to look as innocent as possible.

Emma leaned on my shoulder to look cute and dragged a protesting Khonsou to my side as well.

Ben just bowed, respectfully. Levi didn't notice.

And Ziz?

She threw up a fucking peace sign and gave him the most gremlin-like smile she could.

The staring contest, though it seemed more like a posing contest from where I was standing, lasted an agonizing five seconds.

Then I whacked Ziz on the head and the spell seemed to break.

Renick let out the deep, long breath he'd been holding in. "I have to admit, this is not what I expected to deal with when I woke up this morning."

Miss Militia snorted. "Isn't that the truth."

I shrugged and tried not to look as guilty as I felt. These were heroes trying to save our city, and yeah sure they had issues actual doing that, but I didn't want to make their jobs any harder. So the fact I had, even though I'm sure they were unendingly grateful to me for (totally on purpose) taking the Endbringers and making them into non threats, still plucked at my heart a little.

"Sorry? But hey, at least the only thing they'll End now is your cafeteria," I responded jokingly.

Renick tensed. "Why do they want to do that?" he asked carefully.

Not stopping us, not arguing, just asking why.

Clearly I needed to work on my jokes if they terrified people this consistently.

Miss Militia groaned. "Forget it, Renick. She makes jokes. They're usually terrifying in ways she doesn't get. You'll get used to it."

He completely ignored her lack of using his title to gape at both of us, my group and Militia.

Levi finally spoke up. "Miss Militia promised me ice cream!"

"...Oh." a great weight seemed to leave Renick's shoulders. "I can see why the Director drank that much, now."

"Hey!" I said back in mock offense. Then something occurred to me, and I stepped off the elevator and out of my Friendbringer's arms. "Speaking of the director, you said she's… she's in a coma, because of me?" I fully admit I was very quietly at the end there, guilt wracking my heart even more.

Miss Militia's head shot straight up and she glared at me. I had no idea why until she opened her mouth, sternly. "No, not because of you. Yes, Director Piggot did… consume an alcoholic substance to the point where it overcame her particular health issues, and as a result of that she is in a coma, but those were most likely not your fault."

I found myself giving him the most deadpan look I could and raised an eyebrow. I didn't even need any of my Shards to understand that that was some bullshit.

Renick winced. "Alright, it may have partially been because of the situation you were involved in," he admitted.

I just saw it and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Where is she? If she's done this to herself because of me, I have a duty to heal her as much as I can." Director Piggott was legendary in the city. My city. She didn't deserve this. Didn't deserve having to deal with me. Not after what she went through.

Miss Militia spoke up. "We've tried to get her healed before, but she has categorically refused parahuman healing."

Renick looked like he was going to try to protect his boss, but a sharp look from the heroine shut him down. He just sighed and nodded.

I, however, grinned as wide as I could. You don't grow up a Union man's daughter without a good grasp of technicalities. "Good thing I'm not a parahuman then. Or human."

Renick and Miss militia both stared at me, taken aback. As if for confirmation, their gazes roved over my Friendbringers, but of those who actually paid attention to them, all they saw was nods.

Renick sighed again, but this time he was smiling too. Almost… conspiratorially. "She'll likely be angry at you," he offered as a last, token resistance.

I pulled my arms around Emma and Khonsou and just grinned at him. "If she's able to be pissed at me, that means she's healthy enough to do it."

Miss Militia laughed. Emma high fived me, and even looked proud. Khonsou squeaked at being hugged, and Ziz just… she stared at me, like she'd never seen me before.

"Honorable actions may not be accepted by those they are meant to save occasionally," Ben concluded for all of us. "That should not stop us from performing those acts."

I could see it when Renick folded. "Okay. I'll follow your lead. Are you sure you can heal her?" he asked me.

The hallway past him but around the bend. My sense of direction handed to me by several shards told me that was where I was supposed to go. I nodded and started down it, letting go of my Frendbringers. "I have far too many ways to heal her. No matter what human condition is screwing her up, I can fix it. What'll take time is deciding which way to do it."

I turned around and continued backing down the corridor, looking over to my Friendbringers. "Hey, head on to the cafeteria with Miss Militia okay? I'll be there as soon as I heal the Director."

Ziz sent me a thumbs up, Emma looked amused, but nodded, and the other three were building a… water castle? with Levi's powers.

Renick wasn't following me.

I stopped. Why wasn't he following me?

"You coming?" I asked, confused.

"Taylor, the medical wing is the other way," Miss Militia spoke up, bemused.

Stunned and rooted to the ground. That must be what had happened. I spun around on my heel, marched down the hallway, looked around the bend to see a bunch more hallway, then turned right back the other way.

Everyone had definitely been laughing at me. Either in their heads, or in the case of Ziz, openly snickering.

That damned spatial Shard was getting recalibrated, I swore.

I glared at the winged mockingbird, then pointed down the hallway in the other direction. Past all of them. "I knew that!"

"Sure," Emma chimed in, grinning at me.

"Oh shut up miss I Scan Everything Around Me At All Times," I grumbled, stalking past her.

"It pays off~" she singsonged back at me before she fell into step behind me.

I rolled my eyes at her and bumped her hip teasingly. "Whatever you say."

Emma smiled at me. Her smile. The one I'd lost for so long, my friend's smile. I didn't know how much I'd missed it. Or her concern for me.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this? You know," she asked, gesturing back at the PRT members of our group, "alone?"

"Nothing in this building can hurt me, Emma," I reassured her.

"Physically, yeah. Emotionally, though?"

Shit. She was right.

I was pretty vulnerable as it was, and an about to be healed woman who might not see the technicalities as good things could say a lot to hurt me in a very short amount of time.

I sighed and shook my head, smiling at my friend. "Thanks, Emma. But I think I've got this. Call you in if I don't?" I offered her.

She nodded decisively. "You better."

I placed a hand on her shoulder and lightly, affectionately squeezed. "I will."

With that, I took a glance back to keep an eye on what had been happening behind us in our little moment of tenderness.

My other Friendbringers had followed us in line, Ben bringing up the rear, and Deputy Director Renick was talking to Miss Militia with a worried look on his face.

"How much aspirin am I going to need to hear whatever you have to tell me, Miss Militia?" he asked, clearly dreading the answer.

She sighed and just followed us, shaking her head even while she smiled under her bandana. "There isn't enough on the planet, Renick."

"...Oh."

"Does the Director still have anything left in her bottles, or did she drink it all?"

The Deputy Director was clearly surprised at Miss Militia's lack of what he probably thought was decorum, but rallied anyway. "She only managed to get through six drinks before we found her, so I should assume so?"

"Good. You're going to want the hardest liquor she owns."

"Oh. Oh… dear."

"After that, I'm going to the cafeteria with them to make sure that a bunch of PRT and Protectorate members meeting a bunch of… Friendbringers, over a lunch meal, doesn't end in tears."

"Laughter can cause tears," Ziz pointed out, voice dripping with snark.

"Don't make me hit you with another fifty caliber."

"Ooh, promises promises~"

Miss Militia blushed, then definitely scowled under her superhero getup.

I was happy that they were bonding, especially considering each of them had fought the other a few times when Ziz was in her old form, but I was uncertain about my feelings on them bonding over letting loose and being snarky.

Ah well. What's the worst that could happen?

The moment I thought that, I winced. I knew it would come back to bite me eventually.

Despite taunting Murphy, nothing much happened. Yet.

Miss Militia peeled off from us, guiding my Friendbringers into another elevator, while Renick led me through a set of doors into what was clearly their hospital wing.

There was some resistance and reluctance from the doctors and nurses present, at least until I snapped my fingers and healed dozens of PRT troopers in a second flat.

Panacea had nothing on me.

Speaking of her, I definitely needed to meet Amy Dallon and give her Shard an unlock. She, of all people, definitely deserved it. Healing so many people and doing so much good on such a low power budget, but I wasn't a hundred percent positive what hers was configured for, had to be really stressful.

My Shards notified me that I'd actually met her once before, and that's why I had so easily attained myself a Shaper copy as my first non core Shard. It's why the original Shaper even picked up my extremely amateur attempt at the equivalent of a phone call. She'd directly worked on my body, so she immediately knew just what and who I was, and wanted on board with an Entity who knew how to drive.

Shaper itself… herself? also revealed what she'd done to put my body back into a normal human state after the Locker. The data I was getting… if I'd been mortal at the time, without Panacea's intervention, I would have died.

Amy's getting way, way more than an unlock, I promised myself. She saved my life. I could do no less for her. And I was sure her original version of Shaper was getting impatient at this point.

It was quick after healing the troopers. The medical wing staff led me into the Director's room. I held my hand over her body, weak and pale from the coma…

And I healed her.

That was that.

Well, it was a little more complicated than that, and I may have misread Shaper's instructions so much that I wound up overdoing it slightly and regenerating her until she was about twenty years younger… but I was sure after she got over it she wouldn't mind.

Whatever had happened to her destroyed a remarkably good looking woman. I may have been primarily attracted to men, but I wasn't blind.

The doctors and nurses were pretty happy. I wouldn't be around to see her wake up though, because Renick bustled me out of the room as fast as possible.

Probably a wise decision all told.

But then something did happen. And Murphy was an absolute bastard for forcing the dilemma on my mind.

As we walked out of the hospital wing, it hit me.

She could do it again. Drink herself into a coma, again. It would take a lot more than she had this time, but it wasn't impossible for a human to do.

And she probably would, just to spite me. Just as legendary as Director Piggot's strength and tenacity were, her stubbornness was well known.

We couldn't have that. The city needed her. The world probably did too. Once whatever traumas she had were cleared out of her system or handled via therapy, she would probably be an incredible force for good.

And all it required for me to ensure that outcome was to violate her free will just as badly, or possibly worse, than the other entities that had found my world.

"Damn it," I cursed under my breath.

"Hmm? Taylor, are you alright?" Renick asked, looking up from his phone.

I waved him off with a simple "I'm fine, don't worry about it."

But inside I was anything but fine.

I tried to reason it out with myself. And I found a potential solution, though it still left a distaste in my mouth.

She had definitely been compromised by something. Trauma, her physical ailments that I'd just washed away, frustration at my own situation… who knew. And I wasn't going to try and read her mind to find out.

Her decision making was suspect. Shocking, I know, since she'd willingly drunk herself into a coma. That painted a very sorry picture of her mental state.

Hell, for all I knew, her agency wasn't valid at the moment at all. So I just had to ensure that she survived until I could actually talk to her.

The real woman, underneath all her problems. A clear head, so to speak, one capable of properly expressing free will.

That was easy for me to ensure. I didn't like it, but I could at least live with myself. And if she still wanted what I was about to do to be removed from her at that point? I'd do it. No questions asked.

With a wave over my shoulder I located Director Piggott stewing in her medical room, and targeted her for a delayed trigger.

A painless one. One that didn't require any trauma. All it would take is her going to sleep, and the clock ticking over. At 12:00 midnight, her connection to a couple of my life management Shards, and an energy displacement one, would initialize.

The way I'd set up her power expression was simple. Ultimate defensive invincibility on the tier of my Friendbringers accomplished via dimensional shunt of dangerous forces and energy. Ultimate cellular regeneration, partially harvested from whatever hit her. And a little bit of super strength on the side just as an enticing bonus.

And I was going to tell nobody.

Not even my Friendbringers would know.

That was the least I could do for her.

Future Canon Omake Content: Cafeteria Wardens

I walked into the Wards section of the PRT HQ with several of said Wards, fresh out of the PRT Cafeteria and with stomachs full of surprisingly tasty food.

All my Friendbringers were behind me, the Wards interspersed, all talking to each other. I was even included sometimes, but I could tell the feeling was more like including a mom than a teenage peer.

That was okay. I'd get them to accept me as one of them eventually. For now, I was content being the slightly scary, confusing pseudo mom figure to a bunch of Friendbringers who the Wards didn't know exactly how to react to.

I'd had enough teenage bullshit in Winslow for the next few months.

Not that anyone we'd passed saw that. They didn't notice any of it. We really did look just like a bunch of teenagers (and two preteens) even if some of us were in costume. I wasn't really sure why all the Wards were trailing me instead of one leading me to their room, but oh well. They'd seemed to assume I'd know where to go due to my powers, and after my recalibration of the spatial awareness Shard using data off my fresh new copy of Vista's so that I could realize that spatial awareness Shard had managed to somehow spatially invert its sensors, they were kinda right.

Pretty sure whatever traps and tests the organization was running on us were spitting out the digital equivalent of bricks at this point, but there wasn't much I could do to be less terrifying.

Nobody who wasn't a Thinker would ever guess that five of the people in the group could detonate the planet if they put their mind to it, and don't get me started on me. Nor would they guess that I'd copied the Shards of every host in the building, regardless of their costumed state.

The number of untriggered Parahumans was surprisingly high. Five people, four PRT officers and a secretary, hadn't actually managed to trip their particular Shards' trigger mechanisms.

After some deliberation and reflection on what I'd already done to their leader, I induced more traumaless triggers on a circumstance delay in all of them. They'd go to sleep tonight and wake up with superpowers. Without a Conflict Drive.

It was exceedingly difficult to disable active Drives without tipping off the host that their power was being modified, as doing so unlocked non combat ways they could use the power by default. But disabling them before the Shard went active? Dead simple.

If someone without the ability my Administrator Shard had tried, pretty much any non-Cauldron Shard would send a distress signal off to Scion, but I didn't have that problem.

I'd get around to fixing the already active ones eventually. Well, once the PRT had the chance to calm down about my already revealed scary reality and could stomach more without just breaking in half.

Either then, or when Emily realizes she's healing. It was a tossup as to which might happen first.

There were three non costumed but still active Parahumans in the building. There had been four when we arrived way earlier that day, but given what I was seeing in Coil's Shard he deserved every ounce of the sucker punch Armsmaster delivered to his cranium. I mean, really, you've been apprehended by Armsmaster of all people, your timelines aren't working, and you decide to use information you've tortured out of him in another timeline to push his buttons? Armsmaster isn't a saint.

The three non-Coil, non-costumed Parahumans had it easy. I wasn't going to reveal their existence (mostly because I was fairly certain the PRT already knew who they were) and I wasn't going to even talk to them if I could manage it.

Instead, I just copied their Shards alongside the costumed people with Shards. Who knows, maybe they were Thinkers on payroll other than the ones I'd detected, I'd have the chance to find out way later after I got bored enough to query more of my new copied Shards.

I was snapped out of my idle contemplation by the sudden, wholly unwanted and definitely unwarranted application of two phase shifted crossbow bolts to the chest.

"What the hell?" I asked, brushing off my completely undamaged shirt. Alexandria's powers, fully unlocked, are bullshit.

I grabbed the bolts in my other hand and inspected them closely.

Huh. I could've sworn I'd seen these somewhere before...

"What's wrong, Taylor?" Carlos asked, hovering above me.

"I dunno, someone shot me with-" I began to say as I trained my senses on the actual room in front of me.

One teenager, girl, around my age. In costume. Phased. Clearly Shadow Stalker.

Ahhhh, yeah. That's where I'd seen the bolts before. On her show.

But why the hell would she shoot me? We were both heroes!

I began to raise my eyebrows in real time while I queried her Shard for information.

[DATA]

What I got back…

[Reality Phase]
[Host: Sophia Hess]

Well, that's what sent me over the edge. After the day I'd had, the several mental breakdowns, and the sheer surrealism of it all… seeing her, here, in the Wards HQ, the location dedicated to heroes… it momentarily broke me.

All my thought threads collapsed back into my main avatar thread. All the emotions I'd been feeling all day, and dealing with by way of the few emotional management Shards I had on top of venting the excess in simulation, smashed into each other and became a roiling void of HATE.

Emotional management Shards can only do so much.

I can only scream at walls and detonate simulated planets so much.

When my tormentor shows up? In front of me? As a hero?!

No. That's where my line is. But hey, at least she had it coming.

Honestly. She really, really did. Sophia Hess, Darwin Award nominee of 2011… and possibly the grand winner. I wasn't sure about that, given some other people on my world and their potential reactions to my existence, but Sophia was certainly in the running.

After all, it's not really a great idea to attack the one you tormented for years when they outmass you by several planets.

And this fucking idiot had just done so twice. On top of that, if I hadn't been immune to her phase shifting due to my own Shards even with my Flying Brick body, she'd have likely killed me.

...Which made it her second try on my life.

I made a promise to myself to keep the number of tries I'd give people to end my existence down to one in the future.

And then I crushed the puny bolts in my hand as easily as I would a piece of paper.

I could hear her gulp from the doorway.

My eyes locked onto her shadowy form almost automatically and I directed a portion of Legend's energy manipulation towards my irises, flaring them. "SOPHIA." I bellowed, my voice layered in what probably sounded like several different variations of the Abrahamic punching bag.

Even my instinctive use of a new Shard didn't snap me out of it.

She looked scared. Her body language was downright terrified.

But I no longer cared.

I tore into her Shard without hesitation. Ripping, shredding, bombarding, the works. I reached across realities and broke her power in half.

She screamed, of course. The Shard itself was in an incredible amount of pain and I was certain it spilled over to her.

But any sense of mercy I might have been capable of feeling at that moment was entirely absent from the possibility of comprehension for her.

I held her there, cutting through the slight reality displacement like a monomolecular blade through butter, and refused to let her fall to the ground as I utterly. broke. THAT. BITCH.

None of the Wards tried to stop me. I was glad for that, because I honestly don't know what I'd have done to them in those moments if they had.

Eventually, there wasn't anything significant left of her Shard to fracture. Nothing vital, anyways. So I drew back my reach from her particular Shard's reality. Even in my enraged state I wouldn't let it go to waste, though; I copied what was left to a new version of what I now knew to be her Shard. I wanted a record of what she used to have… and what I'd done to her. With two of her Shards serving as before and after.

However, I also wouldn't allow Sophia to die.

Not yet.

Not like that.

If I was going to kill her, or rather when, I would make it long and sweet.

I wouldn't let her die, physically or mentally, before my turn.

My influence once more extended to her Shard's reality and I began to push the fractured thing back together, adding in just enough copied mechanisms of my Shaper to ensure my goals were met. Specifically, I rebuilt her Shard so it would monitor her condition and force invulnerability and immortality on her, based extremely roughly on the framework I'd developed for Piggot. I also felt Path to Victory chime in with a suggestion which was far too sadistic not to use, and so added that as well.

But I did not give her pain resistance. If I'm honest, I actually forced her to feel pain twice over.

She'd feel that pain. The same misery she put me through.

But she could never end it.

And just in case, I added an entry to my Shaper to do the same thing her Shard did now, in the unlikely case she found some way to turn her interface off.

Finally I allowed her to collapse. Her limp body hit the floor, convulsing, and she whimpered.

I wouldn't let her die. But suffering? Oh yes. She fucking deserved it.

I merely glared down at her twitching form, sympathy completely absent from my mind.

"Carlos," I called to the shock-frozen Ward, "it was nice to meet the Wards. Thank you for offering us a tour of your building." My voice sounded like ice warmed over steamed in a pot straight from hell.

He didn't speak, merely choosing to stare at me with awe… and definitely fear. I was sure the fact I called him by name didn't help.

But that was okay. He should fear me. Just a little. I could never let the PRT, or the Protectorate, think they had control over me… and I was now very iffy on displaying friendship. Armsmaster's, Miss Militia's, Renick's, and the Wards' efforts earlier and the fact my Friendbringers approved were working wonders on me...

But… after all of everything she put me through…

They still called SOPHIA a Hero.

But I'd throw them one more bone. They were owed that much, at least. "Call me so we can finish the tour once you've cleaned your house of this…" I declared, turning back to look at the pitiful excuse for a sapient being, "trash."

And with that, I whirled around and stormed out of the Wards HQ.

I led my Friendbringers out of the PRT building without any opposition. I expected them to try and stop me due to what would probably look like an overreaction to one of their Wards shooting me, given what I'd heard of the PRT before now, but nothing happened. I didn't even get any dirty looks on the way to the lobby of the building.

They were good actors. Most of them. They kept everyone who wasn't good at that out of my way and even opened doors for me politely. Pretty sure Renick said something to me at some point, but I was way too burned out at that point to listen. A part of me found it a shame that nobody was dumb enough to fight me. I was certainly itching for a fight with them.

But that was fine. It was okay. They feared me enough to just let me go after I nearly crippled one of their wards, and to my emotional state at the time that was good.

I flew us through the skies of Brockton, not even allowing my Friendbringers to travel under their own power, and back to my house.

Only then did the emotional management Shards kick back in. My thoughts once more split into many, and the dense core of hatred I'd been feeling the whole time evaporated along with them.

I broke down crying in my sister's arms.