MIRA

We met on a rooftop, behind a giant billboard advertising Atomic Energy. After all, I couldn’t freely talk using Dr. Banning’s phone I’d borrowed in the middle of the night. I’d been sure to delete the record of the call before returning it to the correct spot in its desk.

And now I was standing in front of him, struggling to put to words what I needed.

“I was kind of surprised you actually took me up on it.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I kinda got the impression that you guys didn’t like me all that much.”

“We don’t.,” I admitted. “But you’re the only person who I think could help me.”

He paused and frowned, looking contemplative. “Why? What’s going on?”

“It’s about Verity.” I struggled to put the words together, to form them, to voice my suspicions.

“That’s Mystic, isn’t it?”

“Right, you’d only really know her hero name, wouldn’t you?” I closed my eyes—already, the. details of her face were becoming more blurry, harder to picture and remember.

But I wouldn’t let go of her and her memory so easily.

“She told me one last thing, before Ka—Powerline, that is, killed her.” That still echoed in my head, clearer than anything else in the world. “They’re lying to you.”

I opened my eyes again. There was sympathy, pity in his expression. No, there was more than that, I decided.

There was this understanding in his eyes. Like he knew what I was going through.

He gently nodded, with a sad, encouraging smile.

“I want to find out what she meant.” The words carried with them a weight, that had been dropped into my very heart. “Dr. Banning and the others—they don’t understand, they say that Verity was a mistake, an anomaly. They’re already trying to forget her, to make us all forget her. But I can’t.”

“You want to know why she turned.”

“Yes.” I smiled, grateful that he could put into words what I could not. “And I want to make Heretic pay for what she did. Verity’s blood is on her hands.”

Warlock shook his head. “I know Heretic, I think she’s just as much of a victim as Verity was. And you said it yourself—Powerline killed Verity, not Heretic.”

I bit my lip. “Verity didn’t burn down a building and kill an innocent civilian and destroy our only means of keeping independent heroes accountable.”

“You’re right, Heretic did do that.” Warlock nodded. “But I know that was an accident. She doesn’t try to hurt civilians—“

“You’re making excuses for her?” I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows in disbelief.

“It’s a little more complicated than that.” Warlock’s cheeks turned red and he shrugged, looking away. “Let’s just say I have a personal interest in finding out why Heretic turned, too.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I frowned, recalling the records in the database. “But I thought she was always a villain.”

“Not always.” Warlock paused. “So we don’t agree on Heretic. That doesn’t matter—at least, right now, anyway. We still have a common goal—we want to know what Verity meant, don’t we?”

I tilted my head to the side. His nonsensical belief in Heretic did give me pause. He was a little too goody two-shoes for my taste. Too naive, believing that these people who had omitted serious crimes and hurt people could somehow change, were somehow victims of some great and terrible injustice.

But he was right—we both had an interest in finding out the truth. And he was maybe the only person who could help me.

I didn’t know how to navigate a world outside of and around Atomic Energy. I didn’t even know where to begin.

“We do,” I said quietly. “There’s something else you should know—I need your help because Atomic Energy wouldn’t approve.”

“Of course they wouldn’t,” he muttered. “They have no humanity.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“The way they act, the way they have you guys act--it’s so cold, so un-empathetic.” He looked uneasy, thrusting his hands in the pockets of his costume-y sleeveless wizard robe. “You were the only one that mourned your own friend. That’s not. . . That’s not okay.”

I opened my mouth to protest, to defend Ryder, Saige, and Aleister—but I realized that I couldn’t. After all, hadn’t I been thinking the exact same things, over the past few days?

“You’re right.”

He smiled sadly. “I don’t like being right, about that. But I want to help you. We’ll need to operate in civilian identities, won’t we?”

I shifted my balance, leaning on my right knee more than the other as the clouds shifted overhead, coloring the sunset a brilliant red-gold.

“I don’t have a civilian identity.”

“But Verity had a real name—“ he stopped and shook his head. “You have a real name, though, right?”

I hesitated. We weren’t supposed to share it, even though it wasn’t like we were really protecting anybody with that.

It seemed that all Verity’s real name did was protect Atomic Energy’s repulsion when they had to bury her, so they didn’t have to acknowledge the failure of Mystic.

“Mira.”

“I’m Henry.” He outstretched a hand. “Henry Reagan.”

“Oh.” I’d heard the name before, in one of the case files, although I couldn’t quite remember where. “I know you—why do I know you?”

“I’m sure they’ve told you about Dr. Electra’s only surviving victim.” His smile became tight, strained. “I’m surprised no one ever figured it out.”

“I thought the Reagans left New Kingsbury.” I could remember it now, the article in the newspapers around when I was eight years old. They’d shown it to us, in their briefings about Dr. Electra later, when we were eleven or twelve.

Henry shrugged. “We came back.”

There was something so terse about that reply, I decided it was better not to pry. At least, right now.

“Well, I guess the first problem is getting civilian clothes,” I admitted. “If Atomic Energy catches me getting up to this stuff in their uniform—“

“Yeah, that’s not good,” Henry agreed. “I could ask my mom—but she’s taller than you. You’d look out of place in those clothes, and people might ask questions. Let me think about it—I think I know somebody who might be able to help and keep it under the rug.”

“Thank you.” Of course I couldn’t help but smile. I was on the right path, the only path forward out of the horrible dark.

Henry smiled back, happier this time. “Of course. I mean, it’s no secret I would help anybody, if I thought I could.”

I sized him up, taking him in again, recalculating my judgements. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, that he believed so much in people, that he wanted to help anybody.

Even if it made him an inconvenience where Heretic was concerned.

“I don’t think I can contact you again through the phones,” I said, after a moment. “I think the only times we can meet are when I’m on patrol. Because of my powers, the others let me run around the city, since I can get to things long before they can.”

“Like you did the night of the tram attack.” A light dawned in Henry’s hazel eyes. “We can meet here, tomorrow—and we’ll see what we can do to try and find out what happened.”

“Okay then.” I nodded. The threshold had been crossed..I’d gone to the point of no return.

For the first time in my life, I’d stepped over the lines and rules I’d been trained to follow.

I couldn’t help but feel my stomach lurch. After all, wasn’t this how all the trouble started? A few vigilantes, thinking they can bend a few rules here and there for the sake of the greater good, and then—

I knew that now I had to see this through. That was the only way this would be forgiven by Atomic Energy, when they found out.

After all, as Dr. Banning herself had told us many times throughout our childhoods of training—it was a matter of when, and not if.