The week passed faster than I thought possible. Jack had me in such a daily regimen of working, cooking, cleaning, and repairs that I scarcely had time to think, much less rest. I caught up briefly with the others on occasion, but I was so depleted all the time we didn't have time to talk about much but pleasantries.

Mage said very little and only spent time with when she had to. Nobody actually enjoyed Jack's company, though he joined us frequently anyway, which left me with Tower or Tem on the occasion for conversation.

Tem...wasn't a good conversationalist. She was okay when Tower was around and steering the conversation, but on her own, we tended to lapse into long silences and she would just shift and stutter awkwardly. She didn't seem to want to talk about herself, or her past, or really anything at all, though she did often come up to me like she wanted to talk, and then had nothing to say past a salutation.

Tower on the other hand, talked easily and at length about whatever topic popped into his head. He and I also seemed sentenced to the hardest labor in the house, I assume because he was strong and I was new, and therefore often found ourselves working together, scrubbing down the pool, or hanging from cables, cleaning windows on the outside of the house dozens of feet from the ground.

He was also...really clumsy. Like, yeah, he was a huge guy, and that led to some invariable incidents of walking into low ceilings or not fitting into spaces, but, like, when we were cleaning the windows, he must have dropped his cleaning cloth a dozen times. At some point, I thought he had to just be messing with me, but by the end of it he was sweating and swearing about having to go back down for it so many times.

Disregarding that, he was a total bro. He helped me learn the ropes and even covered for me a couple times when I was drowning and behind on work, and he did it all with a laugh and an easy smile. And some bone-crushing hugs, but, whatever.

The night before Blackett's return found the four of us, Mage excepted, of course, laughing and talking in the kitchen, basically one the one large common area for us servants to be able to hang out in, if you didn't count the laundry room, and I much preferred the company of food to baskets containing Blackett's briefs.

Tower was regaling us with the story of how the XPCA took him in. It was a story I'd already heard once from him already, so I could only imagine the number of times the rest had heard it, but Jack smiled along as ever, and Tem laughed softly at all the right places. I couldn't help but to grin, from Tower's energy.

"...and THEN, this XPCA guy just jumps out in front of me, right in my way, like he's going to stop me," Tower snickered. "I'm moving at, what, mach two? Flying straight through the air like a bullet, and he's all 'STOP RIGHT THERE.' I didn't want to paste the guy, so I at least try to stop, but then we crash and we're all rolling. Next thing I know, we're both on the ground, and he's on top of me, straddling me, right? Our faces a few inches apart. And I'm thinking, okay, he's going to apologize, or whip out his baton and try to arrest me on the spot."

He leaned forward, grinning broadly. "He's just laying on top of me like I'm some mattress, looking like he's going to piss himself, and then I feel this thing poking me in the belly. Man's an inch from my face, getting lost in my eyes, and he pops wood!"

Tower guffawed and slapped the table, making it jump. Tem was already bright red and covered her face in her hands, a confused smile working its way onto her face despite herself. Jack sat smiling pleasant as always, cup of tea suddenly in his hands as the table jumped from Tower's pummeling, and I just had to laugh, as much at the scene in the kitchen as the story.

"You probably traumatized that poor man," Jack said, smiling.

"I bet he's got some really confusing fetishes to work through," I said.

Tem looked at me between her fingers like I was killing a puppy, but she really wanted to watch. The table shook again as Tower laughed again.

"I like you, Chariot!" he proclaimed, and I inched away before he clapped me on the shoulder or caught me in a hug again. "You see what I've had to deal with before you showed up?"

Jack smiled politely. Tem smiled shyly like that was a compliment. These guys were beyond busted.

"They're not so bad," I said. "We're all here having a good time, right?"

"Yeah, they could be two more Mages, I guess," he replied, looking more serious for a moment.

"Hey, I've heard a lot about Tower's Exhuman event. What about you guys?" I asked, turning towards Jack and Tem. "I'm just curious, if you don't want to share."

"I'm afraid mine is positively uninteresting," Jack replied, to my surprise, only wearing half a smile as he recalled. "I woke one day and found I could see better with my eyes closed than open. My wife and child fled when I began to appear in places I was not. I tried to go after them and outsiders became involved and called the police."

He smiled again. "I killed a lot of XCPA that day."

"You were married?" I asked. "You don't seem that old."

"I'm thirty-nine now," he replied, smiling.

"What? Impossible!" bellowed Tower. "You don't look a day over twenty five!"

"Well, I do take care to eat right and exercise. I appreciate your flattery." He tilted his head and smiled even more broadly.

"I eat right and exercise too," Tower said, slapping his round gut like a gong. "But nobody thinks I'm that young. How young do I look, Chariot?"

"Uh. I don't know, I only turned 19. You guys all look old."

"I-I…!" muttered Tem shaking.

I rolled my eyes. "The guys all look old. You look my age."

"Oh. Okay. I'm sorry," she muttered into her hands.

"So guess, little man!"

"Uh. I don't know, thirty?"

"Twenty eight. SEE?" he shouted, turning towards Jack like this was irrevocable evidence of some argument they'd been having. Jack just smiled and shrugged.

"What about you, Tem? I understand if you don't want to talk about it."

"I...I…" she muttered, sinking into her chair and fast disappearing beneath the lip of the table. "I-I'm fine!"

I looked at Tower. He looked as lost as me. Jack's face was as useless as ever. I wondered if he could even be sad or angry, though I wouldn't want to find out first-hand.

"Um, okay Tem. You don't have to share. Just asking."

"No! It's...just really...embarrassing."

"Then it's fine not to share."

"No, everyone else did," she took a deep breath. "I was just...bullied a lot, and...I...always...wanted to disappear. And then...one day...I could."

Sitting head-in-hands at the table, slouching under it so she was only barely visible, she wavered and then suddenly wasn't even that anymore. But she was still there, just like I could sense Jack appearing behind me, I could sense she was still right in front of me.

"I...s-s-spent...whole days invisible. Nobody s-seem...s-s-seemed to notice. Not my parents or teachers."

"What about your friends?" I asked the empty chair.

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She reappeared and just looked at me sideways with lips pursed. Oops.

"Didn't...really have...those. People...didn't want to get...bullied with me. I understood."

"Tem, you really don't have to share this," I said, raising my hands plaintively towards her. "It sounds like it was a really hard time, so maybe we can just forget about it."

"No, I've never heard this before. I'm interested," said Jack. The asshole.

"Yeah, this is good stuff!" added Tower. The buffoon.

I sighed. The idiot who started this whole thing.

"W-well, I, um, one day, I was just...going to classes...like usual. Invisible, like...like usual. And I ran into a girl, it was my fault...s-she was...one of the popular kids, and I was...was s-s-so s-surprised, I just drop...dropped it and turned visible."

"S-she s-s-screamed at me! Accused me of...of s-sneaking up on her. Which I guess, I did, so I apologized. But, she, s-s-she s-said that wasn't good enough, and I-I had to learn my place."

"Uh oh," said Tower.

"S-she um, she grabbed me, her hands were so s-s-strong and warm. I st-still remember." She looked down at her own hands, transfixed. "S-she found s-some of her...of her friends, and they...they said...if I liked to disappear s-so much, I should disappear for...for good."

"Uh oh," Tower repeated. He wasn't really adding to this story.

"They...they made me get...get in an empty locker. I was...I was even s-sm-maller then. Master Blackett, he...he has helped me with...with positive...body image."

The mental image of Blackett helping a bullied anorexic Exhuman was completely impossible for me to fathom. Maybe he just got her a shrink or something.

"I...s-s-spent...um, two days...locked in the locker. I...I passed out...from...um, from heatstroke. Th-they only found me be-because um, of the...of the s-s-smell. Of...of…of...of…" she stuttered more than ever.

"Your bowels?" Jack suggested. Tem was completely red and nodded imperceptibly and sunk even further into her chair.

"W-when...when I...when I came to, I wasn't right in...in the head. I...I thought...they were back for me. I was...I was so s-scared. I wasn't tr-trying to fight."

"People often use their powers unconsciously," I said, thinking of Saga when she was sleeping. "It happens."

"I...I de...destroyed...the whole s-school. All at once. And...and every...everyone in it."

Tower let out a low whistle. "Wow. Now that's some firepower." He turned to me. "Tem is the only one Blackett--"

"MASTER Blackett!" she said, rising slightly in her seat.

"--only one he tells to hold back during our sparring. I've never seen her at full force."

"Tower," I chided. "I don't think she's happy about it."

"Why not? She levelled the whole damn place and it sounded like they didn't give a shi--"

He flinched, as Jack appeared right as his side.

"...give a...lick. About her. Plus she blew up that damn shit-filled--"

Jack was now sitting on the table directly in front of him, legs crossed casually, one heel resting on Tower's knee, a thin blade dancing in his hands.

"Yeah, I get it. Watch the language," Tower mumbled.

"This wouldn't be an issue if you could keep it under control in front of the master," he said, the blade spinning in his adroit fingers.

"I'm trying, cut me some slack."

"Oh okay," Jack said, slicing the knife through the air between the two of them. "I'll cut you some." He smiled, and then was back in his seat like nothing had happened at all.

There was a minute of awkward silence where nobody moved, except Tem sinking ever further into her seat.

"But yeah," Tower said. "At least you got to blow up that locker. You must have hated that thing after two days."

"No...no. It was...was my fault, really."

"Are you kidding me?" I said, making her jump from my outburst. "Those girls locked you in there for two days and you would have died in there. How is that your fault?"

"I-I-...I'm s-sorry," she muttered to the table.

"No, I'm serious. How could you possibly think any of that was your fault?"

"Because...I s-s-should...s-should have...s-should have asked for...for help. Inside the locker."

"Well, yeah, you probably should have, but they shouldn't have locked you in there to begin with. That's just fuuu----" I glanced at Jack as I realized the word coming out of my mouth. He raised an eyebrow, creepy smile in position. "--uuuuuuuun. No fun. That's just messed up, I mean."

"Well...then...I s-shouldn't...have bumped into her."

"That's still totally unreasonable of her. She tried to kill you, Tem."

"W...well...s-she dis...disliked me for other reasons, before then."

"Reasons like? She was a real piece of...sh...strudel?"

"I do enjoy strudel," Jack commented.

"I...my...my impediment...it...I s-s-slowed down...s-slowed down the whole...class. That...that annoyed her. I was...was...had to be...included in, in group activities. I...always brought down my group. S-s-sometimes, that was her."

"So...that makes it okay she killed you."

"She...s-she didn't know...it would...or would...wouldn't."

I was so angry at Tem for letting this happen to her, and I didn't even know why. I hadn't really ever had issues with bullies in school, but I did see it happen around me and wondered why people couldn't just stand up for themselves.

Even here, her inability to either stop telling us, like she clearly wanted to, or just say things plainly without shaking in her boots, it drove me crazy. I wanted to grab her and shake her and scream at her to have a little backbone.

I stood up and paced. I was too angry to sit still, and every time I looked at Tem she shied further into her seat, which just made me more angry. I wanted to find the bullies and beat the shit out of them. Wanted to tie them down and have Tem beat the shit out of them. I guess, she'd probably accidentally vaporized them, but that was just even more trauma for her to carry with her.

"You're looking pretty hot over there," Tower said. "Want to have a little match?"

"No, I'm...I'm just going to go on a walk. Is that okay?"

"It's okay as long as Mage says so," Tower said with a shrug.

"I have to ask her?"

"No, not really. If she's not okay with something, she lets you know in a big way."

"Yeah, I ran into that a while back," I said, rubbing my nose where I'd smacked it repeatedly into the floor. The injury was gone, but the sting remained. "What are her powers, anyway?"

"Don't know," Tower said. "She's pretty fickle though. Sometimes we fight and she just gives up right away. Sometimes she just picks the other guy apart."

"Guy...or...or girl!"

"Sure, Tem. We've wondered sometimes if she even has a power."

"I have yet to see her do anything superhuman," Jack added.

"Me either," said Tem. "And I've been...been here the longest...after her."

"But she's definitely Exhuman, right? Must just be something we can't see directly. Maybe a code Xavier type? Or...something really unusual, like getting more powerful with phases of the moon or something?"

"Good thinking, little guy, but I don't think so. I think she's just something else."

"She's scary, is what she is," said Jack, of all people. Just what kind of monster was this girl?

"Well, I'll go take a walk and if I die, blame Mage," I said with a shrug.

"Early day tomorrow," Jack called to me. "Master Blackett will be back early, and will likely wish to do a full inspection." One of his beady eyes glittered. "Fair warning."

"Sure. Thanks." I headed out.

The house was on a huge gated lot, a lot of which I'd grown entirely too familiar with as I cleaned gutters, pruned trees and trimmed hedges. Not exactly all winter work, but I got the feeling Jack was trying to just keep us busy. I kicked the brick path as I wound my way out to the front gate and let myself out.

I don't know why listening to Tem made my blood boil like it did. I could speculate on it all night, and all that would happen would be I'd be even angrier about it.

Obviously, I'd had my share of dealing with unusual people. Saga was the most obvious example, her way of looking at people and the world was almost alien to me, but she still did things in a way that made sense. She'd had bad experience with humans and hated them. She had a hard time shutting out voices and liked to be alone. Her body didn't work very well, so she laid around. Simple, reasonable. The exact opposite of me, but I could respect that.

And then Tem had basically the same life I did, it sounded like, and through her own insecurities and self-sabotage, let something like a stutter turn her into a complete victim. I don't know if almost dying in a locker full of her own shit was even the worst thing that happened to her, but the way she put it...it sounded like that was just life to her.

And I honestly couldn't understand. Of course the bullies made me angry, but she did too. Soft-spoken, silver-haired waif of a girl...I couldn't believe she was my age, or an Exhuman like me. I couldn't believe we had anything in common. Just a couple weeks ago, I'd single-handedly decimated the ranks of the XPCA elite. I went a little battle-crazy and blew off my leg like a fucking idiot, but I knew exactly how capable and strong someone like us could be.

I felt sick in the head. I wanted to hold her down and punch her in the face until she was forced to use her to use those powers of hers to blow me up, and maybe somehow, that would stick. Maybe I was annoyed that her power was apparently so strong and yet she'd never use it, maybe Karu had just rubbed off on me and I idolized strength. I didn't know. I just needed to be less mad at the damn innocent girl.

I sighed as I walked around the corner, finding the whole neighborhood to be mansions like Blackett's, though his was definitely on the upper-end of what was out here. I wandered at random until I was freezing and replaced my anger with thoughts like 'this is stupid' and 'what am I doing here', and then headed back.

Tomorrow would be an early day. And probably an awful one.