"Sup?" asked Jack.

I looked around the room. The generals looked scared shitless, which was good, that meant they were both alive, and also not brain-dead.

"Hey guys? Leave this to me, please," I said, stepping forward. Someone grabbed my arm and held me back. I looked and saw Tem, her face burning with determination.

"No dying," she repeated.

"I'm not going to die. This is an old friend of mine. How's it been, Saga?"

[Well, your sister raped me, so not so great. But I did break into the XPCA and killed a few dozen people, so that helped.]

"Wait, what? Lia did?" I stepped over the body of a general who watched the two of us talk with renewed terror, and sat on the desk opposite Saga.

[Yeah. Fuck me for trusting humans, right? Letting one human into your head is one too many, I decided.]

"You lost me at 'Lia raped me'. She would never do that."

Saga frowned at me, and then with a gesture like she was flicking water at me, I felt and saw everything. Every inch of quivering flesh, every tearing slash of Lia's against Saga's mind. Her desperate pleas and ultimate defeat. Her utter violation, Lia kicking away the last vestiges of Saga's broken will as she attempted to hold it together. Her moments of agonized vulnerability, pain in her mind, her heart, her soul like she'd never had before.

In a moment I was back, but if felt like I'd lived the experience for hours. My heart slammed in my chest and I panted to catch my breath.

"What did you do to Chariot!" I heard someone scream, and then Saga gasped as a blade protruded through her heart, Jack standing behind her with an angry scowl.

"Fuck, Jack!" I screamed. "Everyone please, leave her alone."

"She's dead, bro…" Tower said. Saga fell to the floor, the knife in Jack's hand dripping blood.

A moment passed. Just as the generals started to get up and cheer, she coughed and shuddered and stood up again.

[Another Exhuman,] she grinned. [Nice!]

Jack took a hesitant step back.

"You can't kill her, guys. Please let us talk."

[Let them have their fun,] Saga said with a grin. [Wow, all four of them, huh? What a find. No wonder you didn't look for me, you had all these great toys to play with. This one's cute,] she turned towards Tem. [She the new fucktoy? Oh, no, she's Blackett's, isn't she?]

"F-f-f-fuck…?" Tem stammered. I saw a hazy storm billowing in the room.

"JACK!" I yelled. He was already there, flickering in and out of existence, moving all the generals away from behind Saga in the blink of an eye.

[Oh this ought to be goo--]

A beam the size of the room erupted from nothingness, blinding us all, and eradicating the entire far side of the conference room. The beam lasted entire seconds, and tore at the air like thunder. None of us could move, see, or hear anything, aside from the sheer waves of force pounding against our bodies from the damn insane power of the blast. When it was done, the smell hung in the air of ozone, burning, at least one person in the room had definitely shit themselves..

There was...nothing left, it looked like. The building wasn't even reforming itself, there was just a huge round hole, which took out an entire wall, and a chunk of the ceiling and floor, even.

Could...even Saga come back from that? Utter eradication? There wasn't anything left of her to come back. I waited for uncertain seconds, growing more anxious with every moment.

And then, like she was Jack, she was just back. She fell a couple feet into the debris of the destroyed floor, but stood up and dusted herself off like it was nothing.

[Wow, that's a new one. Gonna have to put that in my death journal,] she said.

"Saga, Jesus. Do you have to piss off every single new person you meet?"

[Only the amusing ones. The unamusing ones get dead.]

"How are we supposed to beat that?" asked Tower.

"Just let them talk, idiots," said Mage, and tilted a chair sideways, dumping a general onto the floor. He scrambled for cover in the corner of the room with several others, and Mage sat herself down in the freshly-vacated seat.

[Oh, I like her. Mage, huh? Wanna be besties? I'm in the market.]

"Talk to Chariot. I'm not on the menu."

[Spicy and feisty. I like your style, kid. So Chariot, I'd ask how things have been, but I can see you've been having quite a blast.]

"If you can see in my head, please notice that you really shouldn't be here."

[You think Exhumans come to the XPCA because they're supposed to be there? We come here in chains because of stupid fucking humans like these. Worthless, ignorant, savage animals.]

One of the generals was sneaking for the door, belly-crawling slowly, whenever we were speaking. It might have been smart, if it weren't so stupid. As Saga spoke, she twirled her fingers into a fist in his direction, and he stood up.

"I'm a worthless, savage animal!" he screamed, and then bolted out the hole in the tower. We heard his screaming for a few stories before Tower followed him with huge bounding strides, and Jack simply vanished.

[Didn't even do that right,] Saga complained. [He forgot ignorant.]

"Saga, please don't do this. What Lia did...that was wrong...but don't punish these people for her mistake."

[You misunderstand the situation, Athan,] she said, looking at me menacingly. [I'm not punishing these people, I'm removing filth from my sight. Like when one steps in dogshit. You don't punish it, you wipe it off. Speaking of which, if you shit yourself earlier, you may go as well.]

Two generals stood up, and with them the smell of fresh shit became much stronger. I grabbed one of them, but he punched me straight in the face, and bounded after the other out the window. They also screamed as they fell. I hated that Saga was letting go of their minds after they were doomed so they could suffer in their deaths. It was just twisted, just evil.

"Saga, stop killing people and talk to me."

[What's there to say, Athan? What speech have you got in your head this time to convince me humanity is worth it? Do you have a better human in mind than Lia? Last time she was your poster child for goodness, and you see what she did? Not so good after all.]

"I know you're hurt. I can feel it pouring off of you. I can feel your hate and your rage and your misery, but that's no reason to force it on others, Saga. This is wrong and you know it. Please, I'm begging you to stop."

[Wow, you can tell I'm mad. Very compelling.] Another general stood and ran towards his death. Tem was in tears behind me, covering her mouth and shaking her head. She needed to pull herself together before she killed all of us. Suddenly, before he got there, the structure foam erupted and the wall closed shut in front of the general.

Better late than never, I supposed, but I was afraid of what Saga would make the generals do without a convenient hole to drop them out of. The general stopped and stared at the new wall, completely lost.

[Ooh, very nice. I like this one, too, Athan. I might have bought it too, if I wasn't inside her head.]

The general flinched as Saga slapped him with another mental command, and then he ran and jumped just like the others, passing right through the freshly-reconstructed wall like it wasn't even there. Tem muttered an apology, and the illusion wavered and disappeared.

I tried not to listen to him screaming as he fell, but there wasn't anything else to do. I cocked my head as I listened though, a familiar note, barely audible but getting stronger.

[Tsk, that bitch doesn't know where she's unwelcome,] Saga said, picking up on it as well.

It was the faintest roar of engines. It could have been anything, VTOLs, approaching reinforcements, even an incoming airborne division, except that I knew this roar, it was familiar to me like the sound of my own breathing. I knew for sure at least that general survived.

The roar grew louder and louder for six or seven seconds until, with a flash of blue, Karu was there, resplendent in her armor, hovering effortlessly, right in the empty hole in the building, both arms pointed straight at Saga.

"Saga?" she asked, lowering her weapons.

[Yo. Lotta reunions today.]

"You...know her as well?" Tem asked me.

"Karu!" I yelled.

"ATHAN?" she screamed back, and landed in the building to run towards me.

[Hang on there one sec, kitty-cat, that's my mouse you're playing with,] Saga said with a menacing twirl of her fingers. [Don't you fucking dare sing that song at me.] Karu staggered towards me and then shuddered to a stop.

"Saga, what the fuck! Let her go!"

[She's a human, Athan. She's filth like the rest. Filth deserves to die.]

Karu rolled on the ground, reaching towards me, turning blue. She gasped and clawed.

I was on Saga in an instant, grabbing her by the hair and slicing through her with a blade of lightning. I felt the warm spray of her blood as it poured from her half-cauterized neck. As her breathing stopped and her body fell to the ground, Karu gasped in a lungful of air and lay wheezing.

I held the head aloft and stared into its bugged-out glossy eyes. A moment later, they were back to normal, and Saga smiled at me.

"Saga, what the fuck. Do not fucking kill Karu. I am dead serious."

[You couldn't stop me if you tried.]

"I am prepared to spend the rest of my life finding out if I have to, Saga. Don't do this. I don't want to be your enemy, but if you threaten to kill Karu, I will be."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She gave a huge sigh like I was massively inconveniencing her. [Fine, but only because I'd lose you if I did. The filth can live.]

"And the rest, as well."

[You kidding me? You just watched, what, five of these guys jump and hardly budged.] Something ran past me and screamed on its way down. Karu reached towards him from the ground, but couldn't do anything but gasp and choke. [Sorry, six?]

"I don't understand, Saga. We had these plans, these dreams. And now...now I'm here in the heart of the XPCA to make it happen...and you've ruined everything. You're standing there, destroying everything that humans and Exhumans could be. After everything we've been through, how can you do that?"

[Frankly, the way I see it, after everything I've been through, how could I not do it? The only redeeming part of a human is that, if they're lucky, one day they might become an Exhuman. The rest of them are all worthless, for all I care.]

"What about your promise, to me? To help me achieve my dreams?"

[I think I paid that off in full when I didn't kill your sister after she mind-fucked me.]

"I can't believe you would even consider killing Lia, much less trying to hold that against me. She was your friend."

[She was my best friend. And she still betrayed me, Athan. What do you think that says for the rest of this fucking world? How do you think I could give one single solitary shit about these corpulent death-merchants up here in this black goddamn edifice to how small their pricks are, when down there, there are good people like Lia, and I can't even get along with them?]

"She made a mistake, Saga. Please don't hate her for that. She was...drunk, lonely, drowning in guilt for what she thought she did to me," I recalled the exact sensation of what it felt like to be Lia that day through the memories Saga gave me. Minus the...having sex with someone part. That was really a memory no brother should ever have. Jesus.

[And that makes it okay?]

"You make mistakes too. You sicced a goddamn mentally-augmented bear on her, and it would have murdered her."

Tem looked at Mage like what?

[Wish it did, now.]

"The point is, everybody makes mistakes. Even all-knowing Xavier-class Exhumans."

[Yeah, well, that doesn't make it okay. She violated me, Athan.]

"It's not okay. I know that. All the shit we ever do to each other, rarely is it okay. But we stay friends, we stay sane because we let it go. For every reason it was incredibly incalculably wrong, there's another reason for you to forgive her and try to make things work. You're just too hung up on your prejudice against humans and looking for any reason to get hurt and hate them."

[You're honestly telling me just to forgive her.]

"Did she forgive you for the bear?"

[You fucking ate my bear.]

"Then eat her boyfriend, I don't give a shit." Again, Tem and Mage exchanged a glance. "Really, I hate him so much, you have no idea. I have memories in my head now, thanks to you, from his perspective of fucking my sister. You have any idea how unsettling that is?"

She chuckled. [Slightly.]

"Saga, humans are imperfect as fuck. You've got that right. Yet they manage to coexist with one another because despite all their imperfections, they have the stones to put up with people they hate and just fucking deal with it. Are you more incapable than a human, then?"

[More incapable...of dealing with it? Boy, I have died a thousand deaths. You don't know the beginning of dealing with it.]

"And you're going to die a thousand more, I'm sure. But humans, they only get the one chance to die, only one chance to live. Please don't let your hate for them cloud over your ability to recognize that, shitty and flawed as they are, they have lives too."

She sighed.

[How does he do it, ladies and gentlemen. Every time I'm all set to wipe out humanity, he talks me back from the ledge.]

I let out a long sigh. "It's because you find me sexy."

[You know,] she said, looking me up and down, [that might actually just be it. Hard to keep my own argument straight when I'm fighting the throbbing pulse of my own lady bits.]

"Is...did…"

"Yes, Tem, I think we're okay. Saga's done murdering generals for today. How many of them do we have left?"

"Two," coughed Karu from the floor, "survived the fall."

"And there's four left up here. Saga, you killed half of the XPCA command," I sighed.

[In my defense, I killed them in order from greatest to least of a fucking bitch.]

"As much as I hate to," I heard a voice say as the door opened, "I have to agree with the Exhuman." It was Blackett, stepping into the room over the bodies of the remaining trembling generals. Cosette followed him, her gun trained on Saga the whole time.

[Please,] she said. [What are you going to do with that thing?]

Saga's head snapped back as Cosette put a bullet between her eyes. She was up again a moment later, and Cosette dropped her again.

"Please stop shooting my friend," I asked as Saga got up a third time.

"Once more?" asked Cosette.

[Yeah, go for it. I kind of missed being killed by XPCA fuckheads.]

There was another report and again, Saga fell motionless to the ground, which was now more red with her blood than anything.

[That was sarcasm, you fuck,] Saga snapped at Cosette, when she got up again.

"As I was saying," Blackett said, clearing his throat. "I wouldn't phrase it as 'greatest fucking bitch', but your friend did prove selective in eliminating the greatest sources of hubris and corruption in the upper echelons."

[Why am I not surprised that the grifters and the guys who were screaming in my head 'OH GOD PLEASE NOT ME, ANYONE BUT ME' were the same?]

I helped Karu to her feet and we held each other for a long time. After what seemed like no time at all, she pulled away, but I didn't want to let go. Never wanted to let go. She smiled and pulled up her visor, giving me a quick kiss on the lips before breaking it off.

"Missed you guys," I mumbled.

"I missed you as well. I am not certain if you had access to the 'net--"

"I saw you! You were so amazing.”

To my surprise, this made Karu fidget and blush more than kissing me in a room of carnage and destruction did, but she looked entirely pleased with herself.

"I see by the fact that you are here in the XPCA headquarters, and not in their prisons even, but meeting with the XPCA command...I hope...I was influential in this outcome."

She looked around. "Ehm. Perhaps, not this outcome."

[Yeah. Don't take credit for my work. I put a lot of effort into this plan. I walked up here and killed everything in my way, all by myself.]

Karu didn't even acknowledge her. I'm sure they would be at each other's throats soon enough, but for now, just staring at me seemed to take all of Karu's attention.

Blackett cleared his throat. "Miss Karu, did the first individual thrown from the window survive?"

Karu shook her head. "The two Exhumans outside caught the second man, and I caught the second-to-last last man. The rest died instantly." She turned back towards me. "And a suit! And you've been working out and eating properly? My, what have you been up to."

[He's been banging the silver-haired girl. She's super slutty. You should see the things they do. I'm only looking in their heads, and it's making me all wet and tingly.]

Karu and Tem both froze, and Karu shuddered as she turned to face Tem. Tem's face looked mortified in the split moment before she turned invisible.

"He WHAT?" Karu stomped towards the invisible girl, weapons heating up.

"Saga's lying, Karu. Please."

Karu's face twitched, and without looking over, she extended an arm and blew Saga's torso into a red mist with a blast that I could feel in my chest and made my ears ring. Saga's legs remained standing for a few seconds and then ingloriously fell over, staining more of the carpet with gore.

"Your friends...your friends are…are s-s-scary, Chariot." Tem was behind me again, I could tell.

"Yes, they certainly are," I said glowering, once Saga had put herself back together again. "Next one to kill Saga has to buy dinner, okay? Since apparently fucking not murder isn't a motivation for anyone anymore. And I mean, for everyone. Including Tower."

"Ooh," added Mage. I'd almost forgotten she was there.

"I refuse these terms," Karu said, holding her hand up like we were in a classroom. "This automatically disqualifies Saga from having to pay for dinner."

"Okay, if someone other than Saga dies, then Saga has to pay."

"Uhm," said Blackett, desperately trying to regain control of the scene.

"I'm afraid if you have something to say, you'll just have to say it," Karu said. "It's not in these two to shut up for longer than a moment."

"I am...perturbed by how quickly you can all move from murder to friendship and back," Blackett said, scratching his head.

"Yeah, old friendships will do that," I said, with a smile.

[Hey, he's that guy! He's THAT guy!]

"Blackett, yes. We are all familiar," Karu said.

[No! He was the driver I couldn't see. I still can't see him.]

Saga advanced slowly on Blackett like a stalking cat. Cosette interceded, but Saga made her sit like a dog with a gesture. Tem made an increasingly high-pitched uncomfortable sound as the two drew close. Finally in range, Saga slowly extended one finger and poked Blackett in the chest.

"Problem?" asked Blackett.

[You do exist.]

"I do exist."

[I'm not crazy. You guys see this, right?]

"We can see from here that you are apparently crazy," said Karu. "What is your point?"

[I can't...in my head. I can't read his thoughts, his memories, can't probe him...nothing. It's like he's not there.]

"Must be my lack of thoughts," Blackett said banally. "Anyway, as I have been attempting to announce for the last few interruptions, assuming that Director Albion did in fact die in this terrible attack, as Karu reported, as per emergency provisions, I will now assume my role as Director and head of the Exhuman Pacification and Control Agency."

He turned to Cosette. "Please comms the ground and let them know the crisis has been handled. And please confirm the victims. It would be terribly inappropriate to attempt to succeed a living man."

She called and confirmed, Director Albion was in fact dead.

"Well then, as the new head of the XPCA, I am going to issue an emergency order of the founding of a new task force, composed entirely of Exhumans. These same Exhumans who voluntarily accompanied me here and selflessly sacrificed and toiled to bring this Exhuman event to a close with minimal damage and casualties."

I thought he was getting kind of hammy, but noticed that Cosette was recording everything on her mobile. He'd even planned that out?

"This new force, for the first time, represents a turning point in the philosophy of the XPCA. No longer do we hold a zero-tolerance policy for the crime of an Exhuman merely existing. Exhumans who wish to join the new task force will be welcomed and treated as well as any human, and those who are fit for combat will serve in the protection of the United States, and its Human and Exhuman denizens alike. This may come as a shock to many, but I have worked alongside these brave Exhumans for years, and have found them nothing but fearless in their pursuit of justice and their defense of American liberties. I am certain that moving forward, we will find many more Exhumans as meritorious and hard-working as any man or woman, who will be welcome among us. Some seek to cause trouble and imperil the lives and livelihoods of Americans, and those who do had best watch out, as it will be more than humans now coming to stop them."

As now-Director Blackett finished his speech, Cosette panned the room with her mobile, capturing the reactions of all inside. When he was done, she advanced on Karu. Mean. But smart. The celebrity face of the resistance. I had to laugh a little at her plight.

"Miss Karu? Do you have a statement to make on the new direction of the XPCA?"

"Ah," said Karu, caught off-guard. "Well, uh. I am not certain, it is a lot to take in at once. But…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully. Trying to get just the right words, I was sure. She put away her thinking pose and stood steady before she began speaking. Already thinking of how this would look in editing. "I cannot say for certain whether Director Blackett's task force will be a good idea or not, but I can say with certainty that giving innocent Exhumans an option other than death is nothing but a positive in the eyes of the hunters of the association."

"Thank you, Miss Karu. And Mr. Chariot?"

Well shit. This was what I got for laughing.

"I uh, hi. I'm Chariot, I'm one of the Exhumans who will be serving under Director Blackett. I am grateful for the opportunity, and uh, I hope we can work together towards a better world." She turned to go back to Blackett but I shouted. "Wait, actually," and she came back.

This time, like Karu, I paused for a few seconds before speaking. "Parahumans. That's what the world called us once, when Exhumanity just started. Para, meaning beside. Beside, not on top, not on bottom, but equals, side by side. We live in the same world, share the same space, breathe the same air, and though we are not the same, we see ourselves as humanity's partners, it's protectors, and friends, not as people who are removed from it, as Exhuman implies."

I took a deep breath. "And it is for that reason, that we wish to be known as the Parahuman Force! Or P-Force for short."

Cosette made a funny snorting noise which I hoped could be taken out in editing and turned back towards Blackett, who simply commented, "The name is a work in progress, but this task force, and the XPCA as a whole are not. Though recent issues have been brought to light, new leadership and a new worldview will bring about a new era of the XPCA, and a brighter future for humanity and Exhumans...Parahumans alike."

"What a crap name," Mage said. Nobody jumped to my defense, which stung even more.

"It's not a crap name, right Karu?"

"Have I kissed you yet? I don't believe so," she said, lifting her visor and blinking slowly at me with her brilliant green eyes and long lashes. There was just a hint of blush on her cheeks, and a smile on her face with just a hint of mischief.

"Uh, don't believe so," I lied.

[Okay, you two get a room or I am so killing the rest of these guys.]