A couple of months ago, if you had asked me the most powerful type of Exhuman in the world, I would have asked why be so general? I could tell you with certainty the single most dangerous one, and it was me.

And then I met Mage, and I didn't even have to reconsider. I was just wrong.

I'd given all of Athan's friends, all of the generals, everyone in that tower--minus Blackett--a cursory glance as I always did when making new friends. For the most part it was the same stories in a new Exhuman. Loss, oppression, optimism, foolishness.

She wasn't. In the moments I peeked inside her, instead of getting a good read on who and what she was, as had happened every single other time I'd used my powers, I felt instead like I was only scratching the surface.

She had lived hundreds of years, if not thousands. She had seen unseeable things and lived more lives than maybe even I would.

She was a code-X, but I don't think even she knew that. It hadn't manifest in the usual sense, instead, her mind, or powers, or wherever that information was held created an exact replica of the world around her and played it back in her head. Using psionic powers, she read people so perfectly that in these simulations, they would behave exactly identical to in life, every single minute detail so perfectly exact that it was almost impossible to differentiate from reality.

And then her powers forced her to relive that scene infinitely, until she got it exactly perfectly right, in a single instant, as I understood it. And while this, by itself, was already a pretty scary power, both to use and to exist, the truly, truly terrifying part of it was that there was an external intelligence which determined what counted as 'perfectly right.'

In other words...possibly the only time ever, someone had communed directly with their powers, demonstrated that their powers had intelligence beyond themselves. Their powers were, in some way, alive.

Which meant, by extension, if I wasn't completely off the rails, so were my powers. So were Athan's. So were all of ours. Unless hers were a special case, which I deeply hoped was true. I had no idea what this meant, but fuck if it wasn't scary to think of them one day walking off without me, or making demands of me, or...how the fuck would I know what superpowers would want from us?

But that wasn't all. In her mind, in the very forefront of it, was one thought around which her entire being was focused. Such an alien and bizarre thought that I hadn't seen much of its origin, but coming from a source such as her, it straight up scared the piss out of me. I had intended to make a much larger production of killing all the XPCA then and there, but was a little distracted after seeing this one thought.

She was certain, one-hundred percent, without doubt in her mind that the world was going to end. Soon. In blackness ringed in light.

It wasn't much to go on, but I couldn't examine her thoughts on it too closely. Examining that thought...as I did, I felt myself slipping into madness, there was no other way to explain it. It was like observing a black hole. The more I looked into it, the more I'd fall into it. I'd given it a quick glance just to get the feel of it and turned away. I thought, she'd stick around Athan, I had time to poke at it safely here and there.

But I knew only one other thing about that memory of hers, and that was that it had come from her powers directly. Whatever malign intelligence punished her by forcing her perfection, it had also given her that vision. So we knew now that her powers at least were alive, were intelligent enough to be able to set criteria for success and failure, could understand the concept of visions and memory, and could communicate them to her.

Like, what the fuck.

The final nail, not to be morbid, was her death. She died, seemingly on purpose, one had to assume. She drank water, fought a cryoist, and he killed her with it. That seemed so easy to avoid that even the rest of the team had done it accidentally.

And unfortunately, my memories of this were only secondhand, through Athan. If only I could have seen in Mage's mind, I would know why she'd done what she had, or if she even had a choice. Maybe her powers hadn't activated and she just died like any other human. Maybe this was what she wanted, and took the chance to escape her powers.

But most likely, this is what her powers wanted. But why?

It had been, I don't know, a week or something since I left Athan, and as I walked slowly towards my destination on tireless, infirm legs, these were the thoughts which turned over in my mind again and again. A couple of times, I noticed the same look of focused consternation on another person's face as I passed them, and realized I was focusing on it so hard, I was leaking thoughts.

Well, that lady was going to have an interesting story about dead girls and sentient powers to tell her friends, but I hardly cared.

My plan was simple. Go back to DC, meet everyone Mage had ever met, regain every memory that existed of her being there, and then follow her whole life in reverse until I knew every moment of her everything. Once I had all the data that existed, maybe I could find a clue.

It wasn't much to go on, but I was also being promised the imminent end of the world by a dead girl who predicted the future by making a perfect facsimile of the present. I wasn't really going to ask questions at this point.

But it had been several days at this point and I was tired. Not physically tired, I didn't really get that, but tired of thinking so hard, tired of pushing myself. This was the furthest I'd ever travelled in my life on my own, and it was wearing on me a lot more than I thought possible. The concept of putting one foot in front of the other until I got there was the simplest thing imaginable, but fuck if it wasn't boring.

The only other time I'd travelled like this was when I ran away in Las Vegas. I wanted to get away fast, but didn't know how. People usually called for a taxi or something like that, but I had no phone, I wasn't juggling lists of phone numbers for taxis in my head, and neither was anyone around me.

So I ran, as fast and as far as I could, for the only time in my whole life. Even before I was Exhuman, I didn't run, Mother told me I would only fall and hurt myself and cause her trouble, so I never did. I made it...two blocks, before pain stabbed at my chest, I was gasping for air, and my arms and legs could move no further.

It was so frustrating, having my body not listen to my brain. I told it, 'move!' and it did nothing. I sat on a bench near the road and just waited for Lia and AEGIS and shame to find me. I was so hurt, in my head and in my heart after what Lia had done, and my own inability to even get away from it, I was the biggest failure.

And then I was blinded by lights and a bus pulled up to the bench I sat on and opened its doors. It was a miracle, and if I had Karu on hand, I would have told her to thank God for me.

I remembered the memory darkly, as I kept putting my feet in front of me. A sign told me DC was still some hundred miles away.

I'd forced my way onto the bus, and the driver stopped me, asking me to pay. I told him...in my disabled mental state, I actually told him the truth, which was stupid. I told him...I'd just been sexually assaulted and needed to run away. I thought he might understand. I opened my mind a little, still in pain from what Lia had put me through, and snapped it shut again immediately.

He was leering at me. Imagining what others had done with my body and enjoying it. The other patrons on the bus didn't care. They were annoyed I was holding everything up. Some thought I made up the story just so I wouldn't have to pay. All at once, the weeks I'd spent with Lia and Chiho and AEGIS and Athan fell away from me, and I remembered what humanity was like, what they were really like.

When you needed someone most was when they'd let you down the hardest, I realized.

Those people were all dead now. I took every one of their minds and made the driver take me where I wanted, to the heart of the XPCA, and then keep driving forever. He and his passengers went straight to hell on that fucking bus, and I went to that tower to rip out the fucking heart of this toxic world and set the level straight.

And then ran into Athan, and then Mage, and now I repeat myself.

I sat down on a bench again, and pressed a palm to my forehead. How could part of me be so hot while other parts of me were so cold? Hadn't bodies had like, millions of years to figure this kind of thing out by now? Underneath my jumpsuit, I was boiling, would definitely be dripping in sweat if sweating was still a thing I did, but my hands and feet were like ice. I looked down, and found my feet were literal ice, I'd been walking in snow and slush for so long that I had a frozen layer on the bottom of my foot.

Well, no wonder my feet hurt so much. They couldn't freeze, but things could freeze to them. They couldn't go numb either, so it was just like walking on glass. I looked around to see if there was anywhere I could warm up. Maybe a library or something public, where I wouldn't have to make a scene or crack any heads to get in. Athan wouldn't appreciate that.

Damn it, I thought of him again. I'd been trying not to, but for a self-proclaimed master of the mind, I seemed to have very little control over my own.

The whole situation with him was fucked, and honestly, I was glad to just bail on it, but as heartless as that was, it still hurt a lot, hence the avoiding thinking about it. I was getting really sick of him worming his way into me (mentally, I wouldn't mind physically, if that were possible), and it seemed like every time I was all ready to finish off humanity once and for all, he'd show up out of nowhere and my weak little heart couldn't stand the thought of killing off his whole race right in front of his eyes. So I'd relent.

Always me, he never let me genocide even once. Abusive relationships at their finest.

But this Mage thing, this was more than me or him. This was something I couldn't allow myself to be talked out of. I absolutely had to avoid him at all costs. And so while I felt like an asshole for doing to him what I did...and I was, I had no illusions of anything else...the whole thing actually played out...okay for me?

Which was the crappiest thought I might have ever had. Boy, it sure was convenient how I mind-fucked the only guy who's ever liked me into being my sex slave and then dumped him with a note saying 'my bad'. Couldn't even look him in the eye when I ripped out his heart. I fucking disgusted myself. And while he was spending a while recovering from that, I can go to his office and pick through the memories of all his friends and colleagues. What a gal, that Saga.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Which is why I couldn't meet him. With all this guilt, I'd crack even easier than usual.

I walked another block and saw a large public-looking building, surrounded by a fence, but with an open gate and people milling around. I headed for it, but as I got in range, I realized, they weren't people, they were children.

Which was awkward. Children were a total enigma to me. Weren't a lot of them on the military base where I grew up, see.

This was a school, an elementary school, and those children were the...the children, I guessed. I'd never actually been near one before, and their voices were very very loud. I was about to leave the din when I happened to glance through a window and see a kid with short flat hair, who made eye contact with me through the window.

"Ow, fuck!" I yelled.

I held my head as a screaming buzzing filled my senses. It was only momentary, but it felt like ages, and when I opened my eyes, I was laying on the ground, my senses muted, vision popping back in focus like I was a computer rebooting and had to connect to all my hardware again. I looked back at the kid, and saw he or she was slumped against the window, eyes scrunched tight, holding their head, too.

I realized many of the kids were repeating 'ow fuck' and the teachers were all in a tizzy to find out who had shouted that so loud they'd heard it in their heads. Oops.

The pain, it was like...it was like what Athan felt when I yelled too loud in his mind, but a hundredfold. Just a pure blast of psychic...psychic. White noise. I saw them recover and averted my gaze before we met again, probing...her, as it turned out, with my mind.

She was Exhuman, code-X like me. Only seven. Shit.

Her particular brand seemed to be similar to mine, but she got a holistic, entire, like, fucking complete record like I could only dream of, of all a person's thoughts, memories, everything, just by looking someone in the eyes. Turns out, two people reading each other's' thoughts at the same moment got an extremely painful feedback loop. I was still blinking away some disorientation and realized my nose was bleeding for a bit before my body came back.

Her teachers thought she had a mental disorder because she was always trying to be alone and never looked at anyone's face. If only they knew.

Poor kid was already so fucked up, and didn't even know what was going on. Like Mage, she'd lived a hundred lives too, just other people's, and she didn't understand ninety-nine percent of what was in them. I frowned as I rested my back against the gate, frozen feet all but forgotten, as I mulled over her memories.

She was a good girl, too. Tried to do her homework, brushed her teeth twice a day, not because she understood why it was important, but because people she loved told her to, and that was enough for her. Supportive parents, worried about her, trying to get her into therapy or counseling so she could 'catch up' with the other kids. I was sure they'd still drop her like a tumor if they caught wind she was Exhuman.

Fucking hell. I didn't have time for this. I didn't even like kids. So noisy.

Or so I thought. But the longer I stood here, the more I realized, they were all good kids. Sure, they were maniac little bastards, running at each other with scissors and pulling each other's hair and eating glue, but...there was something missing from all the other mind's I'd been around. There was no malice behind any of it, no intention of evil, no intent to deceive and thank God, no sex-obsessed thoughts. Not sure what I would have done with myself if it turned out that kids thought about sex as much as adults did.

Like yeah, there were bullies who effectively launched a campaign to make other kids' lives hell, but they did it because it was fun and they were bored and as much as they might hurt others, they never wanted to, it just happened. It was a weird tacit acceptance of the world at face value before they collectively realized that they could change the it.

And it was really, really, really refreshing. It was so nice to hear people being just happy or just mad or whatever without shoving a VTOL of undertones and history and racial associations and all that junk in it. Some of the older kids were getting there, but in general, it was just like...the kids saw each other as just kids.

What a fucking goddamn revelation. Amazing how badly we fucked up these simple creatures, systematically.

So I considered this my break, as I loitered outside the gate like a pedophile. I hoped I could explain that I was picking up my kid sister or something, but if worst came to worst, I'd just blow up the cop's brain and start walking again.

Fortunately that didn't happen. As I continued trawling her memories, I had a realization and left my post for a few minutes to pick something up.

I got back just as school let out, and smiled at the kids walking through the gates. Some even waved at me. Cute little fuckers.

Finally I sensed her approaching and averted my gaze.

"Hey, Ralma," I said. I didn't need to worry, she didn't look up, just faced me and looked at my feet. "I need to talk to you. Think your brother would mind if we all went somewhere together?"

"I dunno," she said, shifting uncomfortably. She didn't have any problem with me, but she didn't like the new situation.

"Let's go ask him, huh?"

"Okay."

We walked a little bit down the road to the bike rack where Ralma's brother was waiting for her. Middle schooler, almost high school, very excited about winter break imminently pending, and had mixed feelings on seeing me with Ralma, many of which were perverse. I made a mental note to avoid middle and high schools at all costs.

"Hi Jordan. I'm Saga, I'm a friend of Ralma's, sort of. Can we sit and talk somewhere for a few minutes before you guys head home?"

"Uh," he said. Funny. He thought of himself as an adult, capable of taking care of his sister, even fantasized about situations where he'd have to punch out bad guys to snatch her from the dastardly jaws of villainy. Who even thought like that except Karu? And yet, faced with someone asking him politely, he was completely helpless.

"I'm not trying to take you anywhere. We can just go there," I said, pointing at a fast food chain down the block. "I'll buy you an ice cream for your time."

"Chocolate?" asked Ralma, skeptically.

It was a trick. "Strawberry," I answered.

"Yay! Let's go, Jordan."

"Okay, okay, we'll go," he said, locking his bike up again. "But no funny business," he threatened me. I had to hold back a laugh as I promised him.

The cashier had a small bout of confusion and I reminded him I'd just given him my payment for the ice cream, which he handed over without issue, apologizing for the register acting up, and I joined the two in the booth, handing a small bowl to each child.

"Jordan," I said, very seriously. "I want to know your opinion on Exhumans."

"Thought you were gonna talk to Ralma," he said. I rolled my eyes and unzipped my outfit just enough to be teasing. Damn broken zip meant I had to do it slow, but I guess that just heightened the effect.

"This is a very important question," I said.

"Exhumans are bad, right?" He had a hard time keeping his eyes off the V of newly-exposed flesh "Is this a test?"

"I'm not asking what they tell you, I'm asking what you think. Don't worry, this is just a conversation, there's no right or wrong."

"Okay. Well. I don't really care, I guess. They always tell us Exhumans are bad, but I've never seen one. If I did, I guess I could probably fight them." My, such bravado.

"What if I told you that you saw an Exhuman all the time, and they aren't all bad like they say?"

"I'd know if I saw an Exhuman."

"Oh really? How's that?"

"Exhumans are always up to something, they're always blowing things up and fighting the XPCA."

"If you believe that, why do you not think Exhumans are bad?"

His brain stopped for a second, and it wasn't just brainfreeze. "Uh. I don't know."

"Okay, Jordan, I'm going to tell you something very, very important so please listen."

"Whatever."

"Jordan, Ralma is an Exhuman. She reads people's minds."

"No she doesn't. That's crazy. You're weird, lady."

"Am I? Ralma, do you know what Jordan had for lunch today?"

"No."

"Ralma, can you please look Jordan in the eyes, for me, please?"

Ralma looked at me...approximately at my chest, and frowned. And then she looked at Jordan, who watched this all unfold with mild disbelief. "Jordan didn't eat his packed lunch, he traded it for candy and then bought a pizza from the good place in the cafeteria."

Jordan's mouth fell open. "No, that's a trick. Okay. What number am I thinking of.

She looked at him again. "Negative one bizillion four hundred and two point five."

He looked at me. "Are you hearing this?"

I smiled and nodded. "She's a good girl, isn't she?"

"She's Exhuman!" he shouted, and I immediately deleted the memory from the two people in earshot.

"Exhumans aren't all bad, you said so yourself. She's still your sister, and she still loves you. She needs you, Jordan. She loves you more than anyone in the world, and she needs you to protect her. You're the only person in the world whose eyes she'll willingly look into."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Looking into people's eyes is how she sees their thoughts. She doesn't understand, but it frightens her, so she never looks anyone in the eye. Does that clear up a lot of her actions now?"

He thought around and nodded. "But what am I going to do? I can't fight the whole XPCA."

I laughed. What happened to that bravado from earlier? "You don't have to. Here--"

I produced the item I got earlier. A white cloth square with two elastic bands on it, sealed in plastic.

"An eyepatch," I explained, unwrapping it.

"Eyepatches are black."

"Pirate eyepatches are black, medical eyepatches, which are a real thing by the way, are white. I'm going to put this on your sister, and I'm going to explain to her really hard that if she wears this, she'll never have problems with her powers again."

"Okay. So she won't be...reading minds or anything, as long as she has an eyepatch?"

"Right. She needs to make full eye contact with someone for it to happen. At least until she's old enough to understand what she's doing, she needs to never use her powers, or she'll be discovered and the XPCA will take her away. Do you understand?"

"Yeah."

"Are you okay with her being an Exhuman?"

"Yeah...I guess so. She's not going to change or anything right? Like they say?"

"You tell me. She's been like this for a few months already. Did you notice her suddenly being evil back then?"

"No. She just got...really quiet and hurt all the time." He frowned and tried to worked through some stuff.

"Well, if she keeps the eyepatch on, she should be back to her old self. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Would she really?"

"I promise."

"In that case, yeah, I'd love that." He was just a kid, but his determination was for real. He loved his sister and worried about her, too.

"You're a good brother, Jordan. Ralma is lucky to have a strong older brother like you."

I directed the compliment straight into his pride and felt him swell at it. Kids were so easy.

"Ralma," I said, working a compel into her even as I put the eyepatch on her. "You need to wear this for a while, okay? If you explain to your parents that this will help you look at others in the eye, they will understand, okay?"

I didn't tell her that she'd also throw an absolute shit-fit if they ever took it off her because of the compel, but I imagined they'd discover that eventually. I wrote it so that when she was old enough to understand her own powers and how it worked, she'd understand what I'd done, and could make her own choice on when and how to use her power. I hoped she appreciated being eyepatch girl instead of being never-look-anyone-in-the-eye girl. She'd get teased for it, but not arrested, not executed.

When we parted, she turned back to me. "Thanks Saga!" said Ralma with a wave, looking right at me while her brother walked away wordlessly, far too cool to be interacting with me. Good kid. Might even live, with a little luck. The world needed more like them, I thought.

And that counted as my break, and the time in the fast food joint had thawed off my feet nicely, so I guess it was time to hit the road and finish up making it to D.C.. I stretched and yawned and got my feet moving again.

But I also made a note to start visiting schools on my travels. Being around them gave me a lot of energy, and maybe if I were lucky, I could run into another Ralma or two, give a young Exhuman a less-shitty life than the one I'd been handed. The thought of it made me smile, oddly enough.

But enough time wasted here for today. I had a world ending to investigate.