Chariot's life seemed very complicated. He was sad a lot, and that distressed me, mostly because I knew I could not help, and if I tried, I would only make everything worse. I thought AEGIS was sick, Saga was fighting him, but she said she wasn't, and I thought I was just stupid again and misunderstood. So I waited for Chariot to figure out what was right and waited and believed in him like always

It was easier if I just did what Chariot said. He saved my life. I knew I could trust him to always do what is best.

We were going to Chicago now, Cosette said we had to. The inside of the VTOL was cold and the straps were too big and too heavy for me. I felt like the heavy round buckle was pushing into my chest and making it hard to breathe, but I didn't say anything. Cosette and Chariot had argued a lot before we left, too. He said he had to be there for his friends, and she said he had to leave for a mission, and that was it.

Cosette got really mean and told Chariot that if he didn't go, they'd court-marshal him, and if he still wouldn't, they'd go after his friends too. He was really mad about that, and yelled at her, but she was really sad and just said that's how things were. I thought frying her a little might help, but Chariot said 'it wasn't Cosette's fault the XPCA was so shit'. It was stupid of me to say anything. I had to remember my place.

He was talking to me now, but I didn't really understand. I didn't understand him fully at the best of times because he was much quicker and smarter than I was, and now I was even more distracted and useless with all of the other things going on in my head. It was just the two of us on the flight, and the pilot. I had asked him why the rest of the team was not coming.

"That's what I was saying earlier. This obviously isn't a real event, otherwise they would have sent more. I think, honestly, they're just…" he checked his comms, and then reached over and twisted the unit in my ear, a little painfully, turning it off. I tried not to wince, or he'd waste an apology on me. "...the new CO, Targa. Cosette didn't say anything specifically, but it's weird that they'd just send me with a new CO. Makes me think they're giving her a tryout or something."

"They are not just s-s-sending you. I am here as well," I stuttered.

He rolled his eyes and I realized I'd misspoken again. I was only trying to comfort him but I'd accidentally placed him on my level, which was inexcusable. It was presumptuous to count myself as a person. That was stupid of me. "Pretty sure Cosette has realized you're a lot more trouble to keep away from me than to just put up with you being attached at the hip. You don't really count."

I was happy we agreed. I really didn't count.

I apologized for misunderstanding, which I think annoyed Chariot, so I shut up and hid myself until the flight ended. I knew sometimes I said and did stupid things, but I did not want to make Chariot's life harder, so I made a habit to do nothing as much as I could. He never seemed mad about me doing nothing, so that meant it was okay. As long as I wasn't making Chariot mad or hitting me, I knew I was doing okay.

I had heard some things about Chicago, but I didn't know if they were true. We learned about it in school, I remembered. That was one of the days I was in class and nobody was bullying me, so I could pay attention a little bit. The tragedy of New Chicago, I remember. It was new because they built it back after it was destroyed in the war. It had to be the Sino War, I thought, but I wasn't going to say anything about it because I might be wrong. The tragedy was they were all sad for some reason afterwards which I didn't remember.

When we got off the plane, it looked like a city, though. There wasn't much that made it look different from anything else. I don't know why I thought people were sad here, the people on the XPCA base looked the same as any others. It must have been something I misunderstood again.

Chariot and I each got a message on our holos at the same time. He read his, and I wanted to see what he was seeing, so I read mine too.

> Turn your damn comms on!

From Cosette. Chariot made an annoyed sound, and turned his on. I didn't know if I should or not, so I did nothing. He glanced back over at me and then turned mine on for me, and again I tried not to wince as the comms twisted in my ear painfully. Chariot always knew what I should do or not do, so I thought my life was very good.

Chariot talked to people on-base for a while while I hid and followed him. Sometimes they asked where I was, and he made some excuse. I didn't like forcing him to make excuses for me, but I also didn't want to risk him being seen with me and people thinking he was my friend or anything which might embarrass him, so I stayed hidden. He hadn't yelled at me to show up, so I guess that was okay.

Eventually we got in a van and spent another long time in silence. Chariot looked really pained and thoughtful and I stayed hidden so I wouldn't disturb him. I wished I could help, but you would have to be even stupider than me to think I could possibly help Chariot with thinking. I wasn't much good except for frying people. Even if I didn't like doing that, I'd do it him as much as he wanted. And since that wasn't what he wanted right now, I was just useless and stayed out of the way.

Someone started talking to us at some point on comms. She was a girl with a young voice but a strong one, and she sounded kind of angry all the time. Maybe like how AEGIS might sound if she yelled in your head like Saga did.

"We're going to do this by the numbers, exactly as the XPCA engagement protocol dictates. I trust both of you have read your handbooks?"

"No," Chariot said and looked over through me.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized he was waiting for me to say something. "Oh. N-no, me neither."

The voice on the line sighed. I had already forgotten her name, but didn't want to annoy Chariot by asking.

"Then why would they even let the two of you in the field?" she fumed. "This is my first command, and I have two children who can't even read?"

"Targa, I can read." He must have realized I was stupid and forgotten her name and then used it himself so I'd remember. He was very thoughtful. "Tem can read too. I...think."

I nodded, and then realized I was still hidden. He saw anyway. I could hide from everyone but him. It made me feel excited and exposed, and like the luckiest girl in the world. Like his powers were made just for me.

"Yeah. She's nodding. So it's not that we can't read, it's that there are approximately ten billion fucking manuals and primers for XPCA protocol, and frankly, none of it applies to us."

"There are only, 2,962 manuals, and you should have read all of them pertinent to your MOS during training."

"Well, we skipped training," Chariot sighed. I wondered if he was annoyed at her, and maybe I was overreaching again, but if it might help if I could fry her for him.

"You...what? Two untrained children who can't read for my first op? Are they trying to set me up to fail?"

"Look lady," he said, closing his eyes and holding his forehead like she was gonna make his head pop.

"Captain Targa," she barked back, emphasising both words.

"Look, lady," he said again louder "This may be your first op, it's our...what, fifth? And some of those were fucking dangerous as hell Exhumans. If they're only sending me and Tem here, this has got to just be a joke."

"You think the XPCA makes jokes?" she said. "Every single mission is critical. Planning is of the utmost importance, and you want to just waltz in there like an idiot? So you're a dumbass kid, you're untrained, illiterate, and you're disobeying orders? Hah! You're right--this has got to be a joke. You have absolutely got to be kidding me. Where's...where's Colonel Dawn…"

"Cosette said she wouldn't be on for this op. Just us three." Chariot smiled. "Whee!"

I knew he was just making fun of her, but my heart still raced a little at the thought of it being just us three. That was only one away from a couple.

"This is a fucking joke. What the hell am I supposed to do with you two, even."

"Well, definitely just repeatedly telling us that we're crap is going to make you a great leader." He was grinning now.

I think sometimes Chariot liked it when women were being difficult to him, because then he got to talk back to them like that. This was good, because women were always being difficult to Chariot. If I thought if I were smart and funny like his friends, I would like to give it a try too.

"Right. You're right. Okay. If you didn't read the manual, I'll just read it to you. I know I have it around here. Okay. Preface. This manual is XPCA property and is for official instructional use only. Only authorized personnel are permitted to utilize this manual and its contents. Reproduction and distribution of this manual is strictly--"

"Okay, how long until we're there?" Chariot asked.

"About nine minutes. Reproduction and distribution--"

"And you're going to read the whole thing to us in nine minutes?"

"No, you're going to sit in the van until we're finished. It will only take about an hour and a half. Did you read the field policy manual as well?"

"Yeah, of course," Chariot said with a roll of his eyes.

"Great. Then probably about four hours before we're done with those two. Reproduction and di--"

"Can we skip all this crap and just go to the planning stage?"

"No. This stuff is important. Reproduction--"

"Seriously. The second we get there, I'm just getting out, and whatever you covered will be it. You want to plan, plan now. You want to read me the publishing notes on a field manual, do that. Which do you think will be more handy when we get there?"

"Both. Reproduction and--"

"You are seriously kidding me."

"Oh. My God. Just shut up and listen! I'm tired of reproduction."

Chariot stifled a laugh with a snort. I didn't quite get it but I laughed too.

"What? Reproduction? Oh my God. Are you a damn pervert, too?"

"Sorry Targa. Keep telling us about reproduction. We're listening."

"What the fucking hell, Chariot. Can't we go a single sentence without you adding to the list of why you're completely unqualified for service? Just one sentence? My God. What did I do to deserve this?"

"Look, just send me the manual, I can read faster than you can read it to me," Chariot said, still laughing, but a little apologetic.

"Finally, a sensible request. There. Both manuals you should need. Now, there's plenty more…"

"Okay, finished," said Chariot with a glance and a tap at his holo. "Now what?"

"What."

"I finished reading. Both of the manuals, actually. So now we can do something useful instead."

"In order for that to happen, you'd have to have turned the pages so fast that the friction from swiping on your holo would have set your finger on fire."

"Well, we Exhumans are sometimes pretty special." He winked at me. I felt all fluttery and happy, even though I knew it wasn't me he was calling special. Or pretty. Maybe a different kind of special. I'd heard people call me that a lot.

"No, seriously. The coefficient of friction for glass is 0.9, and assuming your finger weighs about sixteen grams, then the amount of force needed to flick it--"

"Okay, seriously? We've got what, five minutes left, can we not spend it on my how much force I flick my fingers?"

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"..."

"What?"

"I am not spending anything on your fingers flicking," Targa huffed.

"What?"

"Oh come on. We've already established you're a pervert with no qualms about sexually harassing your commanding officer."

"I...on my fingers? Jesus Christ, Targa. You have issues."

"I certainly do! And it's getting pretty long to keep listing them, so I can summarize them as Chariot and Temperance."

I thought it was pretty unfair that Chariot was getting dragged into this when it was probably my fault somehow, but I wasn't sure that he wasn't just having fun so I kept quiet.

"Okay, since you don't want to plan, I'll get started," Chariot sighed. "We go in, we talk to the kid, if he's an Exhuman, we bring him in to New Eden. If he's not, we leave. Good plan?"

"Terrible plan!" Targa yelled. "This is an Exhuman we're talking about. You do know what that is, right?"

"Uh." Chariot looked over at me cagily. I smiled back at him in a way I hoped was reassuring. I forgot I was still hidden, and he probably didn't see it. I was so stupid. "You're serious?"

"Of course I'm not serious, it was hyperbole. Just how incompetent do you think I am? But it's still a terrible plan. Standard XPCA protocol dictates that until the danger level of the threat is firmly established, they be treated as the worst-possible case."

"Trust me, if it were the worst possible case, we'd already know. They'd have flipped a city over or killed everyone already. This kid hasn't even left his own house."

"I recommend rappelling on the exterior of the building to circumvent dangers of using expected routes and improve your chances of gaining the element of surprise. A shaped charge will blow in the window, and can be timed with a synchronized detonation of a stun grenade, deployed into the room by boring breaching charge. After the charge and flashbang go off, you will swing into the window, detach your rope, and move to secure the suspect. If they are disoriented by the explosions, their Ramanathan Window is closed and you may detain them with restraints. Otherwise...use of powers is the only thing which works during a window."

"Okay, first off...I am not going to blow up a room and swing in like Tarzan. Second, I don't have any of that gear, and you can't even blame me for that, that's the kind of shit whoever is planning this op should have considered before we were ninety percent of the way there, and third, I am not just going to break in and kill someone."

"Or restrain them."

"Whatever. You want that, send an assassin."

"And just what do you think you are, Chariot? You think the XPCA keeps you around because your powers make you a good talker? No. You are the only thing that can kill an Exhuman through their window. That makes you a killer, and that's what an assassin is."

"Well I'm not. And you can deal with that."

She let out a frustrated noise and Chariot smiled. I wondered if I could make him smile by making frustrated noises too. But that was a dumb idea.

"Okay, I have a new plan," she said finally. The van slowed and pulled to a stop with the crunch of gravel under the tires.

"Talk fast," Chariot said, unbuckling and opening the back door of the van.

"You go in there, try talking to the Exhuman, and die a horrible, excruciating death. I get a reprimand for completely fucking up my first command, we sweep the whole thing under the rug, and I get to live content with the knowledge that at least nobody will ever have to deal with you ever again."

"Sounds good. Let's do it," Chariot said, and looked up the driveway to the small two-story suburban house. He looked at the address, checked his holo, and then opened the waist-high white fence to let himself up the path. I followed, staying hidden. I did not like Captain Targa's plan, even if it was just sarcasm.

"Chariot, wait, goddamn it," she yelled in our ears, but Chariot just knocked on the front door. There was a moment and then some footsteps and then the door opened with a man behind it. He was a little round and had thinning hair but he smiled until he realized who we were.

"Can...I help you?" he asked politely but nervously.

"Hi, I'm Invoked Sergeant Ashton of the XPCA. Do you mind if we come in?"

"Of course, yes, no problem. We?"

"Sorry. Tem, if you please?"

I unhid myself and the man's mouth fell open. Maybe that wasn't what Chariot meant. I had just assumed...afraid I'd messed up, I looked to him for guidance but he was smiling so it seemed okay. Or he was willing to forgive me anyway. Chariot was very forgiving of my mistakes, and only had to beat me a couple of times when I had really messed up.

"Yeah, we're that special new branch of the XPCA, P-Force. I really hope you've heard of us, or else...well...I didn't mean to scare you, sir."

"I can't believe he's just walking in there," Targa hissed in our ears. "This is an enemy stronghold!"

We came inside and sat in the cosy living room while Chariot politely declined coffee for both of us. He knew I did not like coffee. He knew everything, it felt like. He requested a private meeting with the man's son, and that more than anything seemed to worry the man.

"Is he...in trouble?"

Chariot checked his holo again. "Mister Giovannetti, please. We're XPCA, please read between the lines a little."

"He's...a...an…"

"Probably not. But that's why we're here to talk to him. You'll notice we didn't bring a battalion of guns and tanks. Or blow in your windows and rappel in like a crazed amazon." Chariot smiled so reassuringly even I felt reassured. I thought he was very good at talking. If he told me something, I would definitely believe it.

"Of...of course. My apologies. I'll bring him right down."

"Thank you Mr. Giovannetti."

He went upstairs, and a few minutes later, a boy came down. He had shorts on and knobby knees and was a little fat and had short brown hair like his dad. He was maybe eleven or twelve.

"Uh...h…hi?" he asked, not moving from the stairs.

"Peter?" Chariot asked. "Come over here and have a seat, kid."

The boy timidly came over and stood in front of Chariot.

"Show me your powers," Chariot said with a little smirk.

"Nuh-uh. You're the XPCA."

"Yep I am."

"If I show you my powers, you're gonna kill me."

"Not true anymore. Instead we take you to a place with a bunch of other Exhumans to live. Instead of normal neighbors, everyone there is an Exhuman. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Really?"

"Kid, look at my uniform. You think they'd send me out here looking all dapper as this just to lie to you?"

"I guess not."

"So show me some powers."

"Oh...okay. Just a sec." He went back as slowly and carefully as he approached, and went upstairs.

"If that kid's an Exhuman, I'll eat my hat," Chariot said when the boy was upstairs.

"You aren't wearing a hat," I volunteered. I didn't think he forgot, but I wanted to be sure.

"It's just an expression, Tem."

"Oh, okay." Why did I ever open my mouth, ever? Stupid. Ugly. Stupid.

We waited in uncomfortable silence next to each other on the couch while Chariot flipped through his holo. He sighed, and rubbed his eyes, waiting like that until the boy came back.

"Okay," said the boy. "Promise not to freak out."

"I promise," Chariot said.

"Her too."

Chariot looked at me. "I do not know if I will freak out. If he tries to hurt you, I will freak out."

"She won't freak out," he sighed.

"Okay."

The boy stood in front of us with his hands arms fully extended, his palms flat and horizontal against each other in front of him. Slowly, he separated his hands, revealing a small credit chit between them. Once his hands were more than a few inches apart, still separating them, the chit began to float off his palm. In a few moments, it hung in the air between his hands. Chariot smiled.

"Neat," he said. "Want to see mine?"

The boy clasped his hands together and nodded enthusiastically. Chariot stood and went to the far side of the room. He rolled up his sleeves, closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths and then I felt a wind within the room.

He stood there with his fists hanging by his sides, muscles and veins outstanding on his forearms, breathing slowly and deeply in his nose and out his mouth. His eyes were still closed, and he looked focused like I rarely saw him. Usually he had just this simple good-natured expression on his face, a casual smile like he'd just finished petting a puppy, but sometimes he was deadly serious. I liked both sides of him, but this one definitely made my heart pound a lot more. I kept staring at his bare arms, even though I know I was supposed to be watching his powers.

As he stood there, working, the air seemed to draw into him. His short brown hair blew up and whipped around his closed eyes. With one more breath, he unclenched and clenched his fists, and then all around him, one after another, lights opened up. Tall tears in the world leading to a world made entirely of light and warmth, shimmering and glowing and sparking. I had seen him cut apart many things with them, they were his light, like my powers were mine.

More kept appearing, and as they did, they circled him slowly, until I could barely look, it was so bright, but I didn't turn away. I would rather be blinded by him than see anything else. Hundreds of them, spinning and sparking and glowing, and him in the middle of it all.

The kid had gasped when one had shown up, and was now just staring as Chariot walked forward, armored in light.

"Cool, huh?" he said.

The kid nodded. Chariot snapped his fingers and the lights vanished. The room looked so dark now, I had to light it up just a little bit to make it less sad-looking.

Chariot spoke with a hint of annoyance. "You know, when I got my powers, my parents threw me out. They yelled at me and told me they hated me and never wanted to see me again."

"Yeah," the boy said. "Exhumans are supposed to be bad guys."

"We are. The next thing I did after that was kill a couple dozen people."

Suddenly the kid looked a lot more afraid.

"Which is nothing, really. When they tried to attack me and my friends, we killed hundreds of them next. Just spun my swords around and chopped people into pieces." The lights reappeared for a moment and spun around Chariot like a top, but a lot more aggressively this time. "But the XPCA won and made me their servant. They'll kill me if I leave, so I do what they say."

"Chariot, just what the hell are you doing?" Targa asked.

"They'll kill you?" the boy asked, wide-eyed and pale.

"Oh yeah. You asked if I was here to kill you, and I said no, we were going to bring you in. Well, if we don't bring you in, we'll have to kill you instead. That's how the XPCA works. Do what they say, or die."

"Chariot, you are actively subverting the position and authority of the XPCA, which is a violation of article two of the charter law--"

"In fact, right now, I'm here instead of being with two of my friends who need me very much right now. See, if the XPCA wants to jerk me around and send me on pointless missions to test out their new officer, I don't get any say in the matter. My friends might be hurt or dead right now, but I can't do anything about it, because if I do, they'll just kill them and make them definitely hurt or dead."

"I don't want my friends to be hurt or dead."

Chariot smiled in a way I did not like at all. "Well you don't have to worry about that, because when you become an Exhuman, you lose all your friends. My best friend is actually the one who turned me in to the XPCA, and after he did that, he and my dad would take turns beating up my sister because she was the only one who still liked me."

The boy just stood there in silence. I hadn't heard a lot of this about Chariot before, and it was making me uncomfortable, too. I decided to hide just in case anything showed up on my face and Chariot hated me for it.

"You have a sister?" Chariot asked in a cold whisper as he advanced on the seated child. He nodded. "How would you like your sister beaten and violated by your dad, by your friends, just because she was the only person in the world who still liked you?"

The kid looked like he was going to cry. I thought I might too, but from hearing how sad and angry Chariot was inside. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't even do that.

"So my last question is…" Chariot said, almost at the boy now. He backed away, but was suddenly surrounded by Chariot's lights. His eyes went really wide. "...why would anyone…" he reached out and grabbed the boy's hand, and pulled the chit from him. "...ever.." After messing with it for a few seconds, he had it floating in the air off his hand, too. He shook his head. "...want to be an Exhuman."

"I thought...Exhumans are cool," said the boy quietly. Chariot threw the chit at me, and I picked it up. It had a tiny invisible string looped through it, so it could look like it was floating. I thought it was kind of neat. I was surprised that Chariot saw through the trick so easily, and then scolded myself. Chariot is not stupid like I am. He would never be tricked by something like this. I am a bad person for ever thinking he might be. Bad. Stupid. Ugly.

"You said it yourself, me and my powers are pretty cool. Would you trade your family, your friends, your freedom, the safety and happiness of everyone you meet, for the rest of your life...for that?"

The kid looked at the loose cage around him, and then at the house outside of them. He slowly shook his head.

"Then don't play games, kid. Next time someone comes out here for you, they might not care about sparing your life. My commanding officer on this mission wanted me to break into your room, knock you out, tie you up, and drag you away from your parents without even giving you a chance to see them again. Is that what you want?"

He was crying and shook his head.

"Then knock it off. I don't want to ever hear about you telling people you're an Exhuman again, or making up stupid tricks, or anything. Exhumans are bad. Be a good kid instead." He stood up and the bars of the lightning cage disappeared. "Come on, Tem."

I got up and gave the chit back to the boy. The father appeared as soon as we were leaving, so I guessed he was listening. For some reason he thanked Chariot a lot, and we left.

"Waste of my fucking time," Chariot moaned as we buckled back into the van at the end of the block.

"You know, if you just detained him, we would have determined he wasn't Exhuman and released him," Targa said.

"How you can still be so self-righteous when you're completely wrong baffles me, Targa. That was a damn kid. We had reports from parents of his friends who said they heard from their kids that he was Exhuman because he said so. I don't read manuals but I do read briefings."

"I prefer to prepare for the worst-case scenario. You were a legitimate Exhuman, and from what I just heard, you were turned in by your friend at school."

"Yeah, you can fuck right off about my past," Chariot said, his words suddenly cold instead of tired.

"Who's self-righteous now?" Targa sniped. "Why'd you tell him all that personal stuff anyway? If you knew he wasn't an Exhuman, you could have just left, and divulging information which could compromise personnel is never a good idea, even if that personnel is only you."

"Kid wanted to be an Exhuman. If I just showed up and left, all that would teach him is that he needs to try harder. He needed to know he was wrong. Nobody should ever want to be Exhuman."

Targa sighed. "Whatever. At least my first op wasn't a failure. Come on back for debriefing with Colonel Dawn and I can pretend this never happened."

"Yeah, it's been a real treat for me too. I'll make sure to let Cosette know what a useless Central you were."

"Coming from you, that might just get me promoted. Good night. Papa-Foxtrot Central over and out."

Chariot sighed and slouched back in his seat. I copied his position and found it uncomfortable so I stopped.

"How do you think Saga, Lia, and AEGIS are doing?" he asked after we bumped along the road for a while.

"S-s-saga is invincible, right? So they are probably doing that. And Lia was fine. And AEGIS was awake again before we had to leave." I didn't know what to say, so I just told him a summary of what he already knew. I felt stupid for saying it.

"She said she fixed it though, and is still crashing. I've never seen her be wrong about a computer problem before."

"I don't know."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry, Tem."

I wished I could be more help, but I knew I could never be.