It felt kind of familiar with Cosette on the missions again. She didn't chatter that much, but it felt like, when she was on comms, and an op was ongoing, she was serious, and everything that came out of her was invaluable. Like that quiet friend, whose every word was golden.

Though that was perhaps pushing it. She did lead us in with a diatribe about how bloated she felt and how being sober was possibly the worst thing imaginable. Which was just great fun to listen to while all of us were strapped into our fancy stealth VTOL we'd stolen.

So I wasn't really that upset when we landed nearby, and as the former-XPCA among us were all familiar, the non-combatants established a command post while the fighters mobilized. Lia, Whitney, Cosette stayed; Karu, AEGIS, Saga and myself were going. Moon was kinda doing both, as her powers allowed, and Tem...was being forced to stay because I wanted to talk this out, not vaporize people. I wasn't even happy with bringing Karu along, honestly.

But Karu did things for a reason. Tem did too, but that reason was often "Athan was in danger" which I realized this op might include. So stay she did.

It wasn't long before it felt like we crossed into hell. Where we'd landed was utterly deserted, and our command team had the pick of whatever building they wanted to set up in. But here...it was equally deserted, but not in the same way.

Not in the same way at all.

"God, it's worse than they showed on the news," AEGIS said, bare feet stepping carefully around a slick red puddle. "How could they do this?"

"That's one of the questions I plan on asking," I said. "Probably right after what the fuck is wrong with you."

"These people were not of this nature when last we met them," Moon said, and I could feel her fretting in my head as her purple phantasm pivoted around above me. There wasn't anything to see up there except more death.

"Met them when?" Cosette asked.

"Uh. In New Eden," I answered.

"Moon wasn't with you in New Eden, Chariot," she accused. "Are you lying to me, now?"

"No," Moon said. "I am."

There was a pause, and when Cosette resumed I could hear her confusion. "Moon's lying to me about...what, exactly?"

"Meeting them."

"You're...telling me that, out of the blue, you're randomly making up stories about meeting these Exhumans before. And you're not just covering up a slip of the tongue which would make a lot more sense, about when the two of you were sent out after these bastards before, and you 'couldn't find them'. Is that right?"

Moon almost-shrugged. "It was a joke. Joudan."

Cosette's sigh was hot and unpleasant in my ears. "Whatever. Just keep following the carnage and you'll find them soon enough."

"XPCA has managed some evac, looks like," Lia added. "But they've also lost two strike teams now and are pulling back. What's this lady's power do again?"

"Shadows," Karu answered. She was still with us on the ground to retain an element of diplomacy. I didn't want her starting a fight without us. "She can manifest them to be solid, and yet pass through matter with ease. There is no armor effective against her spears."

"Or powers," I added, remembering our fight beneath New Eden. "Wherever her powers touched mine, they sort of blanked them out."

"So like Blackett?" Lia asked. Saga inhaled sharply.

"No not like him at all. I dunno, it wasn't...I gave it a lot of thought after...when I was in the hospital after...AEGIS died…" I gave her a sidelong glance and she gave me a smile and squeezed my hand. "Uh, that is to say, I thought a lot about everything in New Eden for a while there, and I don't think her shadows cancel out powers exactly. They just...make them slip your mind. They disappear because you forget about them."

"They fade into shadow?"

"I...guess. That seems a little metaphorical."

"But accurate?"

"Sure."

"Point being," Cosette cut in. "Don't let the pointy end of the spear hit you, whether it's made of shadows or not, that's just good life advice."

She seemed too perky for our surroundings. It wasn't the worst Exhuman event I'd ever seen but that didn't mean it wasn't fucking awful. We were walking down the middle of the street, following in their footsteps, and on all sides of us were mutilated bodies and gutters running red and chunky. I could tell which bodies were made by Gil and which by Trish whether they'd been cut cleanly or more...torn apart.

"I don't get it, though. She was so happy. They were raising a family," I said.

"So you did find them," Cosette asked.

"Yes, we obviously did, and you obviously figured that out," I snapped at her. "Jesus."

"It doesn't pay to lie to your CO, Chariot."

"Point being, I don't know why they'd have turned to this. This is brutal, senseless. This is the kind of killing that Exhumans do when they first turn and haven't got a grip on themselves. When they think their lives are over and there's nothing left for them but to just...destroy."

"Then that's it, isn't it?" Whitney asked, her voice only a whisper. "They think there's nothing left for them."

We passed a corner, and further down I saw people in the streets. One was unmistakably Trish, even from this distance, the spear whipping around her as black as a hole in space, and moving too fast for its size. The other was even more unmistakably Gil, his arms splayed into a thousand tendrils, more tree-looking than flesh, if trees undulated and grew struggling bodies instead of fruit.

I pointed at the sky and with some effort, discharged a bolt of lightning straight up, arcing into the endless blue above. The thunder echoed back to us off every building, sounding like a chorus of booms.

As I'd hoped, the two turned and faced us. We started walking forward, as did they.

It would have been awkward if it weren't so horrible. Like when you make eye-contact with someone walking towards you too soon, and both of you have to endure that period of time until you're close enough. Except Gil had at least a dozen people strung up and looking like they were choking out in his...arms, and the streets were littered with pieces of many more.

"Don't like, run or anything," Lia said. "Please, drag it out."

"People are dying, Lia," I snipped, and she shut up.

Finally we got close enough that I could see in Trish's body language that she'd recognized me. She didn't relax or anything, just...seemed accepting that I was there. Gil...I didn't know what the fuck to make of him right now.

"Lightning, hey," she said, her voice flat. "Come to kill us, then? Kinda hoped it wouldn't be you."

"Um, we're here to ask you to stop. You're…" I looked around. "You're killing a lot of people."

"Yeah, we noticed."

Awkwardly, she stopped. After a few more seconds, I wondered if that was going to be the depth of the whole exchange.

"Trish, why are you killing all these people? Gil, can you put them down so we can talk?"

"Nope," he said, his voice just as lifeless as hers. I began to wonder if there was some kind of like, code-X work going on here, and sent that thought to Saga to follow-up on.

Saga shook her head. "No. But you're gonna want to hear 'em out, prolly."

"We're here doing this...because it's the easiest way to get ahold of the authorities," Trish said, looking around with a shrug. "We want the XPCA."

"Couldn't you have...I don't know...called them or something? This is just sick."

Annoyance flashed in her eyes, and Karu pushed me sideways in time to avoid a spear slamming into the ground where I'd been. She took to the skies and raised her arms.

"Karu, no!" I shouted at her. But she wasn't shooting just yet.

"Know this, purveyors of sin. I still my blade only at Ashton's will. Should you lash out again, your verminous lives will be forfeit at my hand."

"She, I wouldn't mind killing," Trish said, and Gil nodded.

"Guys, what the hell? What the fuck happened? Why are you...why'd you attack me? Why do you want the XPCA?"

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She stared at me, and I didn't know you could put that much disgust and hate into a glare. And then she spoke and confirmed what I feared. "Haley and Glenn are dead, Lightning."

I sighed. As much as I wanted it not to be true, I couldn't imagine the two of them out here for any other reason. "How? Why? Who?"

"You forgot where and when," Saga added. I gave her enough of a zap to hurt.

"We don't know. They were safe at home, we thought. But when we came back, someone had busted in and slaughtered them. Butchered them. Worse than we've done to these people, by far. There were signs they tried to use their powers...but they didn't stand a chance. Haley...she tried to throw Glenn to safety...but he...she…"

Her voice tensed with emotion. Gil stepped forward and finished. "She died when he was halfway through a wall. We found his torso before we even went indoors."

"So what?" Moon snapped, her voice abnormally shrill. "You have suffered so it is fair to inflict it on others, it is?" Her mind felt hot on mine and Saga gave us a wary glance. "You are disgusting if that is how you think. You are bad people, you are."

"Who did it, do you think?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" she spat. "The XPCA knew where we lived. They were the only ones who did, the only ones with reasons to want to hurt us."

"Well, I mean, aside from every other fucking standard human being," Saga added. She backed up and raised her hands a little as Trish reared to strike again. "Don't get me wrong, that's a slight on the humans, not us."

"Well we're here to put an end to it," she said. "Gil and I spent a few weeks crying, thinking, talked it over. Trying to understand. And we realized, we're done. We're sick of hiding, of running, of life in New Eden. Without the kids, we have nothing left we care about enough to live for. We're just living for living's sake, and honestly, right now, we'd both rather kill for living's sake instead."

She turned her head to the sky. "You hear me, XPCA fuckers? You took everything from us. Come get the rest, you pieces of shit! We're ready for you this time!"

This was...not how I was expecting this to go. All of us were exchanging cagey glances, especially AEGIS, who seemed more unnerved or shaken than any of us.

Angry, distraught, maybe vengeance-seeking. But this was just...suicide by cop at this point, and looking to inflict as much pain and hurt on the world on their way out as possible. The same pain and hurt they'd felt, I had to think. I couldn't possibly imagine what it must have been like for them to come home and find someone had murdered their kids, not when they'd thought they'd gotten out.

If I'd found the same, with Lia, I could only imagine how I'd feel. I would want to lash out. I sympathized.

"But guys," I said. "There's more to it than this. I know...believe me, I had...I had a very close friend get murdered, right in front of me -- and I can't say that I was nearly as close to her as you were with your own fucking kids, don't get me wrong. But I...after that, I swore to avenge her, even if...even if it like, tore apart my life, fucked the world, everything. I was so consumed by grief and everything right then."

Trish spat at my feet. "And here you are, hunting fugitives like everything's peachy keen."

I shook my head. "Because that happened months ago. I haven't moved on, exactly. I still...I still...hear her dying...when I go to sleep." I felt my face burning as everyone stared at me. This wasn't exactly something I'd planned to bring up. "But the point is, I'm here, I'm standing on my own, for something now. I even faced her murderer, I even...had to let him go. Because if I didn't, it was going to destroy more things, and hurt more people. I couldn't do that to them...no matter how much I wanted to...over someone who was already dead."

"Oh, Athan," AEGIS said, touching my arm gently. I pulled away.

"Yeah. Sure. Too bad you're standing for the XPCA. You done now?" Trish asked. She didn't wait to answer before splintering the ground with another swinging slash.

This time, Moon saved me, leaping in front to take the blow herself, grabbing the spear as it bit into her. She looked surprised for a second, and then faded away into nothingness.

Karu didn't hesitate to keep her word. Mini-missiles streaked from overhead, detonating across Gil with bright flashes, and several of his branching arms burned or broke off, as starbursts of adhesive and ice pounded him.

"I'm...here?" Moon asked in my comms. "Back in my body. She dissolved my ghost, Chariot."

Saga seemed hesitant on what to do, but her mind was made up for her as the spear whipped around, too fast and too dark to be seen, and launched her head clean off. Trish had to jump back as my exoframe launched me from my knees at her, fast and deadly as Karu's missiles.

I was at a huge disadvantage in this fight and I knew it. Last time, I'd only beaten her because I busted all the lights and turned off the source of her powers. Here, with the sun overhead, that play wouldn't work again. But I could still hold her for a time, every time she hit my blades, they exploded in a shower of sparks as I sheared them instead of letting them fade out, and the heat and light from them was keeping her back.

I found myself like Jack, fighting with my eyes closed. My senses were good enough like this, and I wasn't distracted by the constant flashes of my blades sparking. It was an edge she couldn't get.

But it wasn't one she needed. Again and again, I had to lean, barely dodging in time, reading her movements, not the sight of the spear, and that was the only thing which let me keep up with the weightless weapon. That...and my training. Which hadn't come up too much since I'd picked it up, helpful a bit against Dragon, but he was always going to be on another level.

Here, though...I could slip her blows consistently. I could tell, just by how she poised, how she tensed, how she planted her feet, where and how an attack was coming. I could dodge them by inches, giving me the flexibility to step into her attacks, to press my blades nearer to her, keep her focused on them instead of me. If I could keep backing her up, if I could get her entangled in the insane mess which was Gil's arms snaking around and Karu's unpredictable ordinance--

"Everybody STOP!" AEGIS screamed, her voice louder than I'd ever heard. Despite ourselves, everyone paused for a moment, feeling like eardrums and windows were rattling. Trish started to move again but AEGIS turned on her with an accusing finger. "Stop."

"Why should I?" she growled.

"First off, we're not XPCA."

"He was--"

"He's not anymore. He's hunted, same as you. Fucking turn on the news sometimes, please."

"Like I'm gonna believe--"

"And second, I know who killed your daughter. And...therefore, your son."

Trish looked about ready to strike again, but paused at those words. She glanced at Gil, whose arms seemed to have split and multiplied another dozen times, skyward now, only reinforcing the appearance of being a living flesh-tree. But only a glance, her eyes burned as she settled them on AEGIS.

"It's XPCA and I know it. Don't try to talk your way out of this."

"It's not," AEGIS said. She pushed up her glasses. "I...I didn't say anything earlier because I didn't want Athan to be upset. But, well…"

"You need to stop doing that," I told her. "Seriously. I'm not porcelain over here. I'm fighting the world, and that's just kinda how it is."

"When you're fighting the whole world is the last time I should drop bad news on you," she said with a sad smile. "Problem is, with your life...never seems to be a good time."

"Hey," Trish snapped her fingers. "I will kill you. Speak. Or don't." She gripped her spear.

"It was Soran," AEGIS told me. "When he showed up in Vegas, and threw us to safety, that was her powers he'd used. Exactly as you'd described it to me, like some kind of hyperspace throw. I saw him do it to Whitney, he just picked her up and...huck, she disappeared as he threw her. I did the math later, and the direction he threw her in and where we landed, it all lined up. I knew at the time, I just...it never...I probably should have told you."

"Soran?" Trish spat. "The leader of the resistance, Soran? Who did nothing but help us in New Eden? What's he got to do with any of this?"

"Soran steals powers from Exhumans, by killing them," AEGIS explained. "And he had Haley's powers...there's only one explanation."

Trish stood there, face oddly blank but for the fury behind it. Gil, I recognized as waiting for her to make a decision. It's how I'd seen him act in New Eden all the time. Her arms hung at her sides, and for a second there, I thought AEGIS had gotten through to her.

Or...she had. And Trish just didn't care. I didn't know.

"Doesn't matter," Trish mumbled. "It doesn't matter. That doesn't change anything."

"It changes who you should be mad at!" AEGIS shouted. "It changes...what this is all for! You're not going to make Soran show up by killing people in the streets. You're just hurting people."

"It doesn't matter!" Trish shouted again, and I dipped to evade a spear-thrust at my face. "The XPCA failed us and everyone else when they put him in New Eden! These people are fuckers who all deserve death anyway!"

I sighed. "I agreed with the first part of that at least. C'mon, Trish, don't let this be what you die for. You're not nothing. Glenn and Haley wouldn't have wanted this."

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. "You fucker." I danced backwards three, four times as she stabbed it at me with advancing steps. AEGIS pivoted and kicked her in the arm, sending the spear flying, but another was already materializing out of the ground. Before she could lay hands on it, she took another kick, this one to the chest, and this one with AEGIS' engines roaring.

She flew backwards into Gil, who caught her with sinewy arms.

"We are not your enemies," I told her. "But if you keep attacking innocent people, we will stop you."

She pulled out another spear, and then another, her arms raised, her face a veil of fury.

But when she tried to move forward, she couldn't. Gil's arms held her tight. Heavy thunks rained around us as the bodies trapped in his arms fell to the street.

"This wasn't what we talked about," he said, his voice cold and dead, like even the flames of hate in it had gone out. "I don't want to hurt any more people. Not if it doesn't lead to our children's killer."

"Gil, no. You fucker. Don't you give up on me. Don't you abandon me too."

More and more arms wrapped around her, melding and melting together, until soon, it was just the two arms, the two, normal, human arms, holding her from behind in a hug.

"I'm never abandoning you," he murmured. "But I...but they...they had a point. About what Glenn and Haley would want."

"Haley would want them all dead."

"And Glenn would want them to play with him."

She snorted. Not even close to a laugh, but enough apparently. Her spears melted away like the sun only just now touched them.

"We have nothing," she said. "We are nothing."

"You've got each other," Saga shrugged. "Seems like more than most Exhumans have. And hey, if you really want kids--" she thrust her fingers together in a gesture a few times.

"Fuckers," Trish said, her fire going out as well. "Fucking fuckers. Someone's going to pay. Someone always has to pay."

I thought about her words for a second. "Why?" I asked.

"Why what, fucker?"

"Why does someone always have to pay? Why can't people...humans, Exhumans alike, why can't people move on and resolve to stop hurting each other, just because they got hurt?"

I thought about how I'd been forced to tolerate Dragon in Oasis. Even now, the thought of him made my blood seethe uncomfortably in my chest, and my head grew heavy and hot. But I wasn't an animal, I was a creature of reason and of decision. And I knew that fighting him then and there would have probably killed all of us. Still might, even; I wasn't sure we'd ever be completely free from 'their god's' power.

"Because...because...it's not right," she said. "It's wrong."

"And this isn't?" I looked at all the bodies around us, many of those he held weren't moving. Others had gotten up and run. Most were in between.

She looked around as well, and then up at me.

"Fucker," she said. "C'mon Gil, let's go."

"You're not seriously going to let them," Cosette asked. "Not again?"

"I seriously am," I answered. "They'll be fine this time, I know it."

She sighed heavily. "As long as you're prepared for what they do next time, and you're fine with this kind of carnage, all because of you, be my guest. What the fuck do I know, apparently?"