“What’s the plan here?” Emily asks.

“You three will stay. Have everything prepared for us to return. Have everything prepared to leave if necessary,” Rachel says.

Emily and Ánh nod.

“What? We’re going!” Abigail looks at Ánh and Emily, looking for their support.

“No. We,” Rachel asks for Megan to come nearer them, “are the ones going.”

“You are walking into a trap…” she looks at Rachel, who turns her back instead, “you all know that, right?” Abigail focuses on Megan’s eyes. How they remain soulless.

“They haven’t busted our door down. There’s a chance that Alex erased everything about you. Maybe they haven’t seen yet you two willingly coming here. If you go there now, everyone will know that it was a lie,” Rachel says.

“And I need to be here to control everything and help out where I can make a difference,” Ánh smiles at Rachel.

“We can help!” Abigail shouts.

“We need to bring them back. The pain they have suffered is enough. We’ll put an end to it!” Rachel elevates her voice without shouting.

“They’ll have no problem killing you both. That’s probably their plan. Not catching you. Kill you. Will you use Megan’s ability to kill them if you have to?” Abigail scoffs.

“We don’t kill.” Rachel looks at Megan.

“This is a suicide mission!” Abigail turns her back and walks toward the door. Turns back and faces them, “just run those odds, Ánh!”

“No, Ánh. Please.” Rachel shakes her head and takes a deep breath. She softens her voice, “we have to do this. I know you won’t understand it, but this is our fight, always has been. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the black market to find a mental controller so I can erase our memories. In case we are caught, you’ll be safe!” Rachel smiles and looks at Megan, who nods, “and tomorrow night, we attack.”

Megan leaves the house. Emily and Abigail leave the basement and head to their room. They start packing. Ánh stays a bit longer in the basement, trying her best to find any information about the perfume factory that can be useful. Rachel goes to the living room and sees Alex’s books.

What a peculiar taste. She sees all the psychology books he has, about egocentrism and putting one’s first instead of the greater good. They couldn’t be any different.

I have you to thank. I wouldn’t know how to read if you hadn’t taught me. Whenever he visited, Alex always brought a book with him. He had the patience to pronounce each word slowly so she’d repeat it. They were lucky to have each other. The heirs of the Five.

How quickly it all changed when she turned seven. How her parents focused more and more on her training. How they started using Alex to read their enemies’ thoughts. Their support for each other would be less frequent. The love remained and deep down, even if it was never said, they both knew that they had each other’s back.

Looking back, it’s hard for Rachel to pinpoint the exact moment where their love fell apart. Maybe if she hadn’t blamed him for not standing up to Matthew and letting him kill her friend Andrew. Maybe if she had forgiven him, understood that standing up to Matthew isn’t something that everyone can do. Alex had that limitation.

Maybe if that resentment didn’t linger when she killed Matthew and Amanda, and Alex hated her for taking them away from him, maybe if that resentment wasn’t there, she would’ve made an effort to apologize to him. She would’ve done everything for him to forgive her.

She would’ve told him that she had his back and he would’ve said the same to her. Maybe. Instead, she let him be. Never apologized, and the resentment grew. Instead, she threw his way, every chance she had, the blame on Amy’s death.

If it was the other way around, Alex, would you go after me? Or would you leave me there to die and run away to save yourself? Part of her wishes that he would. Part of her knows that he wouldn’t. He did erase their memory. Was it to protect us?

She puts her hands on her scars, feels the salience of it. Matthew Moore would use Megan’s ability and kill them all. He would save Diego and Alex while leaving a trail of bodies on its way. Out of pleasure more than necessity.

I’m not him. Whatever it is that’s expecting her, it has to be fought without any blood or otherwise they have lost already.

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“Rachel,” Abigail shows up behind her and closes the door.

Rachel looks at her and takes a few steps in her direction.

“If there’s any sign that we won’t come back tomorrow. I’d say your parents are your best shot. We still don’t know their connection to all of this, and maybe they are just faking it on the videos, Abigail, but it’s your best shot. If anyone can protect you from the government, it’s probably them. Take Ánh, take Emily to them. Ánh has a perimeter of safety set already and she controls the cameras, any movement that seems too suspicious. You leave.”

“How can you do this?!” Abigail’s voice breaks and she takes a moment. Rachel comes nearer. “You are talking about not coming back as if it’s the most natural thing. What’s this plan for us to act without you? How can you be so… unattached to your own life, Rachel? How can you not care?!” She tries to control her voice and keeps it lower.

“This fight…” Rachel tries not to cry, “is everything I’ve ever known. The fight for deviants’ rights. Right now, these people are the biggest threat. They took Alex and Diego. I have to save them!”

“Rachel-”

“If I can’t even save the people that are part of the movement, how can I save anyone else?” She sighs, “I’m not afraid of dying, Abigail. I’m afraid that I’ll fail. I’m afraid that they are dead already and all of this will be for nothing. I’m afraid that our fight ends and we haven’t changed anything.”

“Well, I care if you die!” she holds her nose, trying to stop it from dripping and wipes the tears that begin to form.

Rachel grabs her face and helps clean the tears.

“I can’t have that on my mind, Abigail. I can’t care about coming back. Alex and Diego are all that matter.”

“Well, tomorrow you’ll have forgotten all about it, Rachel. Everything. Even what I just said. So, all good.” Abigail scoffs and refuses to face her.

“No, I won’t. I wasn’t manipulating Emily when I talked about emotional connection and memory erasing. It’s true. You can erase the memories, but you can’t erase the emotions. Which means that I’ll be out there, fighting like crazy to save Alex and Diego, even if I don’t remember anything about them. It also means that I’ll be out there worried about returning home, without knowing why.”

Abigail pulls Rachel closer and embraces her. She rests her head on Rachel’s shoulder and they stay there for what feels like forever.

***

Across town, the young woman with red shoes is leaving the college building. Megan sees her and starts following her.

The street bustles with traffic and pedestrians. Megan keeps her distance.

Should I?

She increases her pace and is within an arm’s reach from the woman. Megan raises her hand and is about to touch the woman’s shoulder when suddenly the woman stops. Megan stops too and looks away.

What are you doing? Should I just say something? Are you turning around?

The young woman grabs her wireless headphones from her purse and puts them on, choosing a song from her phone’s playlist. She continues walking.

Don’t think I’ll ever make it back to you, love. Maybe it’s for the best. Megan turns around and walks the opposite direction. The young woman stops and turns around. Her dark brown eyes focus especially on Megan. She stays still until Megan disappears from her sight.

***

On the next morning, Megan and Rachel leave before sunrise and head to a black market where deviants sell their abilities to the highest bidder. Rachel takes a deep breath and activates her ability. Quickly, she goes through everyone around her until she stops on a mental controller. Gently, she places one hand on her forehead, pretending to have a headache.

Slowly, she starts with every conversation she had with Emily and Abigail. Erased. Then every connection to Ánh. Erased. After, it’s time to remove Megan. Finally, she focuses on every memory connected to the house and how to get there. Every memory that can provide a location. Most memories of Amy, Amanda, Matthew, Alex and Diego erased.

It’s done. Megan grabs her hand, and she recognizes the face from the videos she saw, she realizes that, for some reason, she can trust this person. Megan hands her a handwritten note. It’s her handwriting.

It’s me. I wrote this yesterday. I erased your memories to protect the movement from dangerous people. Don’t absorb any powers now.

You can trust the person who gave you this with your life. She always had your back, and you always had hers. You have to save Alex and Diego, no matter what.

Alex she remembers, she grew up with him, she has some memories of them together. Who is Diego? Diego she saw in the videos, so he’s part of their movement. Is that it?

Your priority is to save them. You save them, even if you have to die in the process.

Megan leads her back to the house with some headphones in her ears playing music and some dark shades that she can’t see anything with it on. She stays like that in their room.

It’s time. Megan ends her meditation.

***

“This will be our viewpoint. We can see the yard from here and it’s the control room. The guns will be positioned on the terrace,” Thomas explains the rest of the members of the Council on one of the floors of the factory, “and we’ll have the drones surrounding the area recording and transmitting to that room. On the level below the terrace, the mental controller, element controller, Saif and the amplifier will be there. We’ll coordinate the attacks through our communicators, so Saif, Aymee, make sure to always have it on.”

“Perfect!” Edward smiles.

On the next day they set everything early in the morning, not knowing when they would come. The shooters in the parking take turns. Saif, Aymee, Aminu, and the element controller sleep tight on the beds that were installed there. The Council gathers in the control room, all but the President of the United States.

It’s ten in the evening when the alarm sounds and they take their positions. There was a breach in the parking’s electric field. The camera picks up the movement and on the monitors they see two people with their hoodies on.

Rachel uses Megan’s ability to make a hole in the electric fence. They pass through it easily. It’s incredibly dark, only the lights from the road are turned on, the factory is completely shut down and the lights in the parking lot are turned off. They take a few steps forward and try to find some hiding spot on the trees there.

Suddenly, bright lights on the building point directly in their direction, making it harder for them to see.

“Lovely. It’s starting,” Megan says.