In the basement, the entire group gets together. Everyone pretends not to notice how different Diego looks. Abigail and Emily keep looking at him and looking away whenever Ánh or Rachel stare at them. Ánh stands as far from Rachel as she can. One can tell from Rachel’s posture how much it bothers her, even if she tries to deny it.

“Me and Alex have analyzed the children’s memories,” Rachel begins and asks for everyone to sit down.

“They’re gone. Completely. Between whatever it is that the mental controllers did there, the testing, trauma… They remember only their lives before arriving here. Nothing more.” Alex continues.

“That’s probably for the best. They can put this mess behind.” Abigail smiles.

“Go home…” Diego says.

“If only there was a way to send them home.” Rachel looks around the room.

“There is, actually!” Abigail smiles and everyone looks at her with their eyebrows raised. “My parents.”

“What are you saying?” Rachel asks.

“They have access to two private jets. Take the children away from here. Send them home.”

“Abigail, you still don’t know if your parents are part of this or not!” Emily looks at her, “I don’t think they are, but we don’t know.”

“Right… right, but-” Abigail stammers.

“Me and Alex will go with you. If anything goes sour, we’ll leave as soon as we arrived. Talking to them seems like the only chance to return those children.” Rachel says and Alex nods.

“Anyone else can’t enter the forum?” Diego asks.

“No, not just you, Diego. They erased the forum. Completely.” Ánh sighs.

“But you have a backup, Ánh.” Rachel gets up and stands next to the screens.

“Yes, Rachel,” Ánh scoffs. “I have a backup of the posts, but the system protected itself. I don’t have any information about the users. We’ve lost all the contact we had with them.”

Diego stares at the blank screen while the others continue their conversation.

“I am unable to make a new one as well. Me and Stephanie Williams,” Ánh notices Alex’s eyes opening wider when she mentions her name, “don’t have the same power. It works differently. I can’t do what she did.”

“That’s okay, Ánh, we’ll find a solution soon. Right now we have bigger concerns. Have you found Hall?” Rachel asks.

Ánh nods and turns on the screens, “I ran the databases on Hall and asked the computer to show me any relation to Madeleine Clark, Thomas Roberts, Marianne Olsen, Saif Ahktar, Ortiz. These are the results.”

On each screen appears a different name. On the first, Jordan Hall, on the second Liam Hall Jr. and on the third, Edward Hall.

“Jordan Hall, tech billionaire, married Madeleine Clark in 2004. They divorced in 2020.” Ánh shows several articles from tabloids, showing Madeleine in her early 20s, with a wide smile, on a beach in Greece. The headline stating the private wedding of Clark and Hall heirs. The power couple were caught madly in love in Greece.

“Who’s here?” Rachel points to the screen in the middle.

“Liam Hall Jr., friends with Madeleine Clark, again, and Jessica Miller. He’s the CEO of several chains of supermarkets.”

“I’ve seen him on Jessica’s profile. They vacation together every year.” Emily adds.

“And here,” Ánh points to the screen on the right, “Edward Hall. CEO and sole owner of D&H Pharmaceuticals. He did his PhD in the same school as Marianne Olsen. They worked together at university for a few years.”

“Is that him?” Emily focuses on his picture and Ánh nods.

“What’s going on?” Abigail asks.

“I think… I know him… can you confirm?” She looks at Alex.

“Any specific time? That would be nice.” Alex rolls his eyes.

“When I was seven, when I first got my ability. So, June 2008.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Alex activates his ability and slowly filters the years, months and finally days on Emily’s mind. He sees the faces on that day, Emily’s brother, taunting her, Emily’s mother and father proud of her, and three faces, someone he doesn’t know, Saif Ahktar and Edward Hall.

“My dearest…” Alex opens his eyes and smiles wide, “it’s him.” He points to Edward Hall.

***

While Emily and Abigail are in their room and Rachel and Alex make small talk with the children in the living room, Ánh and Diego are alone finally in the basement. Minutes have gone by, perhaps half an hour already, and they haven’t spoken a single word.

“Diego-” Ánh finally breaks the silence. She turns her chair around and faces him.

“If you’re gonna talk about my face, Ánh… just leave it.”

“The side effects of always having your power activated must have been-”

“Don’t. Por favor.” He keeps typing on his laptop.

“I understand that… sometimes when reality is too hard-”

Diego slams shut his laptop and puts it on the desk. “You know nothing, Ánh. You know nothing about this,” he makes a circle with his fingers around his face, “you know nothing about pain. Me and Alex… what we suffered…” he smacks his lips and scoffs.

“I’m here for you…” Ánh goes closer, and he takes several steps back.

“You knew?”

She faces him and tries to run the odds on what he means. Knew what?

“Que la luz era Megan? Did you know?!” He raises his voice and immediately curls his fists.

“No.”

“I’ve been trying to find out the truth about that day for years… and only now I know that Megan was the light! I want to know who did it and why...”

“You know why.”

“No, I don’t. Because Megan only told me she was tricked. That they lied to her. Who’s they, Ánh?”

“You don't know who, but you know why. You know that the community was a threat. That’s how they were seen. They had to be put down. The response was surprising, I’d say. I bet the government thought people would cheer and instead no. People cried for you, Diego. They wanted justice for the Ariston community.”

“What justice, Ánh? The people who did it are walking freely. And if Megan truly died this time, then I’ll never know who they are!”

“We know Megan’s mom is involved. We know it’s the same people that took you. The same people that were there in the factory. We’ll find them, Diego. The question is… will that bring you peace?”

“I want justice, not peace.”

***

Sofie already went for a run, came back, took a shower and now, a little past seven, she sits at her table having breakfast, watching the news. She sees the video of Megan using her third ability.

Megan only shows up closer to eight, still making an effort to walk and sitting down slowly on the chair in front of Sofie.

“Can you still not heal?” Sofie grabs her black coffee and takes a sip while reading on her tablet.

“Can’t use either…” Megan slowly reaches for the fruit basket, and Sofie hands an apple to her.

“Either meaning… death. Life. And this?” She turns the tablet to Megan, showing her the video.

“Death I can’t use since that day… the healing and the light since… that.”

“Care to tell me what happened here?” She gets up and puts the plates and mug on the sink.

“Does mum know that I’m here?”

Sofie laughs while turning around. “wait… ‘mum’,” she imitates Megan’s accent, “is that Marianne?”

“Yes.” Megan takes another bite.

“After everything…” Sofie turns around and washes the dishes while shaking her head. She turns off the water, puts the dishes away and sits down again, facing her sister, “still ‘mum’.”

“She’s my mother, Sof. She’s your mother.”

“No. No, she isn’t. I cut all ties with her years ago. I got a house far from her. Don’t know where she is, if she’s alive or not.” Sofie checks her smartwatch.

“She let you go?”

“After our last conversation, I didn’t give her a choice,” Sofie laughs again genuinely, “her ego was too bruised. When we ran into each other on campus, I pretended not to know who she was. I haven’t seen her since she retired. But truly, what shocks me is that you see her as your mother.” Sofie gets up and shakes her head, “you were a project to her, Megan.”

“Maybe.” Megan finishes the apple. “Still, she gave me the only family I have. So, I’m grateful, really.”

“Well, I’m not.” Sofie takes a deep breath in. “I wish I was never born. At least in that family.”

“Do you wish we’d never met?” Megan looks away.

“Of all people. You are the one who broke my heart the most, M.” Sofie cracks a smile out of sadness. “You left me… twice. On that day, you died, and a part of me died too. And one day… you came back from the dead and my life made sense again. I thought ‘she’ll come back to us’. But you never did…” Sofie sniffles and looks away. “Never.” She laughs again.

“I couldn’t come for you, Sofie. I wanted to. But there wasn’t anything that I could offer you… you wouldn’t even be safe. I’m here now-”

“Because you have no other choice, Megan!” Sofie tries to keep her voice down. “If you could’ve made it to your little hideout, you wouldn’t be here.”

“I want you to live a good life. But I know that you don’t have it! I’ve seen you buying drugs-” Megan faces her.

“You have been following me? What the hell, M? Who do you think you are?!” Sofie says it sharply without shouting.

“All that I’m saying is that you are in pain, Sofie. Drugs won’t solve it!” Megan whispers.

“You don’t get to say anything about my life. If you wanted to be part of it, you are fifteen years too late,” her smartwatch starts beeping, it’s her alarm, “I have a class starting soon… can’t leave the students hanging. There’s food on the fridge, the computer doesn’t have a password, tv, books… Rest.”

“Sofie, let’s please talk later today.”

“I have nothing to say to you!” Sofie grabs her bag and leaves the apartment.

Megan heads to the computer, turns it on. Like Sofie said, it’s not password protected. She notices that there are no personal folders. No photos or videos from vacation or weekends away, only her teacher assistant’s assignments and her PhD project. She turns on the browser and tries to access the deviant forum, only for it to present an error saying that the page isn’t available.

Now what? She knows how to return to the house, but her face is everywhere and without her abilities, she’d be a liability. She can't contact Rachel and the others.

Megan gets up and heads to the couch. She puts the earphones in and plays an ABBA playlist on the tablet. Thirty minutes in, she falls asleep.