I stared up at the white ceiling.

It turned out that having three schools’ worth of hero students and teachers was good enough to take care of the villains. I’d been tired, really tired, after we dealt with Paragon and Frankenstein that I almost collapsed.

I wasn’t really hurt though, no. Mostly scrapes and bruises and a jaw that was still hurting.

Or maybe it was all just in my head. Like the pain I felt in my neck whenever I thought of Paragon. To be honest I couldn’t believe I was still sitting there. That we had done it. In both my lives, he’d been an incalculable force, one that always seemed so much above us all that it wasn’t easy to picture him defeated. Even if I’d seen it with my own eyes, not once, but twice.

I looked down at my hands. Clenching and unclenching them, flexing my fingers. Not too long ago, I’d been terrified of them. Of everything that had to do with my power. I thought back to my talk with Maria. I hadn’t really had the time to process it, what with everything that was happening, but it, combined with getting all of Jacob’s memories, had really helped me.

I was confined to my room while everyone else was being checked up, and while everyone else was making sure the campus was secure.

But would we ever be? Paragon had escaped before–hell, he’d managed to somehow come in my dream–without realising it, I wrapped my hand around my neck–hurt me in it. For all we knew he would do so again.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.

“Hello?” I said, sitting up on my bed.

Birgit came in. Her eyes flicked around the room.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. It was stilted. The way she sounded, the way she stood–with her arms stiffly at her side and her shoulders tenser than anything I’d ever seen her be like.

“I’m fine,” I said with a smile. She didn’t look convinced. “Honestly. I’m just–it’s all a bit hard to believe. You know?”

She nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it almost instantly.

A beat of silence followed.

“It’s not easy,” she said, her face set in a frown. “It feels like there’s this-this expectation. This way that things are supposed to be. And I–For fanden, I just-I can’t stand that. But-”

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

“Oh, thank God, there’s a but,” I said, putting on my best teasing smile.

“Shut up, idiot!” she said, but her frown got a little less intense. Her stance a little more relaxed. And my smile a little more genuine. “But when I saw him grab you I thought-I thought-”

“I’m here.” I got up, placing my hands on her arms. “I’m here. You don’t have to do this. Not for me.”

“No,” she said. Angrily. “For once in your life don’t look down on yourself. Just-just let me say what I have to say.”

“Of course.” I nodded at her, but I still didn’t take my gloves off.

“I didn’t want to go home at Christmas. Put on a show.” Her voice was now bitter. “Be the perfect little girl. I thought–I thought it’d be similar if I came with you. With your parents not knowing what was going on. With you remembering a whole relationship I’d forgotten. But-”

“Oh, thank God, there’s a but,” I said once again, being overly dramatic.

“But when I saw him grabbing you, I just-just shut up and hug me.” Tears had now pooled in her eyes, and she wrapped me in a hug.

“Alright, miss hugaholic.” I leaned into it, wrapping my arms around her. “You don’t have to say everything now, you know. God knows I understand something being too difficult to explain fully.”

“I’ll spend next Christmas with you,” she said, muffled by my shoulder. “I promise.”

I chuckled at that. “Let’s not focus on next Christmas. Let’s just take it one day at a time. Like we did before.”

We separated and nodded at each other. But before we could say anything else another knock was at my door.

It was Ivan, Ahmed, Beatrice and–oddly enough–Maria. A grumpy looking Maria, but Maria nonetheless.

“They dragged me,” she said, probably realising what I was thinking.

“She was pacing around outside,” said Ivan, his smirk being directed at her this time.

“You did a good thing,” she said. “I may not forgive you for everything that happened, but I can recognize that.”

I let out a small smile at those words.

“Everything is alright outside,” said Ahmed. “The villains are all either captured, or they somehow escaped off island. As for Paragon, he’s…neutralised. Back in his prison, and weaker than he’s ever been. He won’t bother anyone again. Not for a long time.”

“Which is why we’re here.” Beatrice put a robotic hand on his shoulder. “We thought you’d want to celebrate. Will, Manos and Sofia are waiting for us. How does a free lunch sound?”

I felt my smile widen even more. This was a life I could never have imagined a year ago. Surrounded by friends and comrades.

And half a year into Atlantis.

Half a year of training, of rivalries. Half a year of fighting, and ultimately defeating, villains.

I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. And I was sure that not everything would be as good as it felt right now.

But, as cheesy as it sounded, for the first time ever I was excited to see what the future had in store for me.