What was it that made a night memorable?

Casey found herself wondering that as she sipped her too-sweet milkshake while Ines sat opposite her, talking animatedly about their plans for next week.

“And then we could go horse riding! It’ll be so much fun. I know how much you hate them,” her lifelong friend was saying, staring into the distance with a smile. No doubt visualizing Casey on one of those… creatures.

“I’m vetoing that,” she replied. It would certainly be a memorable experience, but not in a good way. “We’re going somewhere else. Either the movies or, like, a place with better drinks than this. No horses.”

“But Caseeeeey,” Ines whined. “The ponies are so cute. You need to give them a chance.”

She swirled the monstrosity of sugar and dairy in her hand. “I said no. Your sales pitching skills need work.”

They were currently seated in one of the restaurants near the shopping mall. Outings into the district were what they often did together when they were free. Even if the location Ines had chosen left a lot to be desired, the upside was that few people came here at this hour, or at any hour really. It was a relatively quiet evening, all things considered. Normally she would appreciate that. This time, though, it was more to distract herself than anything. And this was proving a bit too routine, too normal for her to completely live in the moment.

Because she knew something was happening tonight. What bothered her was that she had no way of knowing the specifics. Father had stonewalled her when she tried to pry for details, and Aiden hadn’t been available to begin with. So that left her spending the day with Ines, as usual.

“I’d give it more consideration if we invited more people,” she continued. “I still wouldn’t do it, but that kinda thing is always more fun as a group, y’know?”

Ines gave her this faux-hurt look, putting a hand over her chest. “Am I not enough for you?”

Casey rolled her eyes.

Before she opened her mouth to respond, an alert went out on every phone in the vicinity, including her own. The trilling beep prompted her to reach into her pocket and see what was going on.

When she did, a spike of fear ran through her.

Rampaging villain.

This practically never happened. Villains attacked all the time; it was the way things were, both in Apexia and many other parts of the world. But for an actual alert to be issued across the entire district? She didn’t know if there was precedent for that. She definitely hadn’t experienced it herself, that much she could say.

Ines took her by the hand and led her to the exit of the restaurant, onto the streets. People streamed out of the nearby buildings, having received the same warning and getting to safety as quickly as they could.

Distant rumbling shook the earth, not enough to actually cause anyone to lose their footing but more than enough to cause increasing levels of distress. People were beginning to panic in earnest now that the first tangible sign of the threat had made itself known. Parents shielded their children, others got on the phone with their loved ones, and there came a general uptick in tempo of the fleeing crowd away from the danger zone marked by the alert.

In all the haste, Casey barely had time to process the rapid shift in circumstances. The nerves were starting to get to her. What was going on? Were they going to die? Where was her family? They must have known what this was about.

Stampeding hordes of fleeing citizens built up around them when a particularly loud tremor arrived, threatening to swallow them up in a wave of desperation and fright. Some person she couldn’t see knocked her drink out of her hand, spilling it all over her shoes and the pavement. Another bump on her back, and Casey was stumbling forward while clutching the familiar hand so she wouldn’t get lost in the press of bodies.

For all of a moment.

Suddenly, they had space. People moved around them as if they didn’t exist. No, that wasn’t right. They were being avoided like they were part of the scenery that wasn’t worth paying attention to. As if the small circle they were standing in was a rock in a riverbed, everybody else flowing around it like water.

The sheer oddity of the situation made her take an embarrassing amount of time to get her bearings and realize they were under the effects of a power. But she didn’t see any heroes around, not as she inspected any specific individual for noticeable costumes and not when she turned to the evening sky. And they were isolated, which must have meant her father or someone he knew was behind this.

Turning to her side, she said, “Do you see any…”

Upon seeing her best friend’s face, she trailed off. She found none of the playful grinning she was used to, nor the fear she could reasonably expect in this situation. Instead, there was a look of utter concentration. Ines surveyed the surroundings with a critical eye and tugged her hand again to move into the crowd, people once again bizarrely parting for their passage without being aware of it.

Casey glanced around, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. And trying to make sense of the source. “Ines,” she said slowly. “Are you doing this?”

Ines didn’t respond right away, just kept moving forward with that same intense expression, her grip on Casey’s hand firm, almost unyielding. Casey didn’t resist but let herself be pulled along, her mind spinning as she tried to make sense of what was happening.

She had known Ines all her life, or rather she thought she had. This was the girl who fondly teased her when she got stuck on math homework, who insisted they go shopping every weekend, who had been in her life longer than she could remember, before kindergarten. The idea that she might be… more… had simply never crossed her mind.

“Ines,” Casey repeated, louder this time, a thread of frustration slipping into her voice. “What’s going on? Are you…?”

Ines looked at her then, a flicker of something like regret crossing her face. “Just keep close, Casey,” she murmured, voice low and calm, a tone so at odds with the whirlwind of chaos around them. “We don’t have time.”

They didn’t have time for what? The confusion, the fear, was gnawing at Casey, but she bit it down, kept pace with Ines, who was guiding them further away from the rumbling and back toward the estate.

As they walked, she finally had enough clarity to take stock of their surroundings. The buildings around them were unfamiliar in the dark, lit only by dim streetlights and the occasional flash of headlights as others scrambled away. People had mostly emptied the area, leaving only the distant echoes of alarms and the muffled roar of what she assumed was the villain wreaking havoc somewhere far behind them. The streets themselves were a surreal contrast—eerily quiet in the immediate radius, as though the city had decided to swallow up the sound before it reached them.

Pursing her lips, Casey yanked her hand away. “Stop,” she commanded, slightly out of breath. She was in decent shape herself, but Ines didn’t seem the slightest bit winded.

Their eyes met, and whereas in other scenarios she might be able to tell how Ines was feeling from a glance, she didn’t trust those expressions anymore.

That short black ponytail, the dusky brown skin, those approachable features, Casey took them in as if seeing them for the first time, for some discrepancy in the facade. She couldn’t find any, leaving her feeling lost and uncertain.

“Explain,” she ordered.

Ines started to talk, then paused. More deliberately, she began. “As you saw earlier, I used my power to get us away. I won’t deny it. The cat’s clearly out of the bag.”

She wasn’t sure how the powers in question worked, though at the moment that was irrelevant. “How long?” She didn’t need to elaborate on her meaning.

“Since we were four.”

The words struck her like a physical blow, and she screwed her eyes shut, breathing heavily as she went through years and years of memories in her head.

As she did this, Ines remained silent, giving her the much needed time to recover from having her entire life upended. Which parts of their past were genuine, how much was real, how much was carefully curated lies? She thought they knew each other. Their parents knew each other.

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Their parents…

Her eyes widened. “You’re with Father. This whole time, you have been.”

The apologetic look she got confirmed it.

Now things were beginning to make a terrible sort of sense. She’d always thought her father was sometimes rather lax in the security measures he took for her safety every time she left the house. She wore her shield device against lethal damage, but was otherwise completely vulnerable and free. Or so she’d thought.

“All those times you said you had to do something at home, or whenever you disappeared because of an ‘emergency’ with your parents, you were, in truth, working for Father,” she stated, searching Ines’ face for any trace of the friend she grew up with. “Doing his dirty work, I take it? The things he doesn’t want me to see? Things I’m too delicate and stupid for?” Her voice had risen to a near shout at the end.

“I’m doing this so I can always look out for you,” Ines clarified softly. “I had the honor of being chosen to keep you out of harm’s way. I trained day and night to become the best protector I could be, and I don’t regret it for a second.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Just tell me,” she said, the words raw in her throat. “How many people know?”

“...Basically everyone in your dad’s organization besides you,” the liar admitted with a shrug.

“Even… even…” She couldn’t get the words out, she felt so betrayed.

That drew a wince from the exposed superhuman. “I’m ninety percent sure he figured me out, yeah. Sorry.”

“So my whole life you’ve been- I can’t…” Casey huffed. “Ines?”

“Yeah?”

“Stay away from me.”

She started running.

“Casey, wait!” her apparent sworn guardian called out. She didn’t listen, her heartbeat pounding in her ears, drowning out everything else as she ran down the unfamiliar streets. Anger and confusion propelled her forward, each step taking her further away from Ines, further from the traitor. The world blurred around her, every stride pounding the bewildering truth deeper into her mind.

She didn’t have a destination, only a single need: distance. She sprinted blindly, driven by a turmoil so fierce that she barely noticed the ground shaking or the growing sound of sirens up ahead. She was going in the direction of the danger. Of the supposed rampage she’d been running from mere moments ago.

Finally, when her lungs burned and her legs began to shake, she slowed down and stumbled into a narrow, dim alleyway, hidden from the streets. Here, the sounds of the distant disaster were muted, and the cold air wrapped around her as if sealing her in a space of her own making. She braced herself against the cold brick wall, gasping for breath, pressing her palms to her temples as she tried to still her spinning thoughts.

Nothing in her life was real, she didn’t know who she could trust. Hell, she didn’t know anyone, period. All the people in her life insisted on wearing masks and running circles around her. For her own good, they said. Why should she believe that? She never got a say in anything. Whatever instances she could recall of her father granting her permission to do something related to his businesses, she questioned. How genuine was he being, and how often did he just humor her, never expecting her to get anywhere meaningful?

She hated it. She hated having nobody to turn to and confide in. The bedrock was gone, and now she was falling endlessly down a bottomless pit.

Mother would have known what to do. Casey wished she were here, to give her a hug and call her Little Swan again. But that time was over.

In this alley, she was alone. Obviously not for long, since her whole family was in on a dozen schemes she didn’t know about and would make her look ignorant and stupid when they found her, the same as ever. Fuck that.

Why was she the only blind one?

In another world, she found the answer.

*******

Burnished gold shone in the cosmos, casting a girl in its warm glow. She floated through the infinite expanse, at the center of a constellation. The stars called to her, whispering of everything and nothing. She wanted to respond, but she had no voice, only her eyes.

She tried to reach out, but her fingers drifted soundlessly through the stardust, passing through shimmering light that she couldn’t grasp. Her whole body felt different, like she wasn’t flesh and bone anymore. She was something else here, something weightless and fluid, suspended in a reality that obeyed no rules she recognized.

With no other way to convey intent, she focused on one star, willing it away.

Under her gaze, its fires sputtered, shrinking until it was just a faint ember in the vast darkness. She felt a pull within her, a thread connecting her to this star and, somehow, to all of them.

One by one, her gaze fell upon different stars, each flickering in response, as though they were alive and attuned to her presence. She was drawn to their individual glows, their colors. One a deep blue, another a molten red, each a thread in a web she now realized she was woven into. She could sense them, their vast distances, their immense lives, each bound to her by a resonance she couldn’t comprehend.

Nevertheless, the girl studied them, taking in the delicate weave of the constellation she floated within. While she didn’t know its shape—she could see but a fragment—it felt like part of her. A piece of her she’d been missing her whole life. These stars were patterns written in a language she had not learned, a language that was both ancient and new, waiting to be deciphered. One that she would know, in time.

Here, in this incalculable universe, she was little more than a speck, yet her existence stood out amongst the incandescent orbs. Her heart burned unlike any other. None were unknowable to its flame.

The stars burned brighter.

*******

Casey gasped as she woke, eyes snapping open then darting back and forth, trying to remember the vague images and impressions she had experienced, akin to a dream. She was unsuccessful for the most part.

Which way was home, she wondered. Then everything came back to her. She didn’t want to be there right now.

Light spots clouded her vision. She blinked to clear them, but they stayed. Blinking more furiously, the stubborn things still wouldn’t go away. It was as if she’d stared at the sun too long and it left temporary imprints on her retina, except these weren’t fading.

“Hello? Are you alright?” asked someone behind her.

Casey rubbed her eyes and faced the new arrival, hoping she didn’t look as confused as she felt.

An unfamiliar woman stood at the mouth of the alley, staring at her with obvious concern. Skinny, redhead, dressed for comfort. Perhaps late thirties or early forties.

The woman reared back, bewildered. “Your eyes!”

Her eyes? What was wrong with them? Was she injured? That would explain the spots. Aside from the fact that the spots had changed places. They didn’t move with her eyes, they were fixed points in space. Some moving this way and that, far removed from her, one approaching quickly.

When she zeroed in on that star, she saw it had a shadowy quality to it, aptitude for obscuration. But she didn’t want it to come closer, afraid of what would happen. So it flickered.

“Listen,” the woman said at her lack of response. “I don’t know if you’re an off-duty hero, but I’m looking for my son. Have you seen him? He hasn’t been picking up his phone. He’s about this tall, brown hair, my eyes.”

Hero? What did she—

Oh.

Those stars around her, they were part of her power, or targets? And her eyes were probably giving some visual clue that it was active.

She had powers. However they worked.

“And your name is…?” she attempted, for lack of anything better to say about her abrupt concerns regarding secret identities.

“Emily Allister.”

Casey froze. This was Allister’s mother. It had to be. And now that she looked closer, the family resemblance was clear.

“What’s your name?” Emily asked.

“Casey,” she supplied dully.

And what a predicament she was in now. If his mother was asking around about him, then she didn’t know he was in costume right now, presumably fighting supervillains. This poor woman had no clue he had powers and was worried sick about him after the announcement.

Such a mess.

“I do know your son, he’s in some of my classes. I haven’t seen him tonight though,” she lied, feeling like garbage for doing so. He owed her one for this, she would tell him that next time they spoke.

It was hard to watch the emotions play out on her face. Surprise, disappointment, resignation.

“But I can look,” Casey added, guilt winning her over. The least she could do was make sure he made it out of there. “I was searching for some people anyway.”

Then she was practically bowled over, swaying from side to side as Allister’s mother squeezed her ribcage with impressive force. And she didn’t know if it was the initial rush of emotion from gaining powers, the loneliness she felt in the wake of the bombshell that was just dropped on her, or natural charm, but Casey returned the hug, clinging on for dear life.

They separated, and the woman gave her a teary-eyed, “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” she brushed it off, uncomfortable at how open this lady was. Though she felt like she’d needed this. “But I should, like, go. Wouldn’t want to waste more time than necessary.”

“Right. Here’s my number. Give me a call if you find him.”

Pocketing the slip of paper, Casey started walking away.

“And Mrs. Allister?” she said, looking over her shoulder.

“Yes, what is it?”

She gestured to her face, eyes returning to normal. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”

Emily raised her hands in surrender. “Of course! I didn’t see anything.”

Casey nodded, the brief connection grounding her in this strange new paradigm. She had powers now. Secrets of her own, answers to chase down, and maybe, if she was lucky, some truth to finally uncover. For once, she held something they hadn’t predicted.

At least she could be sure no one saw this coming.