Vell carved one more line in his latest rune. His hand was starting to cramp, but he powered through anyway. He carved the last line, and looked at his mimicry of the ten-lined rune engraved on his back.

“Okay. Moment of truth.”

He handed the rune over to Joan. She pressed it into her palm with her thumb and imbued it with magic. If Vell had gotten it right, the rune would activate, proving Vell had discovered the meaning of the enigmatic ten-lined rune.

It didn’t activate. Joan pressed it a little harder, snapping the useless rune in half, and then tossed it into a pile with dozens of other fractured slates.

“Son of a bitch,” Vell mumbled.

“Want to make another go?”

“If I pick up that chisel again my hand will remove itself in protest,” Vell said, as he rubbed a sore wrist. “Let’s check in with the guys.”

Vell stood up, shoved his hand in his pocket, and stepped outside. His friends had broken up into a few small clusters around promising projects.

“Okay, progress report, what are we working on?”

“Magical analysis of the rune’s unique arcane resonance,” Lee said. Kim gave a thumbs up, and proudly displayed the ten-line rune embedded in her own chest.

“Reverse engineering the chemical origins of life for any clues,” Luke said.

“Similar idea,” Cane said. “Tracking the development of the brain to see if there’s any hints in the development of intelligent thought.”

“And over here we’re practicing some minor necromancy to see if known healing or resurrection spells have any similarity to your rune,” Freddy said. Alex waved and held up one of the many earthworms they had resurrected for their experiments.

“All great starting points. Any meaningful discoveries?”

The room was silent for the next ten seconds, until something in the back of the classroom went “ding”.

“I made cookies,” Renard said. As the least intelligent person in the room, and possibly on Earth, Renard had devoted his time to keeping everyone else in high spirits with delicious snacks.

“Well at least someone’s getting something done.”

The team helped themselves to some delicious fresh-baked cookies, and took a break from their not so successful experiments.

“We’re not that far in yet,” Lee said. “A conclusive experiment is rarely accomplished in three hours.”

“Still, I feel like we should be a little ahead of where we are,” Vell said. Where they were was “nowhere at all”. In tangible terms, their research had accomplished a combined total of jack shit. Vell had eliminated a few dozen possible run configurations out of billions, and that was all they had to show for their efforts.

“Maybe we should try ‘borrowing’ something from Kraid,” Leanne suggested. “We’ve got heistmaster Kanya over there, and I’m not contributing much more than a brain for Cane to study.”

“You’ve got a very nice brain, though,” Cane said. It was a weird compliment, but Leanne had learned to appreciate the weird.

“No direct confrontation,” Vell said. “Any way we hurt Kraid, he’ll retaliate a thousand times over.”

Leanne crossed her arms and huffed with frustration. She was strong, but no amount of punching was enough to stop Kraid.

“We want to make progress, let’s get back to it,” Vell said. He finished off his cookie and headed back to his office. “You mind taking over the carving, Joan? I still need to give my wrist a break.”

“Actually...I had a different idea,” Joan said.

“What is- it’s Helena, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Joan said. “I’ve been trying to give her space, trying to let her listen to the smarter people, but I’m her sister. I think I need to force the issue.”

“If you want to give it a try, I’m not going to stop you,” Vell said. “Just don’t lay it on too thick. She’s a little frustrated with us already.”

“Got it,” Joan said. “Also: Would you mind if I borrowed Lee? I could use the emotional support.”

“She’s your girlfriend, do whatever you want with her,” Vell said.

“Thanks. I’ll be right back, hopefully with the second redeemed Marsh sister.”

Joan grabbed her girlfriend by the hand, and Lee followed without question -at first. As she noticed they were walking in the direction of Kraid’s lab, several questions popped up.

“Helena?’

“Yes.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“Mostly.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Not really,” Joan said. “Beg and plead, maybe. I’m going to cry a little and see if that pulls any heartstrings.”

“Questionable strategy, but worth a shot,” Lee said. “Let me know if there’s any way I can help.”

“If you see an opportunity to be helpful, take it,” Joan said. “Otherwise, just stand there and look pretty. And also serve as a reminder that I have worth as a human being.”

“Always. To both of those things,” Lee said. She squeezed Joan’s hand and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as they approached the door to the lab.

The environment inside was even more oppressive than Lee had expected. Most of the school’s thousands of students had been crammed into a single central room, each given a desk not much bigger than a kitchen sink to work with. Though Lee did not have time to investigate as they patrolled the rows, the research materials the students had been given did not look substantial, or even connected in any meaningful way. It seemed like the entire project was just a decoy, or a diversion of some kind, something to keep the students occupied rather than meaningfully challenge them.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“There she is,” Joan said, as she picked up the pace. Helena had a desk of her own, on an elevated platform at the head of the room. While it was much larger than the other students, it was also barren, more of an observation post than an actual workstation. As she observed Joan and Lee racing her way, Helena rolled her eyes.

“What empty platitudes do you want to spout now?’

“Helena, listen to me,” Joan said. “Don’t roll your eyes and dismiss everything I say before I even start talking.”

“I can dismiss it because I already know exactly what you’re going to say, Joan,” Helena said. “What are going to do? Beg? Plead? Cry a little and hope it tugs some heartstrings?’

“No,” Joan said, unconvincingly.

“I thought so,” Helena said. “Where do you get off, thinking you can possibly ask me for anything? Twenty years and the only thing you’ve managed to give me is sob stories and excuses. I’ve been working for Kraid for three, and I can walk on my own.”

She stood up and stepped around her desk, demonstrating the brace Kraid had built for her. Kraid had likely been manipulating her from the shadows for far longer, but Helena had only started openly collaborating with him after Joan had started her “morality” phase. But in that time she’d received more care and more meaningful help than Joan had ever given her.

“I have a real chance at a healthy life,” Helena said. “And I got revenge on the people who hurt us.”

Joan stammered a few times, but couldn’t get out a reply. Lee could.

“Did killing my parents make you feel better?”

“Honestly, even I was surprised at how happy it made me,” Helena said. Whoever said revenge was bad was a sucker.

“I didn’t ask if it made you feel happy,” Lee said. “I asked if it made you feel better.”

This time Helena was the speechless sister. Lee pressed the advantage.

“Kraid gave you petty revenge and a way to prop yourself up,” Lee said. “You want to talk about empty platitudes? Kraid is the one giving you superficial promises with nothing to back them up.”

“Nothing?” Helena scoffed. She held her arms wide and showed off the brace she wore again. “Do you see this?”

“I do. Now see this.”

Lee snapped her fingers. With a fizzle, the exoskeleton powered off.

“This shit again,” Helena mumbled, as she fell forward. She didn’t hit the ground, thanks to Joan catching her.

“Do you think Kraid would catch you, if you fell?” Lee asked. “Far more likely he’d watch you hit the ground and laugh.”

Lee snapped her fingers again, and turned the brace back on. Helena pulled herself out of Joan’s arms and stepped back.

“Kraid is the devil, Helena,” Lee said. “Perhaps worse. I’ve met the devil, and he’s at least polite. Kraid will only ever give you want you want, maybe an occasional taste of what you need. But never everything. Never enough. In the end, he will disappoint you.”

“Oh, disappointment, that’s rich, coming from you people,” Helena said, glaring at Joan. “Like you haven’t disappointed me. You were supposed to be my hero! You were supposed to do whatever it took, but one year with these idiots and you scrap half of everything you ever worked on!”

“Because it was wrong,” Joan said. “I can’t fix you by breaking other people.”

“You’re not supposed to care about other people,” Helena snapped. “You’re my sister, you’re supposed to love me!”

The sudden shout echoed across a room of several thousand people. Some of the students froze and looked up. Helena cringed and tried to pull away from their sudden attention, but Joan grabbed on to her and held her in place.

“I love you, Helena,” Joan sobbed. “I’ll never love you any less. I just learned to love other people more.”

Helena looked her sister in the eyes, and froze there for a moment. Then she made a gurgling sound and fell backwards into her chair. Joan let her go, and rolled her eyes.

“Great. I thought we were making real progress there.”

“What? Is she throwing a fit or something?”

“No,” Joan sighed. She reached into her bag and pulled a small packed kit, and started to unpack a syringe. “She’s just dying.”

“What? ‘Just’ dying?”

“Yeah, stress must have got to be too much for her,” Joan said. “Tore a hole in her heart. It happens sometimes.”

Helena laid back in her chair and twitched, turning pale as she did so.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“She will be if you stay calm and help me,” Joan said. She readied the syringe in one hand, and a sequence of runes in the other. “Grab her by the shoulders and keep her torso steady.”

Lee did so. Joan placed the runes on Helena’s chest, and most of her torso turned transparent. Joan stared right through her ribcage and identified the swollen part of her heart. She jammed the syringe through Helena’s see-through chest and started draining blood from the affected chamber. While she slowly drew blood with one hand, Joan activated another part of her rune sequence with the other. A faint magical glow coated the damaged portion of Helena’s heart.

“Is that good?” Lee said. She was shaking despite her own attempts to keep Helena steady. Helena’s breathing was strained and faint, which did not inspire confidence. “Is it working?”

“Steady, Lee,” Joan said. She withdrew her syringe and magically sealed the drainage site behind her. “Stick your finger right there on her third rib and cast a spell to give her a faint electric shock. No more than one-thousand volts.”

“Are you sure that’s enough?”

“If you’re not sure you can do it, run next door and grab the defibrillator out of the hallway, third one on the right,” Joan said. “Probably none in this lab, given Kraid’s usual regard for health and safety.”

“No, I can do it,” Lee said. “It’s just-”

“Then do it, Lee,” Joan demanded. Lee obeyed. She pressed her finger against Helena’s chest and delivered a mild electric shock. Helena twitched once, and started to take deep, gasping breaths.

“Does that mean it worked?”

“It worked, Lee,” Joan said. “Thanks.”

“Oh, good. You’re welcome,” Lee mumbled. She had saved the world a few hundred times, and somehow that was still stressful. Saving lives with no do-overs was shockingly tense.

Joan packed up her syringe full of blood and removed the runes from Helena’s chest, rendering it opaque once again. Helena clutched at her sternum and managed to steady her breathing.

“That was new,” Helena mumbled.

“That’s happened to you thirty-seven times,” Joan said.

“I meant what you did. The transparency rune. That was new.”

“And?”

“And the last time that happened was...before,” Helena said. Just a few weeks before Helena had left for school. Not long after that, all of her deceptions had been revealed. She and Joan had gone from sisters to enemies.

“What about it?”

“Why did you keep working on it, after everything?” Helena said. “You went soft. The soft people are usually the first to decide I don’t deserve help.”

In Helena’s extensive experience, the “good” ones were usually the first ones to get frustrated with her. They wanted a picture perfect, prim and proper little cripple they could pity, not a sarcastic, sometimes scathing bitch who wanted results more than feel-good stories.

“Because you’re my sister,” Joan said. “And because I’m a- because I’m trying to be a good person.”

Joan put the syringe away and cleaned her hands as she looked at her sister.

“It’s help,” she continued. “You don’t have to deserve it. You just have to need it.”

Helena cleared her throat. For some reason, her heart was more sore than usual.

“Joan. You should stay here,” Helena said. “You’d be fine. Kraid would think it was funny if you switched sides again. He’d let you live.”

“We both know he wouldn’t.”

“I would, actually.”

The light shimmered in shades of green and black for a moment as Kraid’s invisibility spell dissipated. He’d been leaning on the corner of Helena’s desk for a while, apparently.

“Kraid. I assume you were standing there watching Helena die, then?”

“You had it handled,” Kraid said. Helena ignored a pointed glare from Lee. “To the point, Joan, I would be very happy to accept your offer of re-employment with Kraid Tech, and even offer you the same sweetheart immortality deal as your sister. There is, however, one condition.”

Kraid pointed at Lee, and then dragged the fingers of his blackened hand across his throat.

“Hmm,” Joan said. “One second.”

She reached into her purse, pulled out the syringe full of blood, and hurled it at Kraid. Shards of plastic bounced off his brow as blood splattered all over Kraid’s face. Some of the spectating students gasped. Kraid just licked his lips and chuckled to himself.

“Figured. No second chances, Joanie,” Kraid said. He turned a bloody face to Helena. “Sorry your sister doesn’t love you as much as she loves her girlfriend. Bummer.”

Kraid snapped his fingers to vanish the rest of the blood and then walked away. Lee grabbed Joan’s wrist and pulled her towards the door. As much as she appreciated the bloody gesture, she did not want to try Kraid’s patience, or Helena’s, any further. With one last mournful look at her sister, Joan followed Lee out the door. Helena got to stay behind, with nothing but her own heartbeat for company.