I woke up with a scream, bolting upright, chest heaving. My sheets were soaked with sweat, like my clothes had been by Leviathan. I shut my eyes, holding back the bile that rose in my throat. Holy...holy shit. That had been the worst fucking dream I'd ever had, bar none. Nothing had been so vivid, so visceral as that was.

I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them tightly, tears leaking from my eyes. It was okay, I was okay, it had just been a dream. I took deep, trembling breaths as I slowly calmed down. God, god. I was going to take a break from Worm. If it was getting to me this badly, it just wasn't worth it. Not with another two years of school looming on the horizon.

My bed was empty, which was too bad. I still rolled over and grabbed one of my stuffies, wrapping it in a tight hug against my chest. I was okay, I'd just call in sick today and take the time to settle down. I squeezed Rex tightly and--

I didn't have any stuffed animals.

I practically threw the thing against the wall, a cheery looking whale. Sickening dread clutched at my chest. No. No, no, no, that couldn't be. I forced myself to breathe deeply, fighting against the intense panic that clawed at the back of my, demanding to be let loose in a scream or a puddle of vomit.

Settle. Settle. Breathe. I did, straining my lungs as I took and held one breath for too long, then let it out. I did it again. Again. Fuck! It wasn't working. I bolted up and began pacing, the room feeling tight around me. I felt my force-field bouncing against my skin and demanded it be still. I gripped the back of a chair sitting at a desk, the wood creaking, then splintering loudly.

Shit. That snapped me out of it. I could think, barely, fragmented, but still think. With willpower I thought long lost, I forced a deep breath into my lungs, then back out a few seconds later. And again, again, again. I began to feel bored, but forced myself to keep going. Bored was good, bored wasn't panic. It took ten, agonizing minutes, but my heart rate gradually slowed to normal and I was able to relax my hands and drop the splintered remained of the chair's back to the floor.

A mess I'd have to clean up...eventually. I sat heavily on the bed, running my fingers through auburn locks that hadn't been this long in years. Or...always had been around this length. I pulled my hand away and stared at it, barely visible in the darkness of my foreign room. Not mine...or was it?

I had woken up in this room four times, and every time I had expected to wake up back home. Each day had seemed intensely, impossibly real for a dream. Even now I could remember them, staring into the blood-red digits of my clock as they read 6:15. I had woken up right on time, then ruined it by panicking.

No matter, I could think now and I had to figure this out. A dream...no, like it or not, this was my new reality. Getting home would have to wait til later. I switched on the lamp and frowned. The clothes I'd dumped on the ground yesterday weren't there. I went to the closet and found them neatly folded.

I decided on something else, a pair of black capris and a fairly decent long sleeve shirt. Pulling them on, I found they were more comfortable than the last outfit. I retrieved my phone and went into the calendar for the first time. May 13th. Wednesday. Wait, but that meant...two days til Leviathan arrived. Two days before he killed me. I shivered and fought the urge to dive back into bed.

Instead I headed upstairs, pouring a bowl of cereal I could hopefully make it through without throwing up. Mom greeted me and I grunted in reply, clearing out the basket of the coffee machine and filling it again with fresh grounds. A minute later, I was sipping a mug of the stuff while she headed out the door. I slowly picked at the cereal and supped at my coffee.

God dammit, I had to go back to school, and after that? Maybe...maybe that had been the dream, a premonition of sorts. I knew what was coming, now I had to stop it. That sounded like it might be bullshit enough to be real, considering where I was... Ugh, what a cliché, making the heroine with a secretly OP power kill Leviathan.

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Well, no danger of that here since I already lost. But I did have a second chance...and two days. No fucking way I could become a cape worth a damn in that time, but I had to try. School? Fuck that, who had time to sit in lectures when a localized armageddon was bearing down on us? I had to train and I had to think, think of a way to beat the monster.

At least Mom wouldn't be home til later. How to start then? One important question that remained unanswered was its durability. After all, I had died. Drowned, admittedly, because my field was thrashing about like it was panicking. Freaky shit. Maybe control was more important then, making sure that I was always covered when I needed it.

That was, at least, easy to practice. I just had to move around a bunch while thinking about it, making sure my field remained contoured to my skin. I thought about it settling, and knew after a moment it had. I couldn't exactly feel it, not in any way that made sense. It was sort of like a limb I just sort of intuited was there.

Weird. Why couldn't I do that before, because I wasn't consciously aware? I guess if I didn't know I had a limb, I obviously wouldn't be able to flex it. So it just sort of did...whatever. Whatever Amelia had been doing before...me.

Huh. What the fuck was going on? My earlier panic at still being here had stopped that question from even crossing my mind. I wandered into the living room and sat on the couch, leaving my dishes behind. I stared unseeing at the TV, thinking.

I showed up here three or so days ago, on the thirteenth I guess. How was irrelevant for now, I just needed to take account of what was actually going on. So I arrived in a stranger's body, though not a Stranger's body. I could still remember what Amelia did, with a little effort, and I could still remember me too...mostly.

So how did it work, was my soul riding another body? That was...dumb. And why the fuck Brockton Bay of all places? Why now? Answers to the why were as forthcoming as the how. In that case, what. I was Amelia D'souza, high schooler, born the sixth of September, my...huh. Whatever. My electives were Chemistry, Law, and Textiles this semester. I went to class with Amy Dallon. And I had super powers.

I was leaving aside the...death part, for now. It wasn't so much that I feared it, not anymore, but I just had no idea what it meant here. I apparently died once, either in a dream or actually. Dream seemed more likely...or it would if I had woken up at home. Now it was impossible to say. So, as far as I was concerned that last 'life' or whatever was real. And it'd repeat itself until it didn't.

So, avoid death. I had been doing great up until yesterday, so it wouldn't be too bad. Except for the whole 'living natural disaster' that was going to happen in a few days. I could hunker down in a bunker with the rest of the civilians but...no. Not really. I couldn't sit idly by while people got killed, not if I had the power to do something about it.

And I did. However limited this field was, there was actual power here. I had torn apart that log like nothing, after all. Normal people couldn't do that. And when the fragment of Leviathan's water echo got through Ravelin's shield, I stayed standing when everyone else was knocked to the ground. Hell I was barely able to tell it apart from the rain.

So I was durable, at least more than a baseline person. It was sort of like Glory Girl's power, at least in the sense of where it was in relation to my body. Her control was a simple on/off switch though, mine was a bit more complicated. At least, it would be until it just became second nature. Considering my time line...yeah, that couldn't come soon enough.

I sprang up from the couch with a sudden burst of energy. Enough thinking, at least for now. I was on the clock and really couldn't afford it. Training at home was a bad idea, considering the poor chair in my room. Instead I ran downstairs and grabbed my things before heading out the door. The day was warm, pleasant, with the innocent, white clouds offering a bit of respite from the sun.

Oh to be able to enjoy it, like I had the first go-round. With what loomed large though, it was just a reminder. Still, good weather to be outside in, good weather for training. I decided against jogging, it wouldn't have a meaningful impact in two days, and if I pushed myself I'd be worse off when Leviathan arrived.

So it was a brisk walk down the road to that little park. My park, really. I'd yet to see anyone else here, but that was frankly for the best. I'd nearly been outed last time because of my own clumsiness. Though, being fair to me, I didn't know I was a parahuman. How was I supposed to know I had anything to hide? Oh well, that was then.

Now, I pressed my palms against a familiar fallen log. I had work to do.