Now she was here and… somehow she wasn’t upset.

“Come in,” her other self said. “I can’t believe you did that to your hair.”

“It’s so much lighter,” Ashley said.

She stepped into the apartment. The device at her ankle beeped.

Supposedly, even if she used her power to blast it, the charge would take off her foot. The same would happen if she tried to run.

She turned to look at her keepers, the men from the Patrol. The goofy boy in uniform that wanted to impress Victoria.

Past them was the complex. With so much of the world empty, their wardens had decided to build a small contained facility in the middle of nowhere, with no civilization for a long, long way in every direction. Powers helped to close the gaps.

“Good luck,” Jester said.

“Take care, Jester,” she said.

She watched them walk away before shutting the door. Her hand was stiff as she pushed the door shut.

She carried her box through the apartment to the kitchen.

“We have so much catching up to do,” her other self said. “Tea?”

“Oh, you have tea. That’s good.”

“Sit. Put your things down. You do know we can share clothes, you didn’t have to bring your own.”

Ashley sat, setting the box on the table. She could hear the television. It had been left on in the background.

She hadn’t even had a television at her own apartment.

“I brought some favorites. You can wear them too, if you don’t cut them with those fingers of yours.”

“Criticize me when you can move your hands properly,” her other self said. Long bladed fingers plucked a teapot from the top of the cabinet. “I don’t use my teapot much. I put the teabags in a mug.”

“I did the same thing.”

“I take it you lost your trial?”

“The pre-trial proceedings,” Ashley said. “Lose is the wrong word. They sent me here because we get along, and because space is limited. Too many parahumans were arrested recently. One of them should be joining this complex.”

“Ah, you have a friend.”

“I have a lot of friends,” Ashley said. “I’ve had… a lot of good days, with bad days I can manage because I know more good days are coming.”

The other Ashley made an amused sound.

“I’ve wondered,” Ashley said. “Did the scientists reach out to you too?”

“They tried. I wouldn’t cooperate with them.”

“Then… you got what I was doing just now. Is that only because you come from the same place I do?”

“You want to know if we share anything.”

“Do we?”

Her other self ignored the question at first, but it didn’t feel like an insult. Ashley knew what it was to digest, to consider.

“I have memories that sharpen,” her other self said. “A small few are memories from the files.”

“The files,” Ashley said. “Edict and Licit.”