“I’m not a brute,” Gary said. He weighed it in his hand, and he seemed surprised at how heavy it was. “I’m not the bad guy here.”

I wondered if the implication was ‘but you are’.

“My brother isn’t a villain either,” Byron said. Right, they’d changed to have water available. The motes were gone. “He was a scared teenager and I’ve forgiven him for what he did to me. I feel like that’s where things should end.”

“From my experience with law, there’s a reason victims can’t rescind charges. It’s up to the prosecution, because you need that objective observation and involvement.”

“Victims can testify, though,” Byron said. “If there’s a jury, victims can make their statements. If he’s on trial, this is my statement.”

“You’re not on trial,” Gary said.

“Aren’t we?” Rain asked. “Aren’t we always? We’re being judged and condemned every damn day we’re out there. I was damned for being powerless before I got my powers and damned for being broken after I got them. Family judges us, friends judge us, and it’s usually harsh judgments. You’re being judged and assessed by your audience, Mr. Nieves. They’re always doing it. That’s just how people work.”

“I don’t think you capes are on trial nearly enough, considering the damage you can do.”

“I agree,” Rain said. “It took too long for the Fallen to be stopped. I saw a lot of people get hurt. I’d have liked to see more justice, during that period of time.”

The conversation and its tone had shifted. We’d moved forward, around Ashley, and Gary had stepped forward to pick up the hand. There was an audience, but our tone and our volume was more conversational now.

I spoke up, matching my tone to the conversation, despite my anger and anxiety. “I want to get to a place where there is more justice, where the courts are equipped and able to act against parahumans that cross the line.”

“Even if those parahumans smash their own mothers’ heads into a wall?”

“Even,” I said. I didn’t flinch. I stared him down instead. “It was a miscommunication, me not telling her enough about my power, maybe a bit on her, for not letting me be in a position to tell her. That sounds a lot shittier to say than I think it was.”

“It’s complicated,” Rain said. His old catchphrase.

Ashley wasn’t asking for her hand back, and she wasn’t lifting her arm up to indicate for Gary to give the hand back. I felt like it would be forcing the issue to take the hand I held in my own, cold and otherwise human, like the chunks of the Navigators had been, and give it to her.

She wanted him to offer, and he wanted… I wasn’t sure.