“They don’t want seeds or other contaminants from foreign worlds getting crapped out, taking root, and becoming invasive,” Sveta said. “You go to the bathroom in a bag and bring the bag with you until you go home or they can dispose of it in a careful way.”

“Oh no,” Tristan said. “Please tell me this isn’t a thing.”

“Or you don’t eat for a certain number of hours prior and flush your system,” Miss Militia said.

“Uh,” Tristan said. He looked at me and I nodded.

“Best option is to keep your visits short,” Vista said.

“Thank you for saying the first sane thing. Short visits are doable,” Tristan said.

Miss Militia looked us over as she talked, “I talked it over with Warden leadership, and we’re looking to bring Breakthrough over for a short duration stay. Vista, Golem, and myself would be joining you. Natalie’s presence will help temper their fears.”

“To make apologies for my sister,” I said. “Like we were just talking about people forcing us to compromise on their behalf.”

“That’s true,” Miss Militia said.

“Right now, what I want are solutions. Not mitigating the damage, coping, making do, and just trying to get through today and reach tomorrow. I want lasting answers. We’ve got Teacher looking over our shoulders and I’m still holding out hope that we can find a way to deal with him, because the constant meetings that go nowhere are wearing on everyone’s sanity. But I also want to deal with the criminals, I want to deal with the other worlds. I want to get out ahead of what happened to Dauntless and to the broken triggers. Can you tell me that this is that?”

“A permanent or long-term solution?”

“My sister,” I said. “Nieves said she was still unbalanced. Cryptid kept secrets that have me pretty nervous about what he’s up to now. They’re surrounded by parahumans that they have some measure of control over. I want you to tell me that this situation isn’t a fragile one. That if there’s a fix today it won’t break tomorrow.”

“I can’t tell you that,” Miss Militia said.

She’d always been straight with us. I’d run into her a lot while patrolling, given our schedules. I’d run into her more when I was part of the Wards, for that brief span of time.

I could only nod, absorbing that.

“Are you saying it is fragile?” Sveta asked. “Or—”

“I don’t know,” Miss Militia said. “I don’t know how fragile or secure she is because I don’t know her. I don’t have a good read on Amelia Lavere. I’ve been over there interacting with their leadership for months, but that hasn’t extended to any interactions with Amelia.”

“What about Cryptid?” Rain asked.

“Some. Very brief.”